Do I remove the eggs?

[JNZ]

I put a pair of Society finches together (first time breeding finches) and they laid 3 eggs and have been incubating them for 16 days. They were laid 24th, 25th, and 28th August. A fourth was laid on the 26th but I found it on the opposite side of the cage, on the floor, broken. I think the hen is young as I purchased her at a bird show 6-8 weeks ago so I'm not surprised her first time hasn't been successful.

All of the eggs look dark (no candling required) so does that mean they aren't going to hatch? My biggest question is do I take the eggs away or will they toss them out if they aren't going to hatch? They have a canary nest as they completely ignored the wooden nestbox I tried to give them. I've read so many different incubation periods for Societies that I'm not quite sure at what point to give up on them.

[cindy]

try them in an ABBA nest box or an open faced nest box or a bamboo covered canary nest...watch their nails on the wicker. The bowl type nests may not hold a large clutch of babies

I would give them a few more days, I usually give them an extra 5 days... you could when the hen sits constantly usually around the 3rd or 4th egg incubation takes place.

If dark they maybe close to hatching. The incubation time could vary based on when she started sitting tight not when the eggs were laid.

[Sally]

Your questions have already been answered, but I wanted to welcome you to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on finch care.

[JNZ]

Thanks Cindy - I love that open faced nestbox. I'm in New Zealand and our selection of nestboxes that we can get here isn't fantastic, but I'm sure my husband could build me one. The canary basket they are in is plastic with a coconut fibre liner in it, but I can see what you mean about not having a huge amount of room for growing babies.

One of the eggs has a huge air cell (it takes up half the egg) so I'm not holding out much hope for that one but it would be nice if one hatched. I am slightly worried that because they are inside near our fireplace (and spring is just starting in my neck of the woods so we still use it) that the humidity might not be high enough for the eggs. But we shall see and I'm sure they will try again for me.

Thanks for the welcome Sally. I'm sure I'll be learning a lot as I find my way around this site.

[Shannylee]

JNZ, if you put a bath in for them, that helps with the humidity issue. Good luck with your eggs