giant wood rails

L

leigh catherick

Well-Known Member
does any one else keep and breed them as i have a breeding pr and so far iv had 10 chicks and 6 more eggs in incubator and the adults have started laying again this will be there 8th clutch of 6 eggs each time , is this normal for them as iv never kept them before it just seems allot clutches , if i leave the eggs in the nest box the male will eat them so i replace each day with dummy eggs he does sit them as well as female but as time goes by he takes them one by one very strange its not a great problem as i keep on top of it each day and hand rearing them seems very easy
 
I suggest you take the male out and let the female incubate. This may not work, as they may call to each other and not settle enough for the female to sit [unless of course you just divide the aviary so they are still in contact but hecan't get at the eggs]. I imagine both sexes incubate, but it's worth a try to see if the female will do it on her own. You could then reintroduce the male [obviously very carefully] when the chicks are part grown; there's a reasonable chance he would feed them. Good luck & let me/us know how you get on.
The gulls look good; I tried to work out from the photos which one was mine, without success.
 
hi i did try taking male out on the last clutch but they went mad calling and getting proper stressed about it , he seems to sit more that she does but one by one he will eat them even while he is sitting on them very weird , they do seem easy to incubate and rear so we will keep to what works but its crazy how many eggs she has layed so far today was egg number 6 of her 8th clutch ,
 
Oh well, it was worth a try. Maybe the only problem here is the risk to the female's health of laying too many eggs; however, I'm sure you could discourage nesting if by moving them or rearranging the aviary. In the meantime, nice to have them breeding so well.
 
i am taking the nest box out tomorow it may stop them ? , it will be interesting to see how many hatch as i am putting these 6 eggs in incubator tonight and iv already got another 6 in and due next friday + the 10 chicks we have that are 3/4 grown now , its been great fun rearing them ,
 
iv taken the nest box out lol that did not faze them now got 3 more eggs on clutch no 9 this time in the sea grass in the back of the aviary, this time the male is really defending the nest when he sits on it I have to go in with a plastic shovel , i think its the sea air here boy these birds are determined ,
 
they are great fun to watch and rear a very easy bird to keep the chicks have to be hand fed for 3 days then they take from dish easy i feed them worms maggots charnwood sea duck pellets and small amounts of chopped white bait o and a few meal worms , the adult pr i keep in with black tailed gulls with no real probs unless gulls get to near there nest they soon learn , i would advise anyone to keep them but in evening they do get a bit loud sounds like a chicken screaming , they love the pond and after a good wash stand like cormorants drying them selfs ,
 
thanks good to here , i will try to put some pics on soon iv just hatched some white wing wood ducks , wild muscovy ducks , and more wood rail due end of this week ,
 
clutch no 10 now started i am going to leave them well alone now to see how well they do rearing them , they are in a aviary with black tailed gulls but i don't think they will touch them nor will the parent birds give them the chance to time will tell ,
 
This is really interesting!! What type of nest box do they use? And do they prefer a specific nesting material?

What other species do you keep? I have never seen a wild Muscovy yet! :)
 
they had a duck nest box that we use for the wild muscovy, we line the box with peat and hay but they take in all sorts of grasses , this time they have nested next to sea grasses on the ground , the wild muscovy is a fantastic bird nothing like there domestic form they are not as aggressive more nocturnal , we keep white storks,white wing wood ducks,hartlaubs ducks,ring teal,south american comb ducks,Carolina ducks,wild muscovys, ect ect take a look on Shatterling Miniatures - Home Page you can see the wild muscovy on there and many more
 
I know this is an old post, but yes they are definitely fond of eggs! I found this out the hard way as before I decided to obtain this species, I was told by the previous owner that they would be fine in my waterfowl collection and that he kept them in a mixed collection. Well they didn't cause too much trouble as far as being aggressive to other birds, But I did learn that they do love eggs. I had to quickly find them there own pen as I was right in the middle of my waterfowl egg laying season. The plus side is now I have some rail eggs which are being incubated by the parents. It is different for me to have a species where both parents share sitting duty. I will have to steal the babies from the pair(which I hate doing) unless I can figure out a way to provide food for them while being raised by their parents, any advice on this would be appreciated. Another observation is how aggressive my male is. I have a trio and the female birds are docile and if anything a bit flighty, but the male is down right aggressive. He lives to attack me and is very persistent. This started on the second day and has continued, It started well be before any eggs were laid. I am not sure if this is typical with the species or not.
 
Nick Caspar said:
I will have to steal the babies from the pair(which I hate doing) unless I can figure out a way to provide food for them while being raised by their parents
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what do you mean by this? Rails feed their chicks, so if you provide the food then the adults will be giving it to them.
 
Well, It looks like after my past 2 clutches of 3 eggs, all being infertile, I now have one of 2 eggs in a current clutch that is fertile. I hadn't realized until about a few days ago that the trio I keep had created a new nest. It was hidden deep inside a Pampas grass. Of course I probably would have noticed it sooner if it was done in a more typical time of year, but since it is mid Feb. and often times below 40 degrees outside, its not my typical time for getting eggs. I got a peek at the eggs today and one is close to hatching. Assuming it is a successful hatch, I have to decide wether to try and let the birds raise this lone chick by themselves, in the middle of winter or brood it myself. I really don't like to brood any bird when its a lone chick as it creates all kinds of extra problems. Normally I will add some baby chickens etc for company but I don't have anything like that available this time of year, not at least not in time of this hatch.
 
I've reared coots in the past, and while not the exact same, they are very similar in terms of rearing.

Essentially, its up to how much work you want to do. If you pull, it will take between one and three weeks before the chick is self feeding, at which point they become fairly low maintenance. On the other hand, you can leave the chick with the parents, which will mean no extra work for you (pro tip, just offer food in shallow pans until the chick is spry and running). However you'll have to watch carefully that the parents don't lose interest in a single chick, and that no foul weather claims the chick.
 
It has been a year since I last posted but after 3 sets of eggs, all of which were either infertile or mysteriously disappearing, (which I assume there turned on and eaten,) the pair of Wood rails I have just hatched 4 chicks. Which was 4 out of 4. The parents have been very good, firstly with both sharing setting duties, and now after hatch, with the male being extremely aggressive, and the female doing most if not all of the feeding. All I do is supply the meal worms, earth worms and super worms, and they do the rest, with great care and patience. Its been a week and so far so good. Its pretty amazing for me, as though I raise over 25 species of ducks, these are so much different in how they feed their young, much like a nesting bird would , but the babies are also well developed and independent like a duckling. I also noticed that the mother doesn't seem to just stuff the closest or most vocal chick but seems to go to each one and spread out the food equally between them, and without either parent eating any of it themselves! Even though they normally would devour live food like that.
 
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