Two of my females decided to lay eggs. I had to seperate them from each other and the rest of the flock because they were fighting quite violently before I knew they were going to lay eggs. So, I have two females, with probably mostly fertile eggs. I seperated the males from their "mates" after they started laying so they wouldn't fertilize, but I think one or two may be fertile.

 

I do NOT want to breed budgies! We have 9, and take in rescues and don't really even believe in breeding, so we're in kind of a pickle. We live over 2 hours away from civilization (literally), so we had to wait a few days to make a voyage to a craft store for marbles with which to replace the eggs.

 

I want to candle the eggs to make sure nothing has formed inside before I replace them with marbles. So, my first question is, how easy is it to tell with a small flashlight, and what do I do if there is something formed inside? How long does an egg need to be forming before it is considered cruel to throw out? I do not want an egg to hatch unnecessarilly, but I also don't want to live with the guilt and shame of knowing I might have killed a baby bird! I have never bread, and have obviously read up on it a lot as of late, so as to provide the brooders with proper eggnant care, but I am certainly in no position to breed budgies, nor do I want to be!

 

Any advice would be HUGELY appreciated!

Edited January 17, 200916 yr by KAZ

Take one plastic bag & pop eggs in bag & place bag in bin & forget about the marbles & take nest box out of cage.

& no more eggs will be layed.

I don't have nest boxes, nor have I ever. They're laying them on the floor of the cage and brooding there, with no males, no nesting material... by themselves of their own free will (much to my dismay).

 

I don't really understand why I would bag the eggs in plastic and put them in a plastic bin? What would that accomplish? It seems a little sick actually.

 

If I remove the eggs without replacing them with "fake" eggs, they will continue to lay until they have a full clutch. This has been talked about and demonstrated for eons and it is never suggested to remove the eggs without replacements. The hen will continue to lay, putting her health in danger (calcium deficiencies, potential egg binding...).

 

If anyone has an answer to any of my previous questions, I would VERY much appreciate it! Thanks!

If there is no male in involved then they won't be fertile. Many times what people will do is let them lay on them until they are sick of them and they abandon them. You can do this if you don't want to chuck them and put fake eggs under them. I know my friend who's birds lay like this and she has personally just lets them go through the process and then they will stop for a while.

 

What does your set up look like? Do you have them in an aviary set-up that you can cover them or it is a large avairy? Many times if you increase the cover time and provide them with 12-14 hrs of cover time (increase darkeness like winter time) then that will throw them out of the wanting to lay.

If you remove the hens to another cage they will maybe lay another egg off the perch and then stop. Perhaps thats best to stop the cycle at this point. If throwing away good or supposedly good eggs woirries you then perhaps its best to candle them, see IF they are fertile and then make a decision. If you can find anyoine nearby with hens sitting on viable eggs perhaps donate them to another persons bird.

My thoughts based on you not wanting to breed.

I agree with Kaz

HI !!! do you know anyone with budgies on eggs? i suggest candelling them before throwing them away as i think its sick and cruel. i dont know what you could do ? do you really not want babies?

Edited January 17, 200916 yr by maesie

I don't have nest boxes, nor have I ever. They're laying them on the floor of the cage and brooding there, with no males, no nesting material... by themselves of their own free will (much to my dismay).

 

Mine have done that too. Just laying eggs on the floor.

 

It's a shame you have received some "rolling eye" responses. It makes me not want to ask questions when I think I might get an eyeroll response. Because I truly want the information!

I don't have nest boxes, nor have I ever. They're laying them on the floor of the cage and brooding there, with no males, no nesting material... by themselves of their own free will (much to my dismay).

Mine have done that too. Just laying eggs on the floor. It's a shame you have received some "rolling eye" responses. It makes me not want to ask questions when I think I might get an eyeroll response. Because I truly want the information!

There was only ONE rolling eye response...........and the rest very valid answers.

I don't have nest boxes, nor have I ever. They're laying them on the floor of the cage and brooding there, with no males, no nesting material... by themselves of their own free will (much to my dismay).

Mine have done that too. Just laying eggs on the floor. It's a shame you have received some "rolling eye" responses. It makes me not want to ask questions when I think I might get an eyeroll response. Because I truly want the information!

There was only ONE rolling eye response...........and the rest very valid answers.

Thanks - true. I just happened to have been browsing the forum and caught a lot of eye rolls over various different threads and they kind of merged into one!

 

Just ETA though - Whenever I see an 'eyeroll' at a question I would have asked myself - it truly DOES make me think twice before asking a question. I may be the only one - or there may be others who also decide not to bother asking a possibly "obvious" or dare I say "silly" question in case they are dismissed. I come here to learn and to find ways of best caring for my birds (well - my son's birds) and most of the time people are fantastic but a few times I have had unpleasant responses.

 

But anyway... as I said - most of the time people are great!

Edited March 31, 200916 yr by Smudgie

I don't have nest boxes, nor have I ever. They're laying them on the floor of the cage and brooding there, with no males, no nesting material... by themselves of their own free will (much to my dismay).

Mine have done that too. Just laying eggs on the floor. It's a shame you have received some "rolling eye" responses. It makes me not want to ask questions when I think I might get an eyeroll response. Because I truly want the information!

There was only ONE rolling eye response...........and the rest very valid answers.

Thanks - true. I just happened to have been browsing the forum and caught a lot of eye rolls over various different threads and they kind of merged into one!

 

Just ETA though - Whenever I see an 'eyeroll' at a question I would have asked myself - it truly DOES make me think twice before asking a question. I may be the only one - or there may be others who also decide not to bother asking a possibly "obvious" or dare I say "silly" question in case they are dismissed. I come here to learn and to find ways of best caring for my birds (well - my son's birds) and most of the time people are fantastic but a few times I have had unpleasant responses.

 

But anyway... as I said - most of the time people are great!

Very few of our members use that emoticon for responses....you may find its the same one or two members that actually do. Best not to generalise when their is only one or two "offenders" :rofl:

Edited March 31, 200916 yr by KAZ

Hi smudgie, I agree with you. I joined the forum a week ago and I have ssked alot of questions and been given some great answers and have learnt alot! But from reading other answers I have been hesitant at asking certain questions as I don't want the eye rolls that you'r talking about. You don't learn unless you ask, we all have to start somewhere and this is a great site to start. I think that some of the more experienced breeders here just assume that everyone should know what they know and tend to forget that they were once beginers too!

Hi smudgie, I agree with you. I joined the forum a week ago and I have ssked alot of questions and been given some great answers and have learnt alot! But from reading other answers I have been hesitant at asking certain questions as I don't want the eye rolls that you'r talking about. You don't learn unless you ask, we all have to start somewhere and this is a great site to start. I think that some of the more experienced breeders here just assume that everyone should know what they know and tend to forget that they were once beginers too!

A lot of the more experienced breeders here do not do the eyeroll emoticon. As you do not know the regulars here yet, you have assumed the ones that do it are our regular members and they are not. Any complaints please contact staff. Any posts you find distasteful please use the report button.

Yes Kaz you are right!! Sorry I should have read it properly, I didn't mean the little face that rolls it's eyes I ment just SOME of the answeres make you feel rather stupid for asking that question! I do realise that most of the breeders here are unbelievably experienced more than I can ever dream to be (yourself included) I just wanted to let people know that there questions are all important no matter how silly they sound! As I always tell my children "You don't know unless you ask!)

I agree with Kaz, we are here to educate and yes, we do take the micky out of another site who's advice is appalling and have the blind leading the blinder.

 

We would never degrade or put down even the most simple of questions from any of our members here. :rofl:

If this helps in the future (as looking at the dates we have missed this window) but I have always been told that you have about 10 days after the egg is laid where it is a nothing egg. Once the hen starts to incubate then the chick starts to form. It makes me feel better about taking the eggs off a hen if I know that they are under 10 days old as there is no chick growing in the egg and it will not grow unless the hen starts to incubate. I have candled eggs and until she starts to incubate I can't see anything in them so this is my window to do something in.

 

On a lovebird forum that I am a member of, the members will take the day old egg and boil it, this will stop anything from forming in the egg and means you can put the egg back with the mother and let her sit on them till she abandons them. They also suggested shaking but then one of the members had a shaken egg that hatched and the baby was deformed so now they recommend boiling. Also another great thing about boiling is that if the egg smashes then it is not as messy and also I have cracked an egg that was not fertile after then hen had been sitting on it for almost 3 weeks and my poor breeding room took two days for the smell to go away!

 

I have a hen that likes to go back to lay as soon as her clutch has left the nest box, if we miss the window then we find a change of cage and she stops (she may lay off the perch but this has only happened once), I also pull her inside and shorten her hours of light so that she thinks it's winter and the drive to lay and hatch young is not as strong.

 

I hope this helps