CATDOLL : CATDOLL: The breeding method of the yellow-throated bunting

Reproduction of the Yellow-throated Bunting

The breeding season is from May to July. Two broods are bred in a year, the first one from late April to early June, and the second one from early June to early July. When they first migrate to the breeding grounds, they move in groups in the farmland, roadsides, river valleys, bushes and small woods near residential areas in the open areas of low mountains. As the weather warms up, they gradually spread to the upper areas along the secondary forests and bushes on both sides of the river valleys and roads. In mid-to-late April, they begin to occupy the territory and call for mates, with their crests erect and their calls pleasant to the ears. They begin to build nests in early May, in the grass on the ground or next to the roots of trees in the secondary forests and bushes at the edge of the forest, river valleys and roadsides, and on young trees or shrubs not high from the ground, less than 0.8 meters above the ground.

Each nest only breeds one brood, and the old nest is not used. The first nest is mostly on the ground, and the second nest is mostly in dense bushes or on young trees. The nest is cup-shaped, with the outer layer made of tree bast fiber, dead grass stems, leaves, and thicker grass roots, and the inner layer is mostly made of thin dead grass stems, grass leaves and grass roots, and then padded with soft materials such as animal hair. The size of the nest is 11 to 15 cm in outer diameter, 5.5 to 7.6 cm in inner diameter, 8 to 11 cm in height, and 4.3 to 6.0 cm in depth. The male and female birds are responsible for nesting together, usually building the outer structure first, then the inner structure, and finally laying the inner padding. The fastest construction process takes 5 to 6 days, and the slowest takes 7 to 8 days to complete. Usually, the first nest takes longer to build, and the structure of the nest is more delicate; the second nest takes shorter time to build, and the structure of the nest is rougher.

After the nest is built, it will start laying eggs, with 6 eggs per nest. The first nest usually has 6 eggs, with a minimum of 5 eggs. The second nest usually has 5 eggs, with a minimum of 4 and 3 eggs. One egg is laid per day, and the egg-laying time is before 5:00 in the morning. The first nest is laid from early to late May, with a large number of eggs in mid-to-late May; the second nest is laid from mid-June to late June. The eggs are grayish white, white or milky white, with irregular dark brown, purple brown and black spots and stripes. The eggs are obtuse oval and oblong, with a size of 16-20 mm × 14-16 mm and a weight of 1.8-2.4 grams.

After all the eggs are laid, they begin to incubate them, with the male and female birds taking turns. During the incubation period, they are very attached to the nest, especially the male bird, who sometimes does not fly away even when people come to the nest. However, the female bird is more timid and will leave the nest and hide in the jungle before people come to the nest. The incubation period is 11 to 12 days. The chicks are late-maturing. When they are just hatched, except for a few fine gray down feathers on the nape, shoulders, center of the back, forelimbs, crotch and between the two eyelids, the rest of the body is completely naked and featherless, pink, and the eyelids are gray. The male and female parents raise the chicks together. The chicks can leave the nest after 10 to 11 days. If there are disturbances, they will stay in the nest for only 8 to 9 days. After leaving the nest, the chicks will move around the nest area under the guidance of the male and female parents, but they will no longer return to the nest to spend the night.

How do eels reproduce? Do they hatch from eggs?

The breeding technology of yellow eel

1. Natural reproduction

When artificially breeding eels, we can strengthen feeding management and create an ecological condition that is suitable for eel reproduction to achieve the goal of self-reproduction of eels. The main measures are:

(1) Build a breeding pond or separate a section of the rearing pond for breeding. A smaller juvenile eel protection pond should be built in the breeding pond. Leave more round or rectangular holes on the pond wall and separate the holes from the breeding pond with fine-mesh wire mesh. Water can flow through the mesh and the juvenile eels can enter the protection pond, but male and female eels cannot enter, in order to protect the juvenile eels.

(2) Place 3 to 4 eels (mostly female) with a body length of 25 to 30 cm per square meter in the breeding pond. Regardless of gender, all eels must be yellow and strong, and they must be carefully managed 1 to 2 months before breeding and fed with high-quality animal bait such as earthworms and maggots.

(3) To simulate the spawning environment of rice field eels, build earth ridges around the breeding pond (at a certain distance from the pond wall) and in the middle. The ridges should be about 20 cm wide and 10 to 15 cm above the water surface. Some weeds should be planted on the ridges.

(4) During the spawning period of yellow eels, the environment should be kept quiet. The water in the breeding pool should be kept in good quality through fine water flow or constant seepage. The incoming water should first pass through the young eel protection pool, and then slowly flow into the breeding pool. The stimulation of the slow flow can induce the young eels to swim upstream and enter the protection pool.

(5) Place some soft, thick things such as loofah tendons and willow roots in the breeding and protection ponds to provide shelter and shelter for the eel fry and to facilitate their collection and transplantation.

(6) Yellow eels lay eggs in batches, and the spawning period lasts for a long time. After the breeding season of the year is over, the parent eels can be caught in cages and raised or processed separately to prevent the young eels from being eaten.

2. Artificial incubation of fertilized eggs

It is a good idea to use fertilized eel eggs to artificially cultivate eel seedlings. In the peak season of eel spawning in summer, after the rice seedling fields are fertilized, weeded, and the rice seedlings are closed, eel eggs can be found in the large ditches of the rice fields, the still water around the weirs of the dikes with a lot of grass, and the still water of the ditches. As long as you see a pile of foam in the fields and ponds, it is the eel's hatching nest with eggs in it. You can use a scoop or a large bowl to gently pick up the eggs and the pool foam, put them in a bucket with fresh water, and transport them home. Put the captured fertilized eggs in a basin, water tank or large tile basin for still water incubation, keep the water temperature between 25℃ and 30℃, and keep the water fresh. Generally, young eel seedlings can be hatched in about 7 days. At this time, you can put some loofah tendons in the basin to provide a sheltered place for the new young eels. In the first few days after the young eels emerge from the membrane, they use their own yolk for nutrition and do not need to eat. When the yolk sac is about to disappear, about 7 days later, you can use the boiled egg yolk to mash into liquid and pour it into the basin for feeding. The stocking density should not be too large. As the young eels grow up, they can be raised in a dispersed manner. They cannot eat large particles of food. When feeding, feed them in small amounts and multiple times. Do not overfeed. When the young eels grow to more than 10 cm, you can cook and chop the earthworms and feed them.