Breeding Canaries Guide

Canaries have been raised in Germany for centuries and those coming from colder climate areas have grown to tolerate the cold quite well.

However, when acquiring canaries, it is very important to find out the environmental conditions they were kept in. They should be slowly acclimatized to lower - or higher temperatures - over a period of time.

One should also keep in mind that newly acquired birds are going through the stress of moving to a new home. Their immune system will be compromised for some time and special care needs to be taken to protect them from draft and cold.

New birds need to be quarantined from the existing birds for at least a month to protect both the existing breeding stock from an introduced disease, and to give the new canary time to recover and build up its immune system, which will be lowered initially due to the stress of being placed into a new environment.

Before the breeding season, it's a good idea to trim the hen's vent area cleanly (to increase the chance of fertilization. Also trim the nails since long nails tend to get caught in the nesting material as they leave the nest. When that happens, they often end up pulling the nesting material - and any eggs or chicks on or in it - out of the nest.