Finnie

Thank you! I have in my mind to check it's cere, but so far it hasn't been a priority, and it didn't happen to show up in the photo, either. Maybe tomorrow

Well, tonight's egg count is Finnie,8, Phoebe,5, and Colleen,6 (+ 1 live, well-fed chick, who seems bigger already!) Apparently Finnie is not reading this thread, and didn't know she was supposed to stop at 7 :rofl: These are Phoebe's: And here's our little star :rofl: : I guess I would normally excpect to see the next one hatch tomorrow, if things were on the right track. But if this one were a little early, then there will probably be a little more time before the second one, wouldn't there? I guess I will keep an open mind, and not worry about number two until it gets here. :rofl:

as it turned out the fire was closer to us and nowhere near the bird place. A long way too from the chocolate factory....so there will be chocolate next time you come :rofl: :rofl: That is a relief! After the budgies, I was getting concerned for the chocolate! :rofl: :rofl: Good job spotting that fire re-starting! :rofl:

Here is a link to member's budgies: click here In opaline, you will see the body color in the wings, back of head and in a v pattern on the back between the wings. It won't really have black bars on the head, more like colored bars. Hopefully that will make sense when you see the pictures :rofl:

Ooh, he's pretty! Is he opaline? And pictures don't always reflect proper color, but his cere is looking kind of female to me. In real life, is it a deep blue, or is it light blue and kind of whitish?

Yeah, Macka. Pictures, we want pictures!! :rofl:

Good news, Baby is alive, and appears to have food in it's crop! :rofl: At first it wasn't moving, but Matthew said, "maybe it's sleeping" so I nudged it, and it stretched it's tiny winglets! :rofl: I rolled it onto it's back to check it's crop, but I couldn't see it well, so I picked it up briefly, then put it back down, that's why it's moved in the second picture. By the way, those eggs all look white to me, so fertile? I can almost imagine one is pink if I squint. Opinions? Also, Baby has normal eyes. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Now for a study in egg candling, featuring Finnie and Phoebe's nests: Top right egg appears whiter, no? Here's with the light: Top right is pink and fertile, as is bottom left, though it is hard to see it with the glare. Another view with no light, I can just barely tell that the top right and bottom left are whiter than the other two. A good lesson. On to Finnies nest. In the top photo, the main lit up egg looks clear. It doesnt' really show, but in real life, I think the two eggs flanking it were fertile. In the second photo, even though the egg glows a yellowish color, I can see veins and something else developing, so I'm saying it is fertile. :rofl: Now for the view with out the light: If you go back and forth looking at the candle pics and these, it seems to confirm that in the very top photo, there is a clear egg flanked by two fertile (whiter) eggs. However, figuring out which one is the "clear looking one with veins", it is kind of lying in a trio, and it appears pinker that the other two in the trio. This confirms that I would guess it to be a clear egg, BUT having seen the veins, I know that is not right. My conclusion is that it is more newly laid, and has had time to develope the veins we see, but not time to turn the whole egg whiter. My bet is that in a day or two, this egg will turn whiter. (Of course, Finnie will have rearranged them, and I will never know which one it is.)

Ausgezeichnet, Sandra! When you mentioned bird formulated product, it got me to check the labels on the stuff I have been giving them. This 'Zoo Med's Avian Plus' has a lot of amino acids, including Methionine! Danke zehr! Oops, I'm a little distracted today by my first ever chickie, and I forgot to add the picture of the Zoo Med! :rofl:

macka when you say their culls /rubbish nothing you could breed what the *** does that mean..... no bird can be rubbish This brings to mind what other people have said about breeding to what's behind the individual bird. If your birds are any good at all, Macka, then their brothers and sisters that you don't wish to show would still have all the same good bloodline behind them. Just food for thought.

Tell him from me the wise old saying Dont count your chickens until they hatch :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

My thoughts, exactly! Wow, Dave, I didn't realize that last year was your first year breeding show types. I obviously would have no clue of what looks good on the bench, but I was thinking your birds looked really good.

What really made me happy was that once I had a bird room, I got to have a little more free reign on deciding how many birds I could buy. My husband has become a little more understanding of what this endeavor means to me, and is a little more supportive and encouraging now. (Although he is still a little worried about my ability to sell them, and has taken to keeping track of the egg count! )

Gosh, Kaz, I'm glad this is under control! In the first picture I was worried about your birds breathing in smoke, but after reading through the rest of the thread, I realized there was a lot more to worry about than just that! Is a fire evacuation plan something everyone has to have at the ready? What would you and Ken do? There are places around here where people need to be prepared for floods, but my house is not that close to the river.

I love your birds, Dave. They are looking very, very nice!

Still 1 1/2 hours to go till checking time. I suppose I could cheat and go early, but I at least want to wait until daylight.

no...Air bubble does not mean infertile Oh well, the ones I've had with air bubbles have inevitably been infertile .... evidently not a conclusive sign though I should add that all eggs have an air sac that sits on the rounded end of the egg ... I'm talking about additional bubbles to this .... okay, thanks, that makes a lot of sense. The "air bubbles" I've been seeing are definitely in the end of the egg, and they do look like they are sacs.

I think he knows he's special!

We all start off with Pet types Finnie ... just that some of decided to make things more difficult for ourselves and have a go at Show types I'm sure I would be tempted to do that if there were any shows around here. I think you have to be in one of the southern states to find budgie shows in the U.S.

glossy white eggs are FERTILE EGGS Renee. Its the peachy pink ones that arent Hope you havent been throwing out the glossy white ones http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...=fertile%20eggs fertile on the left....non fertile on the right. Ha ha TYPICAL! Got it the wrong way round. Just as well you're on the ball Kaz Thank you, Kaz and Renee. So far I've only been able to tell a difference in the eggs when the light is shining behind them. The difference in their shade of white when I just look at them straight on is very subtle. But next time I candle, I will look and see if I can tell. Air bubble means infertile, does it? Well! I've been counting those as alive! Two of the nests have at least one like that. When I shine the light through the eggs, if I see just translucent yellow, I've been calling it clear, and if I see pinkish color, or anything at all (such as the air bubble) I've been calling that fertile. It just confirms that I was right to decide to leave them all in there. Thank you for your encouraging words, GB. I like your faith in the pet types! Still have to wait 2 more hours before I can check on the little one. Camera battery is charged and ready, and the kids want me to wake them up so they can take a peek while the door is open. It's their last day to sleep in before Christmas break is over. Tomorrow they go back to school.

That's a tiny amount! Good thing I know that, so I don't try to drown it! And I should see the food in it's crop, once it's eaten it, right? Well, I can't wait until morning. It's almost midnight here, and the rest of the family has just finished a movie and gone to bed. I better go too. Hope I can sleep! Thanks again, Kaz

That is good to know. I do have Kaytee hand rearing formula, though. I also have little plastic pipettes with tiny openings to fit in a tiny beak. Do baby chicks suck it in, or will I be squeezing a couple of drops into it's mouth for it to swallow?

Great, thanks Kaz. I will check in the morning then. Fortunately, I didn't wait until the last minute to get hand rearing powder, so if it isn't fed by morning, I guess I can feed it myself. Here's hoping Colleen will be up to the job, and all I will have to do is watch and enjoy the ride! :fingerscrossed:

Thank you, Amy S! I'm hoping someone will come on and tell me whether I should be setting my alarm for a middle of the night check

Tonight I decided to candle eggs again, since Phoebe has been sitting for a while. Finnie has 5 fertile eggs, and 2 clear, however, I need to wait to see if the clear ones were the last ones laid. I know one of them is only 24 hours old. Phoebe has 2 fertile and 2 clear. So same thing, wait and see. When I opened Colleen's box, I was dismayed to see that she had broken one of her eggs. It was dried out and hollow, not gooey, so I figured, well, it must not have had a chick in it anyway. Sigh. Then I looked at the pile of other eggs and... There was a baby chick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :baby: I can't believe it!! I wasn't expecting it to hatch until the 8th! I suppose that if it is too premature, there is no hope that it will survive. :bye: But I checked the date that the 1st one was laid, and that was Dec. 17. I guess there is the possibility that Colleen was brooding from the 1st one, and in that case, the chick is only one day early. So there is some hope Oh, and the real bummer is, I had my camera turned on and ready to take pictures while I was candling, and when I went to snap a picture of the newborn, my camera said "Change the Battery Pack" and shut off!! So I can't get any pictures until tomorrow morning! :hurryup: Matthew did run for me and find my cell phone, and I got two tiny pics on there, but I don't know if my plan allows me to send them to my computer. So I noticed that the chick had no food in it's crop. I understand that for now, that is okay, but if it still hasn't been fed my morning, then I may have a problem, right? 9am for me is about 11 hours away. Should I be worried before then? Also, I saw Colleen stepping on it's neck. That's okay, right? Chicks are rubbery and strong, no? And I forgot to look at the color of it's eyes, but Matt said they were purpley-black. Plenty of time to look at eye color later, besides, I'm not expecting anything other than normal from this nest. Wow! I can't believe one hatched already! I hope it will be okay. :budgiedance: I'm so excited!!! :bliss: