How to prepare your canaries for the breeding season

When to start

• In Spain and the rest of the northern hemisphere, many breeders pair between January and March.
• With a bird room where light and temperature are controlled you can start earlier; in a cold room or without artificial light it is usually better to wait for the days to lengthen.
• In the southern hemisphere (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay…) the same dates fall about six months later, around July–September.
• Count backwards: preparation starts about 4–6 weeks before pairing.

Light: the signal that starts breeding

• What most tells canaries that spring is coming is the length of the day.
• Many breeders lengthen it little by little, a few minutes every few days, up to about 13–14 hours of light a day.
• Sudden changes (from a few hours to many at once) are avoided: they upset the birds.
• A timer, ideally with a gradual dawn and dusk, helps the hen not to be left in the dark off the nest.

Conditioning food

• Besides their usual seed mix, many breeders start giving egg food a few weeks before, in small amounts, and increase it as pairing approaches.
• Fresh, varied greens, well washed.
• Calcium for the hens (cuttlefish bone, grit or mineral sand): they need it to form the eggs.
• Clean water every day.
• Beware of fattening the birds: a fat bird breeds worse. Better to increase little by little than all at once.
• If you give vitamins or supplements, follow the maker’s or your vet’s directions.

How to tell they are ready

• The cock sings strongly and constantly, and is active and restless.
• The hen calls the cock, crouches, tears paper or carries material around the cage.
• What matters is that both are ready at the same time. Many breeders first put the pair together with a wire divider so they can see each other, and join them fully when the hen starts building the nest.

Equipment ready before you start

• Breeding cages, clean and disinfected, with a divider.
• Nests and nesting material (jute fibre, cotton or whatever you use).
• This year’s closed rings, ordered in good time from your club or federation, in your breed’s size: if they arrive late, they cannot be put on.
• Somewhere to record each pair and clutch: dates, eggs, hatched and rings.

Choosing the pairs

• Health and condition first: healthy, active birds with good plumage that have finished the moult well.
• Age: many breeders prefer birds between 1 and 4 years old for breeding.
• What you are after: for song, think about which notes you want to strengthen, and choose a hen whose family is strong where the cock is weak.
• Inbreeding: check how related they are before pairing. Line breeding fixes what is good, but repeated generation after generation it lowers fertility.

Common mistakes

• Pairing before the hen is ready: it often ends in abandoned or clear eggs.
• Starting too early in a cold room or with short days.
• Raising the light or the egg food all at once.
• Ordering rings late.
• Not recording anything: next year you do not know which pairs worked.

Common questions

How Canora helps

• Pairs: see the chicks’ inbreeding before pairing, and in “Pair up” the hens that best make up for each cock’s weak notes.
• Clutches: record eggs, fertile, hatched and rings, also by voice: “pair 3, five eggs”.
• Breeding calendar: Canora works out when to candle, when chicks hatch and when to ring, and reminds you each morning by email or on your phone.