Hi, I have a pair of budgies sitting on 5 eggs. I'm pretty sure they're infertile...the last egg was laid on the 26/8. It's now been 19 days since then so can I safely assume that they are infertile and throw them and if so what is the process? Do I just chuck them all at once or is there some staggered idea on doing this and will the hen be okay with them disappearing so abruptly?

She has pretty much been sitting since the first egg was laid.

Thanks for any help.

You have to remember not to apply human emotions to the birds. It is not like taking a baby off a human mother.

 

As for how soon, well, eggs are meant to take 18 days to hatch, give or take a day or two, so i would give it another few days - week.

 

As for what you should do, I would remove the nestbox. She has been through a bit, laying 5 eggs, so give her a few days to recover before returning the nestbox. Also make sure you keep the calcium intake up to her in her water. She needs it after layign these five eggs.

 

Have you determined any reason they are not fertile? Is it an old hen cock?Have they bred before? If they are show birds, or birds with thick feathers, do they need to be plucked?

Don't throw them away too early. I've had eggs hatch from between 16-28 days, from the time the hen started incubating. (you have to remember to count from the day the hen started to actually incubate the eggs) I'd give them a while more, and candle the eggs to make sure they aren't infertile or dead.

Thanks for your replies.

They are both young, 16 and 17 months of age and first time breeding.

They are show type and definitely have more feathers than my pet types.

I only breed for my own pleasure, so its not necessary that these two have a clutch I just paired them that way.

In regards to plucking I don't actually handle the birds so therefore I'm not capable of plucking. My daughter is the one that does the handling but I'm not sure if she'd have the confidence to do that for them.

So without plucking, could they do better if I paired each one to my pet types.

So I'll leave the eggs for a bit longer and see how they go.

I gave up trying to candle earlier as the hen is very difficult to get out of the box. And it's even worse when the cock gets in as they both attack together. Very unpleasant so we soon got the hint and left them to it.

You have to remember not to apply human emotions to the birds. It is not like taking a baby off a human mother.

 

As for how soon, well, eggs are meant to take 18 days to hatch, give or take a day or two, so i would give it another few days - week.

 

As for what you should do, I would remove the nestbox. She has been through a bit, laying 5 eggs, so give her a few days to recover before returning the nestbox. Also make sure you keep the calcium intake up to her in her water. She needs it after layign these five eggs.

 

Have you determined any reason they are not fertile? Is it an old hen cock?Have they bred before? If they are show birds, or birds with thick feathers, do they need to be plucked?

 

I am sorry Dek21 if I am "butting in" on your post, but Dave can you please explain what you mean by plucking....?? Can this effect the eggs? How do you know if a bird needs this? - Thanks :emoticon112:

You have to remember not to apply human emotions to the birds. It is not like taking a baby off a human mother.

 

As for how soon, well, eggs are meant to take 18 days to hatch, give or take a day or two, so i would give it another few days - week.

 

As for what you should do, I would remove the nestbox. She has been through a bit, laying 5 eggs, so give her a few days to recover before returning the nestbox. Also make sure you keep the calcium intake up to her in her water. She needs it after layign these five eggs.

 

Have you determined any reason they are not fertile? Is it an old hen cock?Have they bred before? If they are show birds, or birds with thick feathers, do they need to be plucked?

 

I am sorry Dek21 if I am "butting in" on your post, but Dave can you please explain what you mean by plucking....?? Can this effect the eggs? How do you know if a bird needs this? - Thanks :emoticon112:

 

No problem. With bush bidgies and evern pet budgies, we have smaller birds who tend to have thinner feathers, that naturally lay close against their bodies. In the development of show budgies, one of the features that has been sen as admiral is thick, long feathers. Many good show budgies have thick long feathers, and some people even say that judges today prefer a "shaggy" looking bird compared to a bird that pulls its feather in tight.

 

Anyway, thicker feathers has meant mroe difficulties for the budgie breeding. It has meant that the act of budgies actually mating may not always be successful. To overcome this, breeders may pluck or trim the feathers aroudn the vents of their budgies to enable the mating of the birds to be more successful. When plucking, a bird is held in one hand, turned so their vent is facing skywards, and the fluffy down feathers are gently pulled out from the birds. Some people say it is better to trim as this has the same desired effect of reducing the amount of feather around the vent, whilst at the same time, leaving soem feather for warmth, as well as some feathers that act as a guide (not entirely sure on this bit myself).

 

I had 2 birds - Dumb and Kestral - that mated, produced 5 egs, and all were infertile. I was woried there was something wrong with the birds. I plucked them and let them have another go. They produced 3 wonderful chicks. Point being, if they were not plucked, it might not have occurred. These are the only two I have plucked, but it seems they needed it. Plucking can help improve fertility for some show birds it seems.

 

The plucking comentary and the pile of feathers can be seen in my breeding hread on page 4 by clicking here

Edited September 14, 200915 yr by Dave_McMinn

WOW Dave that's amazing.......Thank you for explaining...

 

Dek21...did any eggs hatch?

TRIMMING VENTS

by KELWYN KAKOSCHKE, AUSTRALIA

 

The purpose of trimming vents is to remove the bigger feathers, which may get in the way during mating resulting in infertile eggs. The technique in Australia was first used on Jacobean pigeons which have so many feathers that they can't be bred unless you do this.

 

THE TECHNIQUE

 

Firstly hold the bird with the cheek patches extended under the little finger, place the bird so that it is upside down, making sure it only bites your clothing and nothing else. Place your thumb carefully over the vent, parting the fine feathers until you find the vent itself. Place your thumb actually on the vent and trim around your thumb with a sharp pair of scissors. This way you can't accidentally cut the bird on the vent without cutting yourself first, so don't worry if you see blood because it must be your own.

 

We trim both hens and cocks but whilst you may remove the entire feather from the hen it is most important that on the cock bird you leave the little feathers which radiate around the vent, these are the "sperm guide feathers". This way you remove all the feathers which may come between the cock and hen when mating.

 

THE REASON WHY

 

A show bird these days can't be short behind the leg, in the old days although the birds were big they were all short and cut off behind the vent. Nowadays with that nice carrot shape and all the other desirable features you need to select the correct feather. A good show bird is carrying maybe twice as much feather especially around the vent than they did 10 years ago. The problem is that by achieving a better bird you create further difficulties.

 

IT'S THE AUSSIE WAY

 

I've been doing it for 10 to 15 years in fact I think everybody in Australia does it now especially with the bigger birds.

 

By KELWYN KAKOSCHKE

Edited September 28, 200915 yr by splat

TRIMMING VENTS

by KELWYN KAKOSCHKE, AUSTRALIA

 

The purpose of trimming vents is to remove the bigger feathers, which may get in the way during mating resulting in infertile eggs. The technique in Australia was first used on Jacobean pigeons which have so many feathers that they can't be bred unless you do this.

 

THE TECHNIQUE

 

Firstly hold the bird with the cheek patches extended under the little finger, place the bird so that it is upside down, making sure it only bites your clothing and nothing else. Place your thumb carefully over the vent, parting the fine feathers until you find the vent itself. Place your thumb actually on the vent and trim around your thumb with a sharp pair of scissors. This way you can't accidentally cut the bird on the vent without cutting yourself first, so don't worry if you see blood because it must be your own.

 

We trim both hens and cocks but whilst you may remove the entire feather from the hen it is most important that on the cock bird you leave the little feathers which radiate around the vent, these are the "sperm guide feathers". This way you remove all the feathers which may come between the cock and hen when mating.

 

THE REASON WHY

 

A show bird these days can't be short behind the leg, in the old days although the birds were big they were all short and cut off behind the vent. Nowadays with that nice carrot shape and all the other desirable features you need to select the correct feather. A good show bird is carrying maybe twice as much feather especially around the vent than they did 10 years ago. The problem is that by achieving a better bird you create further difficulties.

 

IT'S THE AUSSIE WAY

 

I've been doing it for 10 to 15 years in fact I think everybody in Australia does it now especially with the bigger birds.

 

By KELWYN KAKOSCHKE

 

and if you look in my birds for sale , the grey cock bird is a great example of plucking ....

not very atractive at all poor boy

he is such a lovlely bird with his bumb but i tryed to pluck

i prepher to trim

 

good info splat im going to copy this

Edited September 29, 200915 yr by GenericBlue

You have to remember not to apply human emotions to the birds. It is not like taking a baby off a human mother.

 

As for how soon, well, eggs are meant to take 18 days to hatch, give or take a day or two, so i would give it another few days - week.

 

As for what you should do, I would remove the nestbox. She has been through a bit, laying 5 eggs, so give her a few days to recover before returning the nestbox. Also make sure you keep the calcium intake up to her in her water. She needs it after layign these five eggs.

 

Have you determined any reason they are not fertile? Is it an old hen cock?Have they bred before? If they are show birds, or birds with thick feathers, do they need to be plucked?

 

Just as a matter of interest, I have a hen (maiden this year) who layed a whole nest full of eggs but did not sit on them until about the 7th egg and initially I did not notice this. I initially thought her nest was infertile as the eggs did not develop as expected. Usually by the 3-4 egg you can see development in the first or second if they are fertile. Hers all started developing together and hatching around the same time. It was as they all started to develop together that I realized that she did not sit until quite a few eggs had been layed. It's normal for the hen to not sit on the first but to wait until the second is layed before incubating - it's not so normal that they wait until the 7th egg!!!

Hi all, thanks for all the advice.

Eggs were removed on the 24/9. Unfortuately none were fertile.

The birds are now out in the aviary having a rest and maybe I'll try again with them in a few weeks.

You have to remember not to apply human emotions to the birds. It is not like taking a baby off a human mother.

 

As for how soon, well, eggs are meant to take 18 days to hatch, give or take a day or two, so i would give it another few days - week.

 

As for what you should do, I would remove the nestbox. She has been through a bit, laying 5 eggs, so give her a few days to recover before returning the nestbox. Also make sure you keep the calcium intake up to her in her water. She needs it after layign these five eggs.

 

Have you determined any reason they are not fertile? Is it an old hen cock?Have they bred before? If they are show birds, or birds with thick feathers, do they need to be plucked?

 

Just as a matter of interest, I have a hen (maiden this year) who layed a whole nest full of eggs but did not sit on them until about the 7th egg and initially I did not notice this. I initially thought her nest was infertile as the eggs did not develop as expected. Usually by the 3-4 egg you can see development in the first or second if they are fertile. Hers all started developing together and hatching around the same time. It was as they all started to develop together that I realized that she did not sit until quite a few eggs had been layed. It's normal for the hen to not sit on the first but to wait until the second is layed before incubating - it's not so normal that they wait until the 7th egg!!!

 

My hen was different. She sat early and kept them incubated from the beginning. The infertility was a real shock due to this.