FINCHforum

A week and a half ago we put 6 Gouldian eggs in the Society nest box because the Gouldians have been tossing their chicks. It looks like 5 of the eggs are fertile and the Societies are sitting tight on the eggs, although they didn't the first day. We put them in the nest box the day the Gouldian laid the 6th egg.

We checked the nest box this morning and the female Society has laid two eggs. We have only had these Societies for about 4 weeks so have no experience with their chick raising ability. There are two male Societies and one female in that cage. We did mark the Gouldian eggs before we put them in the nest box.

Can someone give some experience based opinions on what the best options are at this point? Just let things go and see what happens? Remove the Society eggs? We wouldn't mind having a few more Societies for another cage to use them as foster parents because we have 2 other pairs of birds that have not successfully raised chicks (Cordon Bleus and Painteds). The main point was trying to get some Gouldian fledglings.

Not sure what will happen if the Gouldians eggs hatch and then the Society eggs will be still in the nest and won't hatch until 1-2 weeks later.

Andy

Right now, you have 5 fertile Gouldian eggs that are about 10-11 days along. The Society hen may keep laying eggs, so eventually, you may wind up with way too many eggs in the nest.

You can leave things as they are, as there is no way of predicting what will happen. The Societies may feed the Gouldians, and then when the Society eggs start hatching, they would feed them as well. Or they may stop feeding the Gouldians to concentrate on the Society babies. If they feed all the babies, the timing would work out very well, since Society babies wean sooner than Gouldians, so they might all wean at the same time.

Or, you can remove the Society eggs as they are laid (I would guess that the hen will continue to lay eggs). Once the Gouldian eggs hatch, the Societies should start feeding them, and that would stop the egg laying on the part of the Society hen, at least for a time.

Or, you could leave a few Society eggs and remove any additional eggs laid, so that the clutch would stay at a manageable size.

Sally wrote: Right now, you have 5 fertile Gouldian eggs that are about 10-11 days along. The Society hen may keep laying eggs, so eventually, you may wind up with way too many eggs in the nest.

You can leave things as they are, as there is no way of predicting what will happen. The Societies may feed the Gouldians, and then when the Society eggs start hatching, they would feed them as well. Or they may stop feeding the Gouldians to concentrate on the Society babies. If they feed all the babies, the timing would work out very well, since Society babies wean sooner than Gouldians, so they might all wean at the same time.

Or, you can remove the Society eggs as they are laid (I would guess that the hen will continue to lay eggs). Once the Gouldian eggs hatch, the Societies should start feeding them, and that would stop the egg laying on the part of the Society hen, at least for a time.

Or, you could leave a few Society eggs and remove any additional eggs laid, so that the clutch would stay at a manageable size.

Thanks Sally. I think we will wait until this weekend to decide and by then we may know if the Gouldian eggs are going to hatch. We do have a home made incubator that does keep a constant temp. of 93 degrees F so we could also put the Society eggs in that before they hatch and then try hand feeding them.

Just a heads up, incubator temperature for eggs has to be 99.5°F or you risk chilling the eggs too much before they hatch.
Good luck

I agree with Sally as I think she's pretty much covered all you need to know

Incidentally you mentioned that you've got some cordon blues aswell as the painted finches, I don't know what diet you provided for yer cordon blues when trying to breed them but from past experience they will very rarely breed and rear if you don't supply ample live food and the same will also apply for virtually all of the waxbills

Stuart whiting wrote: I agree with Sally as I think she's pretty much covered all you need to know

Incidentally you mentioned that you've got some cordon blues aswell as the painted finches, I don't know what diet you provided for yer cordon blues when trying to breed them but from past experience they will very rarely breed and rear if you don't supply ample live food

We are giving the Cordon Bleus plenty of live mini meal worms and they eat them. They just don't want to feed the chicks when they hatch.

debbie276 wrote: Just a heads up, incubator temperature for eggs has to be 99.5°F or you risk chilling the eggs too much before they hatch.
Good luck

Thanks for that info. I don't think it will go higher than 93. It was put together with hatchlings in mind. Maybe we will have to wait until the Society eggs hatch. Our main focus are the Gouldian eggs first.

I would remove the society eggs, as they are laid, so that the societies only have to deal with the gouldian chicks, when they hatch. If there are 2 different types of chicks in the nest at different stages of growth, things get complicated for both the societies and you.

a_gouldian wrote:

Stuart whiting wrote: I agree with Sally as I think she's pretty much covered all you need to know

Incidentally you mentioned that you've got some cordon blues aswell as the painted finches, I don't know what diet you provided for yer cordon blues when trying to breed them but from past experience they will very rarely breed and rear if you don't supply ample live food

We are giving the Cordon Bleus plenty of live mini meal worms and they eat them. They just don't want to feed the chicks when they hatch.

Oh right ok,

yea I must admit it's probably just the birds in general as all of the blue waxbill family have a tendency to be a bit finicky when it come to breeding, this applies to the cordon blues, blue capped and also blue breasted

Today is hatch day for the Gouldian eggs. So far 3 eggs have hatched. While I was sitting there 2 of the eggs hatched within 15 minutes of each other and I watched 2 of the Societies eat the empty egg shells. It is fun watching the Societies sit and tend to the lively tiny chicks. Tomorrow we will remove a few of the Society eggs, and the next day the rest of them.

If only 3 of the Gouldian (out of 5 eggs) hatch we are wondering whether it is OK to leave a few of the Society eggs in or is it best to remove all the Society eggs. There is about a 8-10 day age difference between when the Gouldian eggs were put in the nest box and when the Society hen started laying eggs. We are thinking it's best to remove the Society eggs even though in the future we would like them to raise a clutch of their own. This is the Societies first time raising a clutch for us.

The problem I see may be the age difference. The gouldian chick's will be much larger and the society chick's may not be able to compete.
Also you will have 2 different looking chick's begging for food, this may be very confusing the the adults.
The society wean earlier then the goulds so personally I would keep the clutch small and let them really feed those gould chick's well for fast growth.

Do let us know what you decide and keep us posted

Agree with Debbie.
Remove the society eggs, so the societies won't get confused, and possibly stop feeding some of the chicks. Stack the odd in your favor by making it as simple as possible.

a_gouldian debbie276 ac12

I agree with Debbie and Gary. I am most worried about the age difference in the unhatched societies and the hatching gouldians.

This is my concern. Multiple Societie babies can hatch at different ages in one nest due to them being a bit more "polite" when feeding. I dont know any other way to describe it.

Gouldian babies are voracious feeders and in my opinion will simply stomp, smash and sit on the new society hatchlings if the age difference is too great.

Congrats on the new babies!

Thanks to all for the input. We removed the Society eggs this morning and left the two unhatched Gouldian eggs in the nest for now. The female did not want to get off the nest the first time I opened the box the she did the second time. I had to wait until one of the males was out of the nest eating because there is no way he would have gotten off the nest except with a push! They are feeding the chicks so it's looking good right now

a_gouldian wrote: Thanks to all for the input. We removed the Society eggs this morning and left the two unhatched Gouldian eggs in the nest for now. The female did not want to get off the nest the first time I opened the box the she did the second time. I had to wait until one of the males was out of the nest eating because there is no way he would have gotten off the nest except with a push! They are feeding the chicks so it's looking good right now

Wish you the best of luck, hope all goes well