iphitus

My hen isn't sitting on the eggs, so I don't see that boiling will help. She's just leaving them on the floor of the aviary, not even together (she laid the 3rd today). Perhaps seperating her again, for longer, is the key. Maybe i'll put several of the young birds in a cage with her and see if that keeps her from playing the great escape routine. She even figured out how to untwist bag ties I put on the cage doors. Thanks for your help.

I clean my nests boxes once every week or so. I simply "steal" the box when the hen is out, and, clean it as daz instructed. Neither of my hens seems to mind too much. They return to the nest as soon as I replace it and I make it quick removing only one nest at a time.

I don't think there's any real problem with the box being too big. If you're worried about the chicks leaving the nest, set them up with some ladders when the time gets close (4 or 5 weeks after they hatch). They'll have no problem climbing out when they're ready.

I have a pair of budgies that just won't quit. I bred this pair for the first time this spring. The first clutch of eggs laid were all infertile. The next time around, she laid 6 eggs, all hatched, but only the first two survived (I don't think she fed the rest). The next clutch was 7 eggs, of which 5 hatched and all 5 are beautiful healthy birds. It was my intention to rest this hen following this clutch, but she started laying before all the chicks were out of the nest. I removed the nest and put the hen in a cage by herself for two weeks as soon as all the chicks had left the nest (I left daddy in with the chicks). She continued to lay two or three more eggs after I moved her (on the bottom of the cage since she had no box). The eggs laid before I took her out of the box and the eggs laid in the bottom of the cage have all been fostered and everything is going fine there. After a couple of weeks of "rest" in her solitary cage, Minnie (the continual breeding hen) was getting out of her cage daily and I kept finding her on the side of the aviary. I figured she was lonely and put her back in with her mate, their babies, and the recently independent babies of another pair (the foster parents that are now in a seperate cage attending to Minnies eggs as well as their own). The return to the aviary was 2 weeks ago and she hadn't laid any eggs for about 10 days prior to that. There's no breeding box in the aviary so I figured the couple would be done until next year. Today, I find that Minnie laid an egg on the floor of the avairy. It can only be her since there are only the two sexually mature birds in there right now. She's laid 4 sets of eggs and raised two clutches of babies, so I really don't think I should give her back a breeding box just because she's laying eggs again. WHAT DO I DO? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. PS -- the other couple currently has 5 chicks and 8 eggs in nest (theirs and the fostered eggs), so I can't possibly foster any more eggs (I only have the four mature birds and then the ones born this year)