Very strange egg occurance!

[ml830]

First of all, sorry I joined the forum and then haven't been back since that first few days. I have been so busy!!!

My husband sneaked a peek at my mama birds and there were 16 eggs about 2 weeks ago. He got a good tongue lashing from me for scaring them, and won't go near them any more. (hehe) They started laying on the 17th or 18th. But anyway, back to the subject. Tonight I noticed the daddy was still awake after 7pm which is unusual. I looked at the water bath bowl I have for them and there was an egg in it!!! I grabbed it out and half of it was gone, and there was a partially formed baby inside. What's up with that? I have heard nothing out of the nest which is covered with a dark cloth, and we haven't seen inside it since my husband scared them that day. Anyone know if we should expect babies and why the egg was in the water?

[dcompt]

Are all those eggs in one nest? If so it must be very full. I wonder if it could have been accidentally pulled out of the nest by a bird leaving it. Would its trajectory in that case possibly land it in the water?

How many birds are attending these eggs? Are they societies? If so, I think you should take a look inside the nest and see what's going on. Obviously at least some of the eggs are fertile. You should check to see if any are hatching, are if any others are broken. Societies usually don't get too fussed about occasional nest checks. I don't know about zebras in that regard. Other species, from what I read here, need to be left alone.

Others with more experience will be able to give you more advice.

[ml830]

Thank you, Donna. There are 3 girls and one male and they're usually on the nest at least 2 or 3 at a time. Most of the time, only one girl comes out at a time to eat.

The water is not close to the nest at all. I have it on the other side of the cage, which is 30 inches long. That's why it seems so strange to me. I wonder if it got crushed because of too many eggs? and maybe the male started eating the shell and took it to the water bowl? I'm at a loss of what to do because I don't have another nesting area for them. There is another nest underneath it in case anything falls out, but so far, nothing has. I'll peek in tomorrow to see what's going on.

I've been in the process of building another aviary? Not sure if you could call it that. I bought a piece of furniture from Goodwill and have been making a large area for them all to live once the babies are old enough to leave their nest, if any are born. I'm hoping everything is okay with them.

[Sally]

All three hens are probably laying eggs. With that many eggs, not all of them may hatch. If some of them are pushed to the side, they would get chilled and not continue to develop. If all of them do hatch, chances are that some of the babies will get squashed in the nest. The egg you found in the water could have been dragged out of the nest by one of the adult birds by accident. The other possibility is that it was DIS (dead in shell), and one of the adults removed it from the nest.

I once had a community of Gouldians in a cage, and two hens shared one nest. They laid 13 eggs (it was quite a roomy wooden box). Of the 13, 11 hatched out, but I soon found 7 dead tossed babies. They fed and raised the remaining 4. My thinking is that they were overwhelmed by so many babies, so they tossed down to a reasonable number? Who knows. But since yours are Societies, they may very well try to feed and raise all of them. There just might not be enough room in the nest.

[dcompt]

You could candle the eggs and remove any infertile ones. That would clear out the nest a little.

What kind of nest do you have for them? If it's a bamboo nest, it will definitely be too small. The only clutch I allowed, when I had a female by accident, was five and by the time they were ready to fledge, it was a real squeeze in there for the chicks and parents. I didn't expect her to lay that many first time around and didn't expect them to all be fertile. That's what I get for expecting, right?

[ml830]

The nest I have is a small wicker backet/bowl. Since they all love to sleep in the same area, I got one that would fit them all comfortably. I feel like a terrible bird owner! I don't want any to die. I may try to candle them, but I know it will scare the birds quite a bit. I'll figure somethiing out. Thanks!

[dcompt]

You are not a terrible bird owner. Birds will be birds and suddenly you had eggs you just weren't expecting or prepared for, and with three females, you are getting a bumper crop. Just do the best you can.

I wouldn't worry too much about disturbing societies. When mine were sitting, I would have to physically boot them out of the nest to check. I didn't do it often, and it made them mad, but they went right back in when I was finished. With four birds, even if some are edgy about returning to the nest, which doesn't seem likely, you are bound to have one at least that will go right back to take care of the eggs or young, and then it's monkey see - monkey do and the others will follow. Societies are intensely focused parents and not much deters them. With so many eggs, you really need to see what's happening, and if some can be eliminated, it will help the parents in the end.

Just take a deep breath. You and the your birds will get through this!

[ml830]

I thought I replied...maybe it's in cyberspace, or my looniness is coming out! I checked the nest and there are now 10 eggs. That's crazy. Maybe they ate the bad ones? At any rate, 10 is much better. I've been preparing a new cage, so if there are babies coming, I'll move them all in about a month or so when they are ready to be moved.

[dcompt]

Sounds good. I hope you have lots of beautiful babies!

[ml830]

Okay, so I checked Saturday and today, the 17th, and there are 9 eggs. There was another partially open egg on the floor of their nesting area. There were 10 on the 9th, and 16 on Feb. 28th. Should I assume these are not going to hatch? One looks like it was smashed in just a tiny bit. It's not a baby coming out, because the shell is indented in. Any suggestions? Will they roll the eggs out of the nest, or just keep sitting on them?

[Colt]

They will do both. It's very hard to breed societies when there are multiple birds in a cage. Even if you provide multiple nesting sites they will probably all lay in a communal nest anyway. Incubation will be inconsistent (generally speaking) as some hens will continue to lay while others are dutifully sitting trying to be full-time moms. This will cause problems because the hatch dates of the eggs will be all over the place and as new eggs get layed older eggs get pushed out as the hens have trouble covering all the eggs. It also decreases the likelihood that any of the eggs will be consistently incubated to hatching.

I'd recommend separating them into pairs or else pull all the eggs, mark the first 5-6 lightly with a pencil and then remove any new eggs layed.

[ml830]

Thanks, Colt. I will be moving all the birds to a new house today, so they're really going to be mad at me. I'll move the eggs and hope that they go back to them and then see what happens.

[Colt]

I'd toss all the eggs and start over if you're moving them into a new cage. After they lay five or six new eggs mark those and toss any new additions to the nest. They should be able to pull off hatching a few of the eggs then.

[dcompt]

I think that's a good idea. I agree with Colt. If they are moved, they'll probably be too agitated to carry on with proper nesting duties anyway. I think a fresh start would be better.

[ml830]

I moved them and took the eggs which were probably at least 3 weeks old. All were fertilized but one, but they were old. So, now my dilema is getting them to go into their nest boxes to sleep. I've had them for almost three months, sleeping all piled up in a nest on one of the branches I put in their cage, and now they're afraid to go into the box. Any suggestions on that??? They've (we've) had a traumatic day. I moved them to a scary new place, took their eggs, and totally changed their sleeping habit. They're all perched on one of the perches I provided for them, sleeping. I feel really stressed and guilty. Another thing, how in the world do people catch their finches to cut their nails? Mine totally freak out when I put my hand in the cage, even though I talk to them frequently and try to get them used to me. I do know that they know when I put snacks in, because they all flock to the bowl after I leave the snack and close the cage door. Help!