There are many books and web sites out there that discuss breeding canaries. Breeding Waterslagers are very much the same. Although they can be a challenge as Waterslagers sometimes have trouble settling down while sitting on or raising young. You should read thru those other articles as my purpose here is to give hints on selecting breeding stock, and line-breeding to produce better singers. This is not an all out canary breeding article. Although I do give a few tips in the aticle to the left.
The best place to start is with good birds. I would strongly recommend attending a bird show. Shows are held in November, December, and January. See the WWC website for a list of shows. This it were you get an idea for the song as well as a good place to meet breeders of quality birds. There are often times people willing to sale good birds after the show when they know what they are willing to part with. If they sale you a bird before the show then it is probably a “pet”quality bird.
The idea behind producing better results is to breed your best stock back to the source that produced that good stock. This selective breeding is called line-breeding. When you get a champion bird you breed it back to the mother. You could also breed the sisters of that champion back to the father. You can breed half-sisters and half brothers, and so on. You need to be careful not to go too many generations as you can get too much in breeding. There is a lot of info out there on genetics and much conflicting information. Some say you get smaller less healthy products if you line breed too long, others say if you use the proper “selection process” that doesn’t happen. I try to bring fresh stock in every couple of years. It is probably best to bring in a male as you have a better idea of what you are introducing into your stock than with a hen.
The next major factor is the hen. I’ve heard it said that good breeders will often sale a champion singer, but never a good hen. Hens are as important if not more important than the cock. The trouble is it is very difficult to determine a good hen. This is one reason for line-breeding. You would pick sisters and daughters of your champion birds to breed with. Pick your largest hens with the largest chest as a large chest makes a great instrument for producing deep water sounds. Also keep your best mothers, the ones that produce the most eggs and take the best care raising young. Another idea is to keep a graph of the products of various males and females so you can look back to see what each is producing. List the hens across the top and the cocks down the side. Then graph your males that did well connecting them with their father and mother like a battle ship game. Now, if your good males are in a vertical line then the mother that line is below is a good breeder. If the line is horizontal then the male that line is next to is a good breeder. (Note that I breed males to different females, and females to different males. I never keep the same pair together though the season)Never bring a bird of unknown origin into your breeding stock, this can ruin several years of selective breeding.
Waterslagers can be a little bit more tricky to breed than a typical American singer or border canary. They aren’t as hard as Timbrados but they can be tricky. Some say it is because they have been inbreed too much? I don’t know if this is true but they can be difficult.
A couple thing I’ve found helpful. Give them privacy screens, put the nests near the back of the cage to give them security. Many candle the eggs to make sure they are fertile a week into setting. I found that many times the Waterslager won’t start to sit tight until well into laying eggs. As a result I believe I’ve thrown out good eggs. I’ve had eggs hatch up to a week late that I was sure would never hatch. The hen in this case laid her eggs and a day or two later after the last egg was laid she still was not sitting on the eggs at night. I had thrown her eggs out two times before and was frustrated with her so I left her alone to put my efforts elsewhere and suddenly realized a couple weeks later she had babies!! I no longer candle eggs, I feel I disrupt them too much if I do. I don’t inspect nests when babies are born, if the hen is not taking care of the babies there is little I can do, and disrupting them doesn’t help much. Once the chicks are a week old and ready to band then I will supplemental hand feed the smallest babies for a couple of days to help them catch up.
Another thing is light, the light must be long enough for the bird to come into season but not necessarily bright. I used to use 2 flourescent work bench lights just above the breeding cages. I found when the power went out that the light through the window was not only sufficient but the birds were far more settled down.
Finally, as I eluded to earlier, leave them alone. I was required to go out of town during breeding season so I found a responsible neighbor to come each morning and leave egg food and make sure they have food and water. When I got home a week later I had all my birds on eggs and babies doing very well. Now typically I only go into the bird room in the morning and then stay away. Sometimes I will check on them in the evening
Despite these things it is still sort of a two steps forward and one step back, so above all don’t get frustrated It take some real patients but is rewarding after all..
