FINCHforum

~This thread is in memory of a lost little Green Singer~

Hello Finch Friends.
It was suggested to me that a thread about this subject might be beneficial to other Forum members, so that they don't make the same mistake I did.

A few days ago, I decided that my 3 Green Singer eggs were overdue. I counted the days and came to the conclusion that they should of hatched by now.

Taking them out of the nest, I decided to check them against a bright light to see what was going on. The first egg, was completely clear, nothing in it. The second egg, was dark and opaque. The third egg, fell apart in my hand as I held it to the light.

It contained a tiny Green Singer infant. He was alive and perfectly formed. He moved in my hand, opening and closing his tiny beak, trying to flex his little wings. When the egg shell broke, it had somehow ruptured his yolk sack. It took him a few minutes to die in the palm of my hand...

It broke my heart.

I replaced the dark egg, but it hasn't hatched. The egg that I unintentionally broke, had been the only good egg out of the three, the only live chick baby.

So my finch friends, please leave your overdo eggs for at least a week past their due date. Don't man handle them because you think you know better. Let nature take it's course and leave well enough alone. Had I left that egg alone, by today there would have been a little live baby Green Singer in my pair's sad and chickless nest...

Sorry you are having such a rough week. I know the feeling of losing new born chicks all too well. Please DO NOT beat yourself up about it. Take it as a learning curve, a lesson you are now sharing with everyone to learn from.

On a positive note, you now know that your pair can produce healthy chicks and are good sitters. There is definitely a next time in this story

Hang in there

Dang, this is just not your week, is it!? Thank you for your insight. I will take it to heart.

I almost made the same mistake earlier today. I have all my African pairs sitting on eggs right now (except my pair of male lavenders, lol) and I thought for sure something should have hatched by now. Curiosity was killing me, so I took one of the nests out to check it. Sure enough, there are still viable eggs. I still handled them super carefully with a plastic spoon but could easily have ruined one while candling it. Then, of course, I completely risked the parents abandoning them. And it is this pair's first clutch after having given up on them having one. My firefinches. I was lucky that they resumed sitting after I replaced the nest. That was a face palm moment, and I'll try not to ever do that again. But, I am a human, and you know how we can be....

I have had parrotfinch eggs hatching a week late already. The only explanation that I can think of is that they were not sitting tight during the first few days or that the first few eggs were infertile and eggs laid later were fertile.

This is a good thread. I think we can never read this too many times. Every day I am listening for chicks and thinking "when will they hatch?" "Shouldn't I do something?" And I know the answer is to be patient and leave them alone.

But it's good to be reminded over and over.