Main Page

From CAG

Welcome to Beaker's Aviary.

Alt=Dave feeding a trio of hungry Congo African Grey babies at Beaker's Aviary

Available Birds

Contact us to reserve a baby from one of our future clutches

Latest News

April 30, 2012 - A happy trio taking time out from lunch for a group portrait.

April 29, 2012 - Three very healthy and hungry baby Congo African Greys are out of the nestbox and into the brooder. Camilla and Gonzo did such a good job with these three. Weights are 266!, 238 and 170 grams. Say hello to Chickies 9, 10 and 11. Web cam is now active on the brooder where you can watch them continute to grow.

April 11, 2012 - Hatching is complete with the third chick breaking free this afternoon. You can catch a rare glimpse of the babies on the nest box cam when Camilla moves them around during feeding.

April 8, 2012 - It's a new Easter Chick! Chick Ten hatched this morning to great fanfare by Gonzo. He's definitely the proud papa.

April 6, 2012 - Chickie Nine hatched this evening. Baby looks healthy and active, while Camilla is busy feeding her.

March 25, 2012 - Almost two years after the last set of eggs, we're graced with a new clutch of three eggs! Gonzo and Camilla have been successful once again, and we're preparing for new babies once again.

December 14, 2011 - Christmas approaches, and we're collecting the gift lists from our greys. Of course, I'm hoping for a handful of eggs so we have the joy of some babies to raise.

August 2, 2011 - Had a long talk with all of our breeder greys to remind them how much fun it would be to once again have a clutch or two of baby greys to care for. Bonnie bobbed her head, Camilla meowed, Wanda growled, and Faye ran to her nest box. I think they got the idea to get busy.

July 12, 2011 - Still no eggs. The birds must know something we don't.

Apr 12, 2011 - No eggs yet. Lots of activity in the nest boxes, but no oval jewels at this time.

Mar 9, 2011 - Working on a new room for our flock, including computer-controlled lighting, better air filtration, and the requisite assortment of webcams. It's pared back from the original plan but promises to be a very nice space. Alongside that effort, we're redoing our website for launch later this month. It's migrating to a completely new site engine, a new look, and a host of new features. Hardware is in place, so all I need is some time to get it done.

Nov 26, 2010 - We've added a Facebook page to help you follow some of the happenings at the aviary. Check http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beakers-Aviary/164530383585126 and click "Like"

Nov 11, 2010 - Nest box activity in the bird room is stepping up quite a bit. Another good sign is that food consumption has increased for some of our greys. We're hoping for some Christmas chicks or at least some New Year's hatchings. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Aug 19, 2010 - The aviary doubled its population with the addition of two new breeding pairs. These are proven pairs from a long-time breeder that is closing operatiions. Both pairs are beautiful and should give us some nice babies in the near future. We'll post some pictures as soon as we get them into their permanent home.

July 28, 2010 - Liza (Chickie 6) took off for the south side of Indy to her new home with Patrick. Good luck!

July 25, 2010 - Harry (Chickie 7) left this morning for the long drive to his new home in Green Bay, WI. Good luck and congratulations to the Gerondales and Harry.

July 23, 2010 - Ruby (Chickie 8) headed to her new home in Decatur, IL with the White family. Congrats, Ruby, and good luck!

July 18, 2010 - Averi was entered in the Hamilton County Fair Pocket Pets and was "just a doll", according to Taylor, her owner. Averi won Champion in her division and Grand Champion overall. Congrats to Taylor and Averi!

July 7, 2010 - DNA sexing results are in!

Chick 6 - Female
Chick 7 - Male
Chick 8 - Female

May 20, 2010 - Our written policy on the Sale of Unweaned Greys has been completed and posted on the site.

May 9, 2010 - Removed three chicks out of the nest box today. I felt rather bad taking Camilla's chicks out on Mother's Day, but it was the scheduled day. I ended up with some vicious bites from Camilla in return for the pleasure of handling the new clutch.
Check the Nursery Cam to follow their growth.

April 19, 2010 - The final egg unexpectedly hatched this afternoon, a day earlier that projected. It looks like we'll have a trio of babies to bring up in the next few months!

April 18, 2010 - Chickie Seven hatched around mid-day today. The second egg of the latest clutch joins its sibling for a meal with Camilla. One more to go.

April 16, 2010 - Just in time for the next wave of hatchings, the new web server has been commissioned and put into production. A stroke of luck provided a full restoration of the site (and the five other web sites on the old server) complete with a full MySql database restoration.
The old server was a 700MHz PIII Xeon Dell WebApp 100 server, and struggled to render pages with any kind of speed. The new box is a Dell 1850 server with dual 3.4GHz Xeon processors. This represents a server that is one or two magnitudes faster than the old box. Plus it boasts two large SCSI drives in a mirrored configuration, which should eliminate the issue experienced with the old server.

April 16, 2010 - Chick Six hatched this morning. The first egg of 2010 and the first egg of the latest clutch hatched 30-31 days after being laid. Camilla's chick appears healthy and expectedly small. Waiting on the next hatch, which should be in two to three days.

March 29, 2010 - Imani (Chickie Five) made an afternoon trip to her new home in Ft.Wayne, Indiana. She's got a great family to help keep her busy. Good luck, Imani!

March 22, 2010 - Egg Three is in the nest. At a six-day spread from the first egg, we hope this one is the last.

March 22, 2010 - Averi (Chickie Four) went home this morning to her new home. She's going to a fabulous home with another pet-loving family. Good luck and congratulations Averi and Taylor!

March 19, 2010 - Egg Two was seen this evening. Based on activity, we expect to see a third egg in a few days.

March 16, 2010 - Camilla and Gonzo are tending to a new egg laid today. Follow the progress on their nest box cam. The image below shows the new egg between the two parents. If all goes well, we should see activity around April 14th.

March 10, 2010 - The video camera takes one for Gabi, as she can't decide what toy she wants to play with. Check the video on YouTube here

February 20, 2010 - "Imani" (chickie five) has found her future home and flock. She'll be heading to Ft Wayne, IN, when she gets done playing with her daily hand-feedings. Congrats to the Will family and Imani!

February 13, 2010 - "Bella" (chickie three) has found a new home in Charleston, IL She'll share her home with Clyde, a beautiful macaw. Now to see who shows who new tricks.

January 29, 2010 - Taylor Hartman is now the proud caretaker of "Averi", the oldest chick from the December 2009 clutch. At five weeks, Averi will enjoy growing up and fledging with Taylor. Congrats, Taylor and "Four"!

January 23, 2010 - Chick Two from the October 2009 clutch found his new home with Toni Dotson in New Castle, IN. Loki picked his new family and it was clear that this was a good match for everyone. We wish Loki good luck in his new home and are anxiously awaiting pictures

January 14, 2010 - I'm proud to let you know that we've received permission from a couple of leading researchers in parrot behaviour and training to post some of their articles and information. Look for new content to be placed in a new training section.

The image below is a clutch of six-week-old congos from our aviary. Even at this young age, they have a well-developed personality emerging along with a full coat of warm down and many mature feathers on the wings.

Taken at 10 weeks old,one of the chicks has developed full plumage and is looking like an African Grey parrot. It's hard to remember that they are still babies, complete with their clumsiness and curiosity. At this age, they have discovered their wings (mostly due to falling off things), and compete to get attention and food.