Hey everyone!

I've decided to let by birdies breed, as they have been trying for the last couple of months even without boxes. Anyway, one of my females has already begun to lay her eggs. She started last week, the first egg she laid outside and it cracked, the second in the box, but she didnt sit on it, the third outside (it cracked) and the fourth one in the box but she still didnt sit on it. Only when she laid the sixth egg (the fifth one was laid outside too) did she realise she had to actually sit in the box with her eggs for them to hatch :bluebudgie: At the moment she is sitting on 7 eggs! That means she's laid 10 eggs (if my math is right, (Laughing out loud)) all in all! I cant believe they all fit inside of her. I dont think they are all fertile but am not sure how to tell if they are or not... Last time I bred budgies I tried candling them and they all looked clear... but then they all hatched so yeah :ausb: Four of the eggs are an opaquish white colour and three have a pinkish tinge to them. Can you tell just by looking at them? (ie, with colour?) Any advice would be appreciated

I also had trouble candling eggs but the ones with the pinkish tinge seemed to be fertile. :bluebudgie:

Good luck. All of mine where pinkish when young all all hatched.

 

The first one in the box might not hatchs ince it took so long to sit on it.

First thing I would do is halve the eggs that the hen is sitting on this is too many a nice amount is either 4 or 5. I usually do this when there is too many eggs in the nest box. What I do is when I candle the eggs I check them and find the one that has nothing showing after candling and I would throw the egg on the ground 9 time out of 10 the egg would crack whe it hit the ground my birds loved it u should have seen them swabble of the egg (Laughing out loud).

(Laughing out loud)....im confused at this:

 

"I would throw the egg on the ground 9 time out of 10 the egg would crack whe it hit the ground my birds loved it u should have seen them swabble of the egg (Laughing out loud)."...

 

(Laughing out loud)

Kirby

I guess she is in an aviary and the birds got to have raw eggs, high in protein :dbb1:

 

You don't have another pair do you? I was thinking you could move a few to them if you did. Yes you could candle and remove the clear ones but they might only be clear becuase they are the newest ones laid. 7 would be a lot to take care of, but it's up to you on what you want to do.

7 eggs is alot but isn't too much for the hen to handle.

A lady on a different forum said her fathers bird has 7 babies & 9 eggs & she is doing fine.

Yes they can handle it but if there is an option of halving it down (such as putting under another hen) it's healthier for the birds.

I took one out today that had a crack in it. I dont think they are all fertile anyway. I do have another hen who laid her first egg today in the food bowl (I have 7 boxes for two couples and she chooses the food bowl!) and then just left it and when I put the egg in the nest box she'd chosen she attacked it! So much so that there is egg splattered around the whole nest box... its like the site of a grusome murder, (Laughing out loud). I caught her licking it off the walls though afterwards, kind of odd really, I suppose she needs more protein. So im not really game to put Blacky's (hen with 7 eggs, 6 now) eggs in with Meeko (my little murderess.)

Ill try to candle them again, see if I have better results this time round. But we'll se what eventuates.

-Shann

Shann are you colony breeding (nest boxes togeather in the aviary) or closed breeding (each pair in there own cage with a nest box)?

 

You have so much trouble in colony breeding with other females attaching eggs and chicks.

Im colony breeding. Ive got two hens and 7 nest boxes. It wasn't the other hen's egg Meeko attacked, it was her own. I know you can have problems with colony breeding but I figure if they are both occupied looking after their own chicks at the same time and are happy with their own nest boxes, they shouldnt interfere with each other too much. I have enough cages to separate them if need be, but Mum wouldn't be especially happy with that, (Laughing out loud). I am prepared to separate them if problems arise, but if they dont, Im quite content keeping them together.

Just make sure Meeko doesn't turn into a egg eater, which you can get sometimes in budgies.

Yes, I had a male who used to eat his mates' eggs. It stopped as soon as I separated them into their own cage & he turned out to be a super daddy!