How many months do you pair?

[loonunit]

What do you mean by "All of them?"

Thanks for the help. I was mostly looking for a time line of when you end your hopes of a pair producing for you. If any of them start loosing weight I have planned to stop breeding them. Luckily everyone is still chowing down well for me.

Oh, I meant, I pair "all of the months." Pretty much non-stop from October to May. Are you having problems with a pair that just doesn't seem interested?

Last year I started pairing mid-October, and just kept putting them together all winter. Sometimes they get late starts: last year George and his pied girl locked non-stop from November until May, while my het lavenders ignored each other until February or March. But then the het lavenders really got going in late winter. I ended up with the female het lavender ovulating and laying 5 good eggs, and the piebald female reabsorbing her follicles. Both couples sort of lost interest completely around mid-May, but both couples have picked it right up again after the first cold snap in October.

So this year my established couples are right back at it, but all my new pairs are playing the "THIS is MY side, THAT is YOUR side" game. I have three other males I've introduced to females, one 2008 boy and two 2009 boys, and none of them has done any more than cuddle with their girls. And the 2008 even locked with my big pied female last year, but I guess he doesn't like his pewter girlfriend as well...

I'm not really worried about it. Exasperated, sure, but not worried... It's still early in the season. Heck, in December and January we'll probably still tell you it's early in the season. You can drop the pairings to once a month if they're making you crazy. But I wouldn't give up completely until May.