The Latest News

A Nice Surprise and a new Baby

Written by George Sunday, 25 October 2009 09:45

There was quite a nice surprise for us last night. Ray and Rita had two eggs and when we candled the eggs, one was clear and one was good. Then two days ago we helped the one baby hatch and Jodie is now hand-feeding the baby. Based on the dates of hatch we were convinced that was the second egg and we were almost resigned to the fact that the first egg was not fertile. So last night I went down to the aviary to change water and told Jodie that I am going to remove that egg from the nest box. Think of the surprise when I saw another baby in there. Jodie could not believe me at first. Sure thing the second egg also hatched and for now the parents seem to be feeding the little one. So we are really happy that they have a baby to take care of and Jodie is keeping the other one to hand-feed herself.

That is the nice surprise news from all of us here at the aviary :)

Basil and Ellie has gone home

Written by George Friday, 23 October 2009 14:43

Basil and Ellie have gone home to Vermont. They are now part of a big conure family of Monica and Kurt and John and joining Haley (our own Sun) and Sydney (YS Green Cheek) and their three wonderful Goldens. We were thinking about keeping back Ellie (Sun conure baby) for breeding and then Basil (Blue Crown) came along. As Basil was learning to live with his disability Ellie became his friend and we could not see them getting separated, nor could Monica and Kurt - so they now have both of them. Thanks Kurt and John for coming down and picking them up yesterday. I kind of miss Ellie - Basil was more of a Mommy's baby, where Ellie was more of a velcro to every one. You walk anywhere near his cage - boom - he is on you - sticking like a velcro. Ellie also loved to fly to the kitchen and get on floor in the corner under the cabinet. Some times we wonder how he managed not get stepped on for we would have absolutely no idea he is on the floor playing. Basil only lately started to fly into the kitchen and land right on the stove all the time and start picking on the wax (which Jodie makes tarts with!). So we had to make sure to close their cage when we had the stove on. Oh Boy - we do miss them - but we are so happy that they are at a wonderful home where love is abundant.

We also have a small news for all. We have new baby from Ray and Rita. The baby needed some assistance in hatching and Jodie provided that and then found that the parents were not feeding the little one, so she is hand-feeding the teeny tiny one right now. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that the baby is able to pull through this difficult times.

It is getting cold here

Written by George Tuesday, 13 October 2009 08:02

As much as we would like to, we really do not have much control over the weather - especially here in Central NY. One day it is nice and warm and the next day it could be freezing your bones. Sometimes the summer forgets to come and visit us but old man winter never misses the opportunity to come and stay with us for a while. We already had our first freeze warning, now it is just the matter of time we get the snow too.

All the birds are doing wonderful. Basil (Blue Crown) and Ellie (Sun Conure) has grown closer with each spending time with each other a lot more these days. They look happy and they will be going home together too in the near future - when Basil is ready to give up the good taste of the warm formula. Jodie has pulled all four of Sunshine and Bubba's babies. They are doing wonderful. Rita (Sun Conure) has been sitting tight on her two eggs. She seems to be brooding pretty good and coming out only to get her share of the peanut treats every night from us.

Small Changes to the site

Written by George Wednesday, 07 October 2009 08:56

In the ever changing world of technology it is not possible to stay still and not fall behind. With that in mind I have been working on trying to update our website to make it more user friendly and also make it more easier to manage from the back-end. Jodie really liked the overall design of the site (banner, menu and all) so a complete overhaul to the design of the site was out of question. I just tweaked a little bit here and there, expanded the main content width so that more information can be displayed on the screen.

In the previous iteration we used a CMS called SilverStripe and I loved it. It was simple and straight forward. If things did not work the way I want it to, then I could just go ahead and make changes to the modules/templates etc. Then more and more I used it, I came to realize all the limitations that it had - I was making changes to make it work. Being a new and upcoming CMS the modules and extensions available was limited. So with that in mind I moved the site to Joomla!. This one has a lot more learning curve to it but the advantage being I do not have to make a lot of changes. If there is something I do not like, then I just have to find the extension/module/plug in that does the trick and use it. Along with the change in CMS powering the site, we also took the opportunity to move the site to a totally new server. Everything seems to be going pretty good for now. Lets just cross our fingers and hope it stays that way.

In addition to the back end changes, we have also added some new features to the site and we will be adding more soon. One thing we added was our location and ability to get driving directions - you can check out the Google Map embedded page here. We also added a small store to the website where you can get your favorite Snuggle Swing which we make right here in our Aviary - you can check out the items for sale here. While making changes we also updated the availability page more pretty. Check it out and let us know what you think. We are not done yet - we will keep updating and enhancing this site for all - so stay tuned.