I have waited a year to breed my birds, after having lost 3 hens I chose to breed Sunflower and cloud separately in breeding cabinets. Cloud and Rainbow have been successful in laying 6 eggs and Cloud is sitting nicely.

 

Sunflower however keeps breaking her eggs. She is very clumsy but it's not just her. Jungle thinks he's helping and takes the egg from under sunflower and tries to sit on it himself. Should I remove him from the cabinet? They are both so desperate to be parents, yet with all the breakages it's just not happening and it's so heartbreaking.

 

Any advice on this one could you email it direct please. Being a night shifter I usually only check emails on saturday's and don't spend a lot of time on the net. Much appreciated.

 

My webpage for birds http://budgies.page.tl/

 

 

I should point out the three birds I lost were Skylark, Meadow and Queen(not pictured on web page). I have since got some new birds which I will add to the site as soon as I get some spare time. I should also say I was previously registered on this site as Daffy, but had trouble with login details and password so re-registered.

 

Cheers Guys

Edited November 5, 200816 yr by **Liv**
removed personal email address - please do not post personal details

Very nice birds. Good luck with the breeding. Looks like Sunflower is a Lutino and so any lutino's that you get will be cocks. Good luck with it all, hope that you get your problams sorted with the egg breaking.

Sounds very much like the actions of young and inexperienced birds. How old are they ? How big is their nestbox and where is the concave section located in relation to the entry ?

It sounds like the problem could be weak shells on the eggs. Do the birds have a good supply of calcium? Other possibilities are as Kaz mentioned: the age of the birds or the nest box design. The birds all look very young in the pictures or perhaps they are old pictures

It sounds like the problem could be weak shells on the eggs. Do the birds have a good supply of calcium? Other possibilities are as Kaz mentioned: the age of the birds or the nest box design. The birds all look very young in the pictures or perhaps they are old pictures

 

Good point Neville... Breeding birds need plenty of calcium to produce good strong eggs.

Pics on website were taken last april. They get fed trill which has shell grit in the seed mix and they have cuttle fish. As for nest box, the opening is at the far end away from the front of the cage they're in. It's a long rectangular box, but the two being as big as they are (show bird size), they are a little cramped.

Some of the rectangular ones sold in bird supply stores can be a little small for the decent sized showbirds. I now use these boxes for my show size birds...

That's what I want Kaz!! Where do you get them from?

That's what I want Kaz!! Where do you get them from?

I bought them from Daz and he sent them to me flatpacked so I just assembled them when they got here

I have waited a year to breed my birds, after having lost 3 hens I chose to breed Sunflower and cloud separately in breeding cabinets. Cloud and Rainbow have been successful in laying 6 eggs and Cloud is sitting nicely.

 

Sunflower however keeps breaking her eggs. She is very clumsy but it's not just her. Jungle thinks he's helping and takes the egg from under sunflower and tries to sit on it himself. Should I remove him from the cabinet? They are both so desperate to be parents, yet with all the breakages it's just not happening and it's so heartbreaking.

 

Any advice on this one could you email it direct please. Being a night shifter I usually only check emails on saturday's and don't spend a lot of time on the net. Much appreciated.

 

My webpage for birds http://budgies.page.tl/

 

 

I should point out the three birds I lost were Skylark, Meadow and Queen(not pictured on web page). I have since got some new birds which I will add to the site as soon as I get some spare time. I should also say I was previously registered on this site as Daffy, but had trouble with login details and password so re-registered.

 

Cheers Guys

 

Hi Sonia, One trick to try is to put dummy eggs (I use small white marbles) under the hen until she settles into steady incubation. In need, put the real eggs under foster parents. This just gets the parents into the right habit if they have been erratic. If it's a fragile egg problem, the other suggestions you have been given are right on target. I also put grit in with my seed mix (I use Canunda) and have rarely had a problem with fragile shells - those exceptions being from birds brought in from other aviaries. Jaz

Are they soft shell eggs or are they getting broken and knocked about in the nest box?