eggs, eggs, and more eggs

rose anne · Post by **rose anne** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:44 pm

Four weeks ago my finches began laying eggs. They laid five and faithfully have been incubating them ever since. I've been told they rarely hatch and you have to throw them out

I was considering doing that soon but realized today (after being laid up with knee surgery for several days) that there are now SEVEN eggs in the nest

Why would they lay more when the first ones haven't hatched yet. Do I throw them all away? Will they just repeat the pattern?
Help?
Rose Anne

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:27 pm

rose anne wrote:Four weeks ago my finches began laying eggs. They laid five and faithfully have been incubating them ever since. I've been told they rarely hatch and you have to throw them out I was considering doing that soon but realized today (after being laid up with knee surgery for several days) that there are now SEVEN eggs in the nest Why would they lay more when the first ones haven't hatched yet. Do I throw them all away? Will they just repeat the pattern?
Help?
Rose Anne

If it were me..... i would toss them all and let them start over. If the others have not hatched in four weeks, they are not going to.
I don't think that you would be able to tell the other two from the first four.
So I would just go ahead and toss them and let them start over. What kind of finches are they?

I don't know why you were told they rarely hatch...... ?

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:04 pm

I gree, just toss them out. If they are zebra finches they will definently have eggs hatch. they have babies all the time. Mine are always trying to lay eggs. I had to throw out 5 new eggs yesterday.

rose anne · Post by **rose anne** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:49 am

Thank you for the responses. They are spice finches and the first finches I've ever owned. I "inherited" them from my son when he and his girlfriend broke up. They had them in a tiny cage and they had never even used the nest until I bought a larger cage and nesting material. I'm really enjoying them but I don't know what I would do with babies. It was the sales person at Petsmart that told me the eggs would never hatch.
It feels cruel to throw the eggs away after all the work they've put into incubating them but I guess that is what I will do.
Thanks!

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:51 pm

rose anne wrote: It feels cruel to throw the eggs away after all the work they've put into incubating them but I guess that is what I will do.
Thanks!

You don't want them to just keep sitting on them when they are not fertile. They will probably just start all over. Good luck!

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