FINCHforum

My shaft tails have an egg at the entrance of their nest and it looks like they are trying to shovel it out of the nest? Does this mean it is infertile and should I just let it fall and take it away? Or should I put it back in the nest?

FINCHIE wrote:My shaft tails have an egg at the entrance of their nest and it looks like they are trying to shovel it out of the nest? Does this mean it is infertile and should I just let it fall and take it away? Or should I put it back in the nest?

I would put it back in the nest.

Put it back in

It could have accidently rolled out while the parents were leaving, just give it a nice little nudge in and hopefully all goes well. Good luck with your Shafttails!

Well I tried to push it back into the nest, using a stick with a cotton wool ball on the end but the egg broke straight away... It was full of a yellow substance, does this mean it was infertile? They don't seem to be sitting on the nest anymore? I can't see what else is in there...

Well if it broke and it was all yolk it doesn't necessarily mean that the egg was infertile, it's just in the wee stages of forming into a chick. If they're not sitting on the nest at all you could take a peek to see what's in there. If there are more eggs then you can candle them to see what's in there (if they're all infertile or if there were some that were fertile). Let us know how many eggs you find if any...keep us updated!

Ow no so it might have been fertile....

I am really bad at checking, I get scared they will abandon the nest and also it is a real pain to get to... its up in the peaked roof of my aviary.

Last time I went to check on these two I got up there and one was still sitting in there and he shot out and almost hit me in the face...

Will it be O.K if I just leave it ??? They have built up a ridge around the nest so the only way it could have got there was if they intentionally pushed it out???

if it was me, I would leave them alone and let nature run its course. make a note on a calendar as to when you think the eggs were laid. then depending upon what species of finch is in that nest wait say 3 weeks. if there are any babies you should be able to hear them begging for food. at this time you must still resist the temptation to peek. young should fledge around 3 to 4 weeks. only time I will look in a nest now days is when the parents appear to have not been near it for a few days. that doesn't however mean that there are no young cos we cant watch our birds all day (if only we could)