:fear My hen has started to lay her first clutch of eggs (she is 14 months old) she has layed 2 so far and has destroyed both and tossed them out of the nest shorty after laying them. i have not disturbed her at all. only to fill the seed dishes. why is she doing this. i desperatly want them to breed. why is she killing her babies? :fear

Hi - I am really not an expert - but I do know that the female birds know from the onset if the eggs and chicks are okay!

It has taken my female three attempts at babies - the first time she layed six egg - two she tossed out during the first couple of days one hatched but did not survive the other two were later tossed out.

The second attempt she layed four eggs one was tossed out one hatched and did not survive the night the other two I found tossed out and decided to try and hatch them - one did hatch and it was the smallest baby I have ever seen - I kept him going by hand feeding for five days! the other did not hatch! The female by this time had layed again and I was going to put baby back in the hope she would raise it but it did not survive!

Now she layed 6 eggs one was tossed - one got stuck to her feathers and was bashed about and cracked so she tossed that one she has now had two babies and has two eggs left and she is doing a great job!

She is last years young - so really if this is your females first lot do not worry she is learning and she will lay more in the next couple of weeks!

I have learnt that by my looking every day in the box she is now used to the checking and does not stress - do not touch the eggs though because she will kick them out!

As for trying to rear one in theory it is great and I for one will not be doing it again!

 

Good Luck

i also, am not an expert, but my hen laid her first 5 eggs from the very top perch and would let them just drop to the cage floor!! the second clutch she threw 2 out of 8 out, 2 of these hatched into beautiful babies and the other 4 were not fertile. I just figured withthe first clutch that she didn't quit get what was going on and only knew that those round things hurt on the way out, they has a tinny bit of blood on them. The second time i think she just knew something was wrong, especially seeing it eas egg number 2 and 5, so it wasn't like it was the 1st 2 eggs. when she was done laying and had started incubating, I took the ggs out to clean the nest and check for fertility and she kept all of them after that. (i had to clean the nest because she laid them in a bed not a nest box, so thepoop got stuck) Anyway give her another chance, she'll porbably figur it out, good luck

 

kristi

1. of all are you sure it is the hen?is it the cock

2.could it have been done by accident if the cock has entered the nest

if it is the hen do you know the breeder ask him if it is a familly problem if it is i strongly advise you not to breed her it could be down to inexperiance sometimes it takes two or three attempts for the hen to get it right

no my daddy Hath, he's the one who despite the beating he took raised the chicks from 3 weeks on all by himself

thanks for all the replys. first of all i want so say that at the moment i am not a serious breeder. this is the first time i have bred budgies. i have read many books and articals about breeding though.

the budgies are my pets and are hand tame. they are called frankie and daisy.

her next egg is due tomorrow if all goes well. she has not left the nest box atall. she just sticks her head out for frankie to feed her. last time she was inb and out like a yoyo (Laughing out loud). is this a good sign. is she learning now?

im positive its not the cock. she wont let him near it. she bites him