Dingo

I never said the weight of the shell killed the chick I said the hen had him on end and she sat on him like that when I found him he had shell fragments in his eye and his skull was crushed. and I disagree with the helping chicks statement yes some chicks wont survive but alot of them will as long as theres nothing else wrong, if you look back, the membranes are drying to quickly which is trapping the chicks, and the humidifier is not helping so I am at a loss, yesterdays chick passed away in the shell I removed him after he had passed and he also had what appeared to be fluid filled lumps on either side of the neck, for this too I am at a loss, I've never seen a chick with lumps like this on the sides of the neck.

I dont believe they are related if they are the only parentage I can see them sharing would be the dam as the cock is opaline and the hen is not, if they fail this one I will wait wait till my new little one is old enough to breed and try it with one of my pair, one chick is trying to hatch right now he has a crack in the shell about 1/4", I'm not sure if he's got an air whole through the membrane though, the humidifier should help keep everything moist, fingers crossed! as for the pairs first clutch the hen laid 6 eggs she cracked the first trying to roll it, she didn't keep the first chick to hatch warm, she didn;t feed #3, one egg was infertile and the last two chicks as I said in the last post one survived a few weeks but the last chick to hatch was weak from the start and passed, as a result the hen stopped feeding the eldest, I didn't think that was too far off for a first time hen, but I was certainly hoping for better turn out this time, I'll let you all know how this chick does. update, the chick passed, I checked him a few minutes ago and he was gone, I had checked him about an hour ago and he was doing very good he was almost free from the shell and appeared very strong and was vocalizing, I believe my hen had him sitting wrong and as a result he got crushed by the shell, I do have a question for those more experienced, when I checked him an hour ago should I have helped him out atleast most of the way, he had all the shell chipped away and just needed to wiggle free? I believe helping him would have prevented her from setting on him like that(he was upside down against the bottom of the box with the shell ontop of him) if she failes this clutch I will probly use her as a "goat for the race horse"

unfortunatly the first cutch failed, one chick lived for a few weeks but when the one that was slightly younger than him abruptly passed the pair stopped feeding and he didn't take to hand feeding. egg #3 passed on last night I extracted him from the egg ( I made sure he was gone before I opened the shell) , he had developed upside down and had a fluid filled growth on the right side of his neck, I am sure had he survived hatching he would have probly had other issues as well. next is due tomorrow, hopefully this one will have developed correctly, and I'm still open to suggestions as to anything else I can do to increase the chances of healthy live chicks.

I understand everyones concerns, I am aware eggs are porous and do wash my hands every time I go anywhere near my birds as I have one in quarentine and dont want to risk contaminating my flock or the eggs, and when I hand them when they have pipped I do have gloves on, I do only have 2 budgies, this clutch they are on wasn't planned by me, I caught my pair mating 3 times before I gave them a box, and they will be rested after this for atleast 6 months, the last clutch they had all hatched out in oct.

last clutch I could hear the chicks while I was refilling the food supply for the pair and changing water, I knew they were still in the eggs because it was faint compared to when they hatched out completely, I candled the egg this afternoon to make sure he was still alive, my hen doesn't care too much if I handle the eggs as I have spent some time on taming her, I also hatched ducks and hours before they were out they could be heard inside the eggs and would often roll the egg side to side as they wiggled to pip, but obviously ducks aren't budgies. again does anyone have any advise on what else I can do?

out of 7 eggs 2 have passed and 1 has been hatching since about 4pm yesterday, it's now 5PM and no external pip, I thought the humidity was too low, so I set up a room humidifier and that hasn't helped, any thoughts on what else I could do? I did assist egg #2 because he was so late and had made no progress over 10 hours, he was weak and only vocalized once when the hen started to clean him, he died shortly after, I'm starting to think all of these chicks are just weak as egg#3 even though internally pipped has not vocalized at all. anyone have any input?

well #2 has pipped the membrane he's still probably going to be a day late though, hopefully other than that he'll be fine, I think I heard him vocalizing too which would be a good sign.

thanks Daz, I was more or less looking for info on how long from the time they internally pip, or pip the membrane that they start to externally pip, unfortunatly #2 hasn't shown any signs of internal pipping, I wonder if maybe my hen didn't keep things humid enough, I have helped ducklings out of their eggs before but that was a much large egg and have seen what drying of the membrane can do.

the chick didn't make it, he had about 1/3 of the shell chipped away, I think the hen might have tried to help him out, next is due tomorrow, hopefully I'll get a live healthy chick this time.

there're some recipes on the Birds n Ways site http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/recipes.htm I recomend sustituting the jiffy mixes in some of them for corn meal or wheat flour, or even hand feeding formula.

I have an egg thats due to hatch today, I candled it this morning and it wasn't internally piped yet it's obviously alive as I saw it move a couple times, how long does it usually take for them to pip internally? I remember last time the chicks could be heard vocalizing the night before their due date.

it looks to me to be the same thing, the nape on the blue amazon is white which means they removed the yellow which is how we got blue budgies, but instead of having a white nape they have a white head.

Daz, you and I are on the same boat, except my pair is a normal blue hen and a dominant pied opaline blue male, she laid her last #7 on the 3rd, first chick is due to hatch on Wednesday and no other pairs to foster out to. I've candled 4 out of the 7 from her and all have been fertile thus far. :bluebudgie:

is Tazzy opaline as well?

after posting the original post and looking at her some more I've come to the conclusion she's a grey YF type II opaline greywing dilute oh and DF Cute, thats long her wing markings are very light grey, her cere is purplish color I've never been good at sexing young birds, I assumed she was a hen because she's opaline but thats not a sure fire way to tell I know. so am I correct now or is there more to her than I see?

now to my best guess she's an opaline yellowface type II grey? what do ya'll think?

well, you'll get pieds, you'll get yellowfaces, I'm not sure how the YF gene effects the violet gene so I'll leave that one for someone else, and you wont get any cinnamons unless your male is split for it. one thing you posted confused me, you said that you bred your male 4 years ago but he has never bred, do you mean you owned the pair that produced him, or did actually breed him before? and just for clerification, is your hen blue violet or green violet

is the green bird in the 3rd picture opaline spangle as well?

my hen laid her first egg of this batch on the 19th, the 2nd is due today, she's been sitting on the first one like a good girl, what I need help with though is this is her 2nd clutch, the first one she failed, after the weakest chick died she ignored the eldest which was old enough for his eyes to be fully open(he didn't take to hand feeding), my fear is that the first egg will hatch and she will fail to feed it because it's the only chick, so is it possible to remove the egg after she lays #2 and keep it away from her for 2 days them put it back when #3 is laid, assuming she lays a 3rd.. or 2nd for that matter? I'd hate to remove it and have it go bad because she's been incubating it, I know eggs that haven't been incubated can keep for about a week, what do you all think?

sorry to go off topic but.. I think theres a recipe for hand feeding formula on the birds 'n' ways site, not sure though. you can also feed the hand feeding formula to the adult birds to give them a little supplmentation to whatever else you feed them, just dont leave it in with them too long if you deside to free feed it because it can grow bacteria pretty quick, there are also recipes for bird bread that you can substitute jiffy mixes with the formula. to add to the list of musts for first timers; someone to teach you to hand feed, and maybe someone to teach to you candle as well.

Thanks for the input, if everything goes well I'll let you all know what mutations I get from the pair, and maybe even find a way to get some pics.

the hen is a normal w/f blue, any idea what they'll produce?

meal worms are the larva of darkling beetles, I did a quick search of some forums and came up with this about breeding mealies for those interested http://www.repticzone.com/forums/Insects-K...ges/615661.html

unfortunately these are the best pics I have of him, I could try to catch him and take another picture but his hen is bred and I dont want to stress them any more than necessary

I have a male budgie, I know he's dominant pied but when I look at him I see opaline as well can dom. pied be opaline? also he has patches of very deep purple coloration on the sides of his neck just below the cheek spots, would this mean any offspring he were to produce could possibly be darker(he's a sky blue)? Thanks in advance