Egg Incubation, Bourke Parakeets & Lady Gouldian Finches - Video of Live Eggs

Video of live Lady Gouldian eggs and Bourke Parakeet eggs taken yesterday. They are kept warm in a homemade incubator and turned every few hours ... even through the night. Temperature needs to remain at 98 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 35 to 36 degrees Celsius. A light bulb under a dish of water provides humidity. There's more detailed information on doing this in earlier posts. Search Incubation or check the Archive titles.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Peace & Blessings

Incubating Small Exotic Bird Eggs

Baby Lineolated Parakeets at 10 and 11 days of age. Also in incubator are
Eggs from Lady Gouldian finches and Rosy Bourke Parakeets.

I've written before about incubating and hatching Lady Gouldian finch eggs in the homemade incubator my innovative husband created using a cockatiel nest box.  After hand feeding them from day one, I said I'd never do it again. Well... Never say never!

 

Just like last year, after three clutches our Lady Gouldian finch would not quit laying. Removing the nest box did no good. I had to separate her from her mate, or risk losing her.

 

But, what about all those fertile eggs? I retrieved them from the floor of her cage before moving her to a separate cage away from her mate and their earlier brood of six youngsters.

 

The larger eggs in the photo above are from Fuchsia and Flame, our prolific Rosy Bourke Parakeets. Because of family health issues, Fuchsia's box was not removed when it should have been. She's raised too many clutches this year already. So, I removed the nest box. These four eggs were all laid on the floor of her cage, so I retrieved them too.

 

My prolific pair deciding to mate even without a nest box.

At present, at least three Lady Gouldian eggs have live embryo's in them and so do at least two of the Bourke eggs. Later, I'll try to video the eggs with a light behind them. The little red embryo's already show a heart beating.

 

One Gouldian egg and one Bourke egg have damage to their shell, probably done when they were roughly laid. I don't expect them to hatch. Considered trying to repair their cracks, but haven't.

 

Looks like I will be hand feeding baby birds until the end of February! Probably five or more.

Flame above, Fuchsia (the hen) below.
Very tame, they don't mind an audience.
Rosie Birds has a video of them on You Tube.

 

Bird eggs have to be rolled frequently for 18 to 21 days. Newly hatched chicks require feedings every two hours, even through the night. With the baby Linnies I'm down to every three to four hours. But, still sleep deprived.

 

My husband suggested I throw out the eggs rather than incubate and hand feed because night feedings are so taxing. That's true, but the incubator was already set up for the Linnies and readily available. It was easy to add the eggs and turn them when I feed the baby Linnies.

 

Then, there's the fact that I'm stridently pro-life!

 

And, that participating in saving even little feathered lives makes me feel really good. Can't bring myself to heartlessly cast them away. May we end abortion and spare precious human lives too.

Peace, Blessings,
 and a
Merry Christmas!

Lady Gouldian Finch...Egg to Adult

We only have one pair of Lady Gouldians, received in trade for a pair of Rosy Bourkes. Photos below were taken from their first and second clutches. Then they quit brooding, so several eggs went into an incubator. Two hatched and were hand fed to adulthood. Those two are also shown below.




Mom and Dad Lady Gouldian finch, babies under them.











They liked the shredded paper best for nest material.



Their first clutch was five, second clutch was six.



Five not long from leaving the nest.



Fledged and healthy. Colors will change in time.
They all love the swing.



Out of the nest and eating on their own.
Still have spots at edges of their mouths.

These below were raised in an incubator and hand fed to adulthood.

These two hatched in an incubator. Photo taken shortly after hatching.

Homemade incubator. An old cockatiel nest box with a 25-watt
incandescent bulb for heat. A water dish is below screen.
Thermometer at back with another humidifier thermometer
in blue box with a shoe string into the water below.
Water bowl above screen was added just before hatching
to provide extra humidity.



Closer shot of two brand new babies. Other eggs weren't fertile.

Growing. Stuffed full of hand feeding formula
just as their parents would have stuffed them full.

Showing my feathers coming in.

An earlier shot before pin feathers started. We've gone
from looking like little worms to looking like little frogs.



A crop feeder would be a better device than an eye dropper
with these little guys, but I used what I had.



We're flying on our own, but love being friendly.

 

 

A hand feeding. We still sleep in a box at this stage, but
can fly really well. Continued hand feeding for two more weeks.

To learn more about hatching eggs, enter "incubation" into the search engine for previous posts on this subject.

Peace and Blessings.

 

Fuchsia's first egg has hatched.

There is an egg shell in Fuchsia's nest box today, although the baby is hidden under her. She's hatched her first egg of the season. It surprises me that Rosie hasn't hatched an egg yet. She was the first to begin sitting on her eggs. Just goes to show the 18-21 day range is subject to wide variation, especially from one Bourke hen to the next.

Ask Questions...

As I read the key search words that bring visitors to this site, there are a lot of questions. Many I've answered in previous posts, but sometimes the search questions are unique. Even if they are not, it can be daunting to find answers buried in multiple posts. That's why label topics at the end of each post are helpful. They will sort through related articles for you.  

Rosy Bourke hen briefly left nest. The first of four eggs has hatched.

Don't hesitate to contact me with a question. For instance, someone searched on Google: "How long for Bourke parakeet eggs to hatch?"  They found this site, and I hope they located the answer in several of my earlier posts.

For the record, the answer is: typically 18 to 21 days and they usually hatch every other day. Ambient temperature has an effect too. Warm weather tends to encourage eggs to hatch sooner. Cold weather may delay hatching. Also, as noted in an earlier article, hens don't have to start brooding their eggs immediately. Count 18 to 21 days from the day they actually begin sitting on their eggs. Remember to keep a cup or bowl of water available for her to splash in, as eggs may need moisture, especially in dry climates.

If you have a specific question, you can reach me via: rosie.birds@gmail.com

Happy birding!

Bourkes Laying Too Many Eggs. Why and What to Do.

Someone searching the internet for "my Bourkes are laying too many eggs," reached my site. I haven't addressed this question before, so here goes...

More than one hen in this box.

First, are you sure you have a pair of Bourkes and not two hens? Bourke hens—especially sisters or mothers and daughters—will sometimes share a nestbox, hence many eggs although not all from the same bird. If you have multiple hens present, provide at least one nestbox per hen. Extra's are even better so that they won't argue over the same box.

Are they in an aviary setting with several birds and not everyone has a mate? A hen alone will often lay many eggs if she doesn't have a male with her. She can be so eager to raise babies that she just keeps laying. I've seen Normal Bourke hens (wild color) do this more often than Rosy Bourkes.

If you're certain you have a pair, one male and one female, they may not be compatible and haven't bred. If her first clutch wasn't fertile, she may lay more eggs in an effort to have fertile eggs. The later eggs just might be fertile, so don't remove any of them unless you know for sure when each was laid. This is often not an easy thing to determine as, unlike some other birds, Bourkes go right back to laying. If you're lucky, the hen's first infertile eggs will simply help keep later fertile eggs warm.

I had one Normal Bourke hen who sat on a dozen eggs and four hatched! Having too many didn't mean that the fertile ones were harmed because there were too many. She managed to cover all of them. The first ones she laid were not fertile, then she bred and added to her clutch. I could have candled the eggs and removed those that appeared to have no life, but decided not to bother her.

If your bird is fairly tame, you can pick up eggs and hold them over a flashlight, but wait to be sure you know they are several days old before doing that. After a few days red vessels begin to show in fertile eggs. Myself, I'd rather let the hens decide which eggs are good and which are not. I usually leave them alone until the hens give up on them.

Fluffed out as far as possible to cover all the eggs.

Broken shell indicates an egg has hatched!

Experienced hens can tell the difference between good or bad eggs. Infertile eggs help keep the others warm and should be left there. Even after babies hatch, any remaining eggs add warmth. Eventually, eggs dry out and become very light. At that time, hens usually discard them if you haven’t already. They will push aside eggs that are no good, maybe even toss them out of the nestbox onto the ground.

I usually don't remove extra eggs until all the babies leave the nest. Then the nestbox should be cleaned anyway before it is used again.

If you are unsure about an egg, perhaps you think it's old, but worry about tossing out a good egg; here's a test. Take a cup of warm water (not hot, not cold, but warm to your touch), and gently place the egg in it. Good eggs sink. Old eggs float. Floaters can be thrown away. Gently pat the good egg off and replace it. A little moisture won't hurt it. In fact, hens need a water source for bathing as they may need to take water in their feathers back to the nest to keep the eggs moist.

Be sure to have lots of calcium sources available for your birds. Each pair should have a cuddle bone, mineral block and it's wise to add oyster shell. Some birds will ignore the other two, but use the oyster shell. Fresh greens are excellent too. Our birds love kale. If you have only one bird, it is still wise to offer fresh greens, although more important for breeding birds. On an earlier post, I gave the calcium amounts in various fresh foods.

After a hen has raised two or three clutches, remove the nestbox and let her rest for the remainder of the year before returning it. Or, at the very least, leave a minimum of three or four months between her previous clutches before returning the nestbox. I prefer to limit my birds to three clutches a year as I don't want to over-tax them. Returning nestboxes stimulates them to breed, as does day length — either natural or artificial light for twelve or more hours per day. If you don't want to raise birds and they are still laying even without a nest box, add more hours of darkness. If necessary, cover the cage with a dark cloth for two or three hours a day. You can also remove whatever they are laying eggs in ... a feed cup, for instance.

I've talked mostly about hens, however, the males also work hard at raising the young. They feed the hen while she's on the nest and once the eggs hatch, their work steps up. They must feed her more often. Some males enter the box to help feed the young, but normally they wait until the babies are feathering before doing this. After the babies leave the nest, they still need to be fed and most males take this over almost exclusively. By now, most hens are thin and need to recover. Depending on how many youngsters he has to feed, he's kept very busy. Older males may suffer more than younger ones and should be watched closely.

One of my older pairs were on their third clutch last summer when I decided to pull their two-week old babies and hand feed them. Rhett, my first Bourke was looking slightly "natty" and mom was too thin. These are not young birds, but they still want to produce, so I've let them. Although I took their babies, they weren't upset. Perhaps because they felt they'd done enough, were tired and glad to be empty nesters for a while. Also, they could hear their young when I fed them. The babies were moved to a small cardboard box, and placed near a space heater. Now, I’ve become so attached to these tame sweethearts, that I probably will never sell them. That's a risk when you hand feed!

Have a SAFE and SANE New Year's Eve.

Remember, you don't need alcohol to have a good time.

God Bless and Protect you and yours through 2011!

More on Incubation – What We Did Wrong

I researched incubation of eggs and decided that, although the maintenance temperature for our Bourke parakeet eggs was okay, when they started piping they required more humidity than what was provided. This is likely why they were unable to hatch. I wish I’d acquired this information sooner. However, in the future if fertile eggs are laid on the bottom of a cage, or abandoned, this knowledge will be put to good use!

The average incubation period for parakeet eggs is 19 days from the day the egg is laid. However, 18-21 days is also common. Temperature is very important during incubation. Temperature can vary between the top and bottom of an egg, so turning them about five times every 24 hours is necessary. Overnight can be eliminated, but be sure to turn them late and early again the next morning. Never leave them with the small end up. Eggs should either be placed large end up or on their side. Turn eggs on a 90-degree plane as gently as possible. If they are not turned regularly, chicks may stick to the inside of their shells. Turning should continue until one or two days prior to hatching or until the eggs are piping.

For the eggs’ first week, the temperature should be 101 Degrees Fahrenheit, then 102 Degrees F for the second week, and 103 Degrees F until hatching. If you’re fortunate enough to have a large commercial forced-air incubator where turning is not required, the temperature can be kept at 99-100o F. However, most of us do not have access to that state-of-the-art equipment.

Eggs lose water while being incubated, so humidity is key. For optimum growth, a relative humidity of 60 percent should be maintained until eggs begin to pip. Then relative humidity should be raised to 70 percent. A pan of water is imperative; however, it may not be enough. In such instances, suspending a piece of cloth from the water will provide wick action.

To gauge relative humidity, wrap a wet cotton cloth around the bulb of a thermometer and suspend it in the hatching chamber. With evaporation, the “wet” bulb thermometer will have a temperature lower than that of a dry bulb thermometer in the same chamber.

Ventilation is important too. The older the egg, or the larger number of eggs present, the more oxygen will be used by the developing embryos. Also, more carbon dioxide is released. Ventilation capability must be incorporated in the incubator area.

Testing for fertile, viable eggs: When a hen suddenly died, I removed the eggs from her nest box, expecting the embryos to be dead too. However, I gently put them in a bowl of warm water. One sank and the others floated. I assumed the floaters were no good and discarded them. The one that sank went under another hen and ultimately hatched.

Newly laid eggs will display red veins if they’re fertile. These should appear very soon, but I’d give the eggs a few days before discarding any. If, after a few days, you shine a flashlight through the shell and all you see is clear liquid and a yellow yolk, the eggs weren’t fertilized. I tend to let my hens sit on them anyway, until the hen decides to abandon them, but that’s a personal choice. Maybe they’d go back and lay good eggs sooner if the infertile eggs were removed.

Incubating eggs may seem complicated, but consider the fact that the Chinese developed artificial incubation as early as 246 B.C. And, in the year 400 B.C. Aristotle wrote about Egyptians placing eggs in dung heaps and successfully incubating them. Personally, I’d rather use a light bulb and thermometers.

Happy incubating and good luck!

Egg Results...

It would seem that the little guys in the eggs being incubated weren't strong enough to make it out of their shells. Sad. I heard pipping from an egg at one point, and was optimistic, although it didn't seem very loud. I thought perhaps the bird needed more time to peck its way out.  By next morning the pipping had stopped and pessimism took over. I wondered if I should help it out of the shell, but everything I'd read said to never "help" a bird hatch. If I had helped, and it had died, I would have blamed myself.

These two eggs had a rocky start, perhaps leaving the babies weak and unable to get out of their shells on their own. I'm inexperienced at incubating eggs ... this was the first try. However, the incubator will be kept and used again with any other abandoned eggs that appear to be fertile. Maybe next time... God willing.

It was fascinating to see the baby birds move in their shells. If only ...

Meanwhile, our handfed youngsters, the "fabulous four," are still doing well. They're beautiful, tame and happy.

Incubated Eggs...

As an update... The two eggs are still moving inside and alive. Whether they hatch or not will depend upon the strength of the babies. Since the eggs were allowed to cool under three different hens before being moved to an incubator, that could have weakened the babies. By my calculations, one egg should hatch by today and the other next week. However, the cooling off periods may have delayed development. I'm still hopeful!

As promised ... here's the high tech egg candling device that's highly successful at determining the viability of an egg. Smile. A high-powered flashlight and a toilet paper roll insert with duct tape over one end. Cut a hole small enough to lay the egg on without allowing it to fall through. Shine flashlight into the open end of the toilet paper roll insert. Did I really need to tell you that? Hold onto the egg so that it doesn't fall off! Probably didn't need to tell you that either.

Homemade Egg Incubator ...

Problem: An egg-bound hen with two abandoned fertile eggs. She’s fine now, and I’ll review how we helped her lay that egg in another blog.

Solution: Incubate them. Whoops, no incubator. That problem was solved in 15 minutes. Here’s how we made a still-air incubator – one without a ventilation fan.

First we gathered our materials: an unused Cockatiel nest box, a piece of sturdy welded wire, a small thermometer, a glass dish for water, a large washer, nuts, and an electrical light socket with cord.

Next, hubby drilled a hole through the side of the box at the proper height for the light socket’s shaft. After fitting the shaft through, he put on a large washer and tightened it down with a nut. We screwed in a 25 Watt bulb, folded some aluminum foil, and put it under the bulb to reflect the heat into the box. The glass dish holds water. It will evaporate and help keep the air around the eggs moist.

With the basics in place, he cut the welded wire to size and folded it to form a “floor” above the bulb and attached the thermometer to the back wall of the box. Then we added a “nest” — a small cardboard box with tissue padding. And the egg’s new home was ready!

We plugged in the bulb and let the box pre-heat before placing the eggs. We’ve found that the thermometer reads a consist 98 degrees…just about right. We developed several hi-tech solutions to achieve optimal temperature. If the temperature is a little too low, move the box closer to the bulb. If it’s too high move the box away from the bulb. If the incubator overheats, raise the lid slightly and stick a pencil in to hold it up. The more heat you need to dissipate, the further back you put the pencil.

And that’s it. In about 15 minutes we had our handy-dandy still-air incubator. Say a prayer for our eggs. I can see movement when I candle them. (On my next post I’ll show you our hi-tech egg candling device. I’ll also let you know how this grand experiment turns out.)