FINCHforum

Our Gouldians have six eggs in their nest. I candled them on Saturday and three were fertile. The other three were yellow and clear. One egg hatched this morning. At some point should we remove the eggs that don't hatch, and if so, when? Or do we just leave them.

I leave them. They do no harm. Momma may eat or throw them out.

BUT- for disclosure- I don't meddle with nature's process and only candle eggs when they are many days past the due date. That just in case they are fertile [they never are] and prior to throwing them out.
I could never figure out what useful information is gained by candling eggs prior to the due dates and how one acts on that knowledge. Do you cull infertile eggs prior to the hatch dates?

paul-inAZ wrote: I leave them. They do no harm. Momma may eat or throw them out.

BUT- for disclosure- I don't meddle with nature's process and only candle eggs when they are many days past the due date. That just in case they are fertile [they never are] and prior to throwing them out.
I could never figure out what useful information is gained by candling eggs prior to the due dates and how one acts on that knowledge. Do you cull infertile eggs prior to the hatch dates?

We candled the eggs in the early March clutch because it was 4 days past the due date and they didn't hatch. They were infertile so we removed them. They went through the courtship period immediately for a week and then she started laying eggs again. We wanted to know if any were fertile because of the problem with the first clutch. These are new birds, and they probably are first time parents. We received them from a breeder in Feb. and she said they were a year old.

Hijacking this thread to ask about your stars.
Anything special about keeping them? Are they good community birds with Gouldians? Have you bred them?
Reason I ask is that I'm hoping to find some. No luck locally -yet. Shipping a small number of relatively inexpensive birds is prohibitively expensive and it will soon be too hot down here to do that safely anyway.

paul-inAZ wrote: Hijacking this thread to ask about your stars.
Anything special about keeping them? Are they good community birds with Gouldians? Have you bred them?
Reason I ask is that I'm hoping to find some. No luck locally -yet. Shipping a small number of relatively inexpensive birds is prohibitively expensive and it will soon be too hot down here to do that safely anyway.

We just got our Stars in March. They built their own nest and did not use the nesting box provided. I think there are eggs in there but there nest is a dense globe of coconut husk so we can not see in it. They are not fussy eaters and eat well. They are in there own breeders flight cage so I have not idea how they would get along with our other birds. We also found a broken egg from the nest on the floor of the cage. Not sure what went on with that egg.

I have two eggs from my Zebra pair that were laid 11 and 12 days ago, and I'm pretty sure the only time they've been sat on is at night. Also, they are underneath the nest, so I'm sure they won't hatch. I'm planning on taking them out in about 5 days, just to be sure. But when I do, do I want to clean out all the nesting materials as well, or just take the eggs out?

platypus777 If you want them to continue breeding, you can just take out the eggs and let them try again. If you don't want them to breed, then you will need to remove the nest.