I got my first aviary as a boy. My first budgerigars just bred in the flight (flock mating). When I started with show budgerigars I switched over to breeding in breeding cages (pen mating). Pen mating is the common practice for breeders of show budgerigars.
In the mean time I finished school and university. Then came the full time job and I stopped breeding birds. I've met my future wife and now I've already moved to my second apartment. Apartments aren't ideal for keeping birds certainly not fairly noisy ones as budgerigars. We are thinking of buying or building a house. I am thinking of breeding show budgerigars again once the house is in order.
So I'm looking around a bit and one aspect I'm very worried about is fertility. It already was a serious problem when I was still active and it still seems to be a major issue. Something else I'm worried about when I start again is the time I can spend with my budgerigars during the day. I'm not ready to quit my day job for the hobby. So I started thinking again at the old days and wondered if flock mating in stead of pen mating could be used for breeding top show budgerigars.
I've tried to think of all the arguments pro and contra for each of these two methods.
1. Pen mating lets you choose the mates while flock mating introduces free choice of mates. You may be pro-choice and against forced marriages but when you're trying to breed top budgerigars you don't want to waste you excellent cock on the wrong hen (or vice versa). Nevertheless you might be able to select a few cocks and hens that match each other enough to use flock mating. So you can have some sort of guided mating even with flock mating. Free choice of mates does lead to more fertile pairs since there is a stronger pair bond and both mates get into breeding condition together. Some top breeders that practice pen mating often let cocks and hens fly in the same flight. When they see a pair formed and they match visually and pedigree wise they will put them straight in the breeding cage. This brings the good aspects of free choice of mates to pen mating.
2. Flock mating is more natural for budgerigars. I think there is little argument against this. The question is if 'more natural' necessary means 'better'.
3. Pen mating avoids adultery and makes for perfect pedigree records. This
is a valid argument in favour of pen mating. I find this argument in
combination with argument 1 the most compelling.
With flock mating you can still be almost sure of the mother and when you
observe your pairs you will also be fairly sure of the father. But are you
sure enough? Combined with the fact that you have less control over the
formed pairs you cannot plan and assess pairs as much as you would like.
4. Pairs stimulate each other to breed so flock mating should result in better breeding results (also as a result of argument 1.). Imitation is strong in the behaviour of animals. Hens and cocks alike are stimulated when they see others breed. By using wired cages pen breeders try to take advantage of this.
5. Flock mating require less time to observe your hens and cocks for breeding condition. When a cock and a hen are both in breeding condition they will find each other in the flock mating method and start breeding.
6. Pen mating excludes fighting between pairs. One problem with flock mating is that two (or more) hens will probably fight over the same nest box. Also more bickering at the feeding place can be expected. This may possibly lead to more injuries. On the other hand there is more room for a hen to flee if it is chased by the cock (or vice versa).
7. Flock mating gives the birds more room to fly and hence these birds will be better able to keep in shape during the breeding season. This does also mean that the parents have to fly more between the feeding place and feeding the chicks. This could be a problem if your birds can't fly properly. Also chicks leaving the nest box will take a bigger dive. Once the chicks have left the nest box the parents have to look more for them. If one of the parents becomes aggressive towards its chicks they have more room to flee. Moreover there is more distraction for the jealous parent. If the breeding flights are large enough you can also leave the chicks longer with their parents to ease the weaning process.
8. Flock mating introduces more quarrels which gives the birds that extra movement and distraction. Of course this can also mean that a mating pair is disturbed so flock mating should be practiced in relatively large flights. You will probably need more room for flock mating compared to an equal number of pairs in pen mating.
9. With flock mating pairs can help each other. I've seen this in action myself when in my aviary a opaline cock also fed the hen and chicks of his son in the nest box adjacent to his own.
10. With flock mating you have less cages/flights to attend to per pair (but not less room). This can save some time: e.g. you have to refresh less dinking fountains. Don't move to flock mating just because you have too little time for the pairs you want to breed. Personally I believe the time saved will be quite small.
The arguments aren't clearly pro flock mating nor clearly pro pen mating. With this article I just wanted to point out that there is another method next to pen mating. You'll have to look at the arguments and decide for yourself what's best in your situation. If you decide to switch from one system to another do it gradually so you can experience the difference in person and make a better decision. Maybe you don't wan't to switch but hopefully you got some ideas from these arguments.
If you should decide to take up flock mating there are some things to keep in mind. First up make sure the breeding flights are big enough. Each pair should have enough room to mate without disturbance. Remember that when the pair is preparing the next round the young from the previous round are still in the breeding flight. Also make far more nest boxes available then the number of pairs to avoid too much bickering between the hens. In order to minimise the negative consequences of flock mating mentioned in arguments 1 and 3 don't use too many pairs per breeding flight. On the other hand for some of the advantages there should be enough pairs in the breeding flights. I feel you should have minimal 3 pairs per breeding flight. Once you have more then 6 pairs I think things start to get complicated to retrace fatherhood. Moreover you will have to find so many cocks and hens that all match.
I wouldn't recommend putting just one pair in the breeding flight and then later adding more pairs. Start of with at least 2 pairs otherwise the lonely pair will see the entire breeding flight as their territory and certainly will be disturbed when introducing new birds.
There might be a way to encourage a pairing of a certain cock to a particular hen. For instance by first putting them some period together in a cage before introducing them in the breeding flight. But there are no guarantees.
(C) Bert Raeymaekers