The Eggs Arrived

The four eggs arrived yesterday.

Egg #1 had a pinprick-sized hole in it, and the contents were runny. I doubt the egg is any good, but I carefully patched it with a dab of Elmer's glue.

Eggs #2 and #3 had apparently been shaken up a bit too much along the way. They both have tiny air bubbles in them. Most birdkeepers say that eggs with air bubbles won't hatch, but a few have been successful. Also, both of the eggs' yolks seemed to be all the way in one end of the egg, as if the yolks had settled there. I'm not holding my breath on these.

Egg #4 didn't have tiny air bubbles, but again, the yolk seemed to have settled in one end of the egg. I feel like, if any hatch, it'll be Egg #4, but I'm not feeling very optimistic about any of them.

I moved the zebra eggs out from under my incubating societies, and replaced them with the four English zebra eggs. The other zebra eggs were moved to my "sort of incubating" pair of societies, one of which seems to be fully incubating now.

My other trio of societies' eggs should be hatching within a week or so, if not sooner. I tried to peek in the nest yesterday, but one of the hens flat refused to budge even when I raised the cage door (it's only inches from the nest). She bowed up at me with a threatening glare, and and DARED me to reach in. ROFL! I stopped immediately of course so I wouldn't upset her, but she sure was telling me a thing or two! he he Maybe I can catch her off the nest in the morning so I can get a quick peek of the eggs' status. Last time I candled them, two were good, and the others were too soon to tell either way.

Getting Male Society Finch Pairs/Trios To Foster

As mentioned in my previous post, I've got 3 society finch male pairs and trios setting up to foster. It's been hilarious watching their reactions to my adding an egg into their nests approximately once a day.

They'll both be singing (only the males can sing), when suddenly one of them will notice the egg. He'll fly to the edge of the nest, peer in, and turn his head every which way to study the new strange white object.

Then he seems to realize what it is. I imagine their conversation goes something like this:

DUDE!!! You told me you were MALE!!!

I *am* male!!! Didn't you hear me singing a minute ago?

But I didn't lay this egg. It had to be YOU! You've been lying to me! You're a female!

No, dude. You've got it all wrong. And besides, I KNOW I didn't lay that egg, therefore, it must've been YOU. You're the fibber!

Let's go study it, and maybe we can figure it out. If you didn't do it, and I didn't do it, there's gotta be a girl in here somewhere.

Okay, let's go.

(Both fly to the edge of the nest.)

See? Look. There's an egg.

Hey, you're right. But I swear I didn't do it!

Me neither. There must be a girl in here.

Not unless she's invisible, dude!

That must be it. She's invisible. (rolls eyes sarcastically)

What are we going to do about the egg?

I don't know. Let's ignore it for now and see what happens.

(Next day ...)

DUDE!!! There's another egg! You told me you were MALE!!!

(Repeat the same conversation for 3-5 days.)

Well, now there's 4 eggs in here. We can't just ignore them. That's not right. Our invisible girlfriend will be upset with us.

Okay, well, let's try sitting on them.

Ooof. Not very comfortable. And they're cold on my bum!

They'll get warm. Just stay put.

I'm hungry.

Well, go get some food, and I'll sit while you're eating. Then we can swap out.

Okay.

(Fast forward 14 days)

DUDE!!! There's a pink wiggly thing in here, and one of the eggs is missing! Did you take the egg, and swap it for this little alien?

;-)

This Is Going To Be Interesting ...

Occasionally members of a finch-related forum I belong to trade eggs. This gives everyone new bloodlines for only the cost of postage. The "catch" is that you have to have a foster pair or trio already incubating fake eggs, and swap them out for the real eggs as soon as they arrive. I'd mentioned that I'd like to have some eggs in the future, but that I didn't have any to trade right now, so I didn't really think much else of it.

Over the weekend, by total coincidence, I started setting up 2 pairs and 1 trio of my society finches to foster some abandoned zebra finch eggs. I've added a total of 4 eggs over 3-1/2 days, which simulates a hen's egg-laying pattern. The pairs and trio are all males, which is ideal because, since there's no hen, there are no additional eggs to deal with. Supposedly it can sometimes take males a bit longer to start incubation, but they're supposed to start within a few days. As of right now, I'm still waiting for them to SIT. One pair is thinking seriously about it. The other pair is "on the fence". And the trio wants nothing to do with the nest as of yet.

Well, someone from the forum e-mailed me two days ago and said he had some eggs to send me. I went ahead and agreed, since a) there's time for the male pairs and trio to start incubating, and b) as backup, I have another trio (M/F/F) in my bird room already incubating some foster eggs, and I'm 99% sure those eggs are all duds. I gave him my address so he could see how much shipping would be, thinking I had 3-4 days at least, by the time I paid him and he shipped the eggs via Priority Mail.

He e-mailed me yesterday.

He's already shipped them.

Via Express/Overnight Mail.

They'll be here today.

Gads. Where I can I put them???

I remembered that my "already on eggs" trio is incubating likely-dud zebra eggs, and thought, "That's where I'll put the new eggs!" Yay! So I went to candle them to be sure, and to my surprise, the societies have laid some eggs of their own in addition to the foster eggs. Gads.

The eggs aren't just normal eggs. They're English Zebra Finch eggs. English zebras are about twice the size of normal zebras, and are rare around here. I really don't want to lose them.

Unless my "sort of sitting" pair decides to put their l'il bottoms in the nest and KEEP them there, it looks like my "already on eggs" trio may end up incubating a double/mixed clutch. That's risky, because sometimes when birds see that some of the chicks are different-looking, they'll toss or abandon some or all of them.

I *may* replace the new society eggs from the "already on eggs" pair with the English zebra eggs, and move the society eggs to the nest of the "sort of sitting" pair, and cross my fingers and toes that they'll take over. None of the society eggs have candled as being viable as of yet, but it IS early.

Feels like I'm playing a game of "Musical Eggs"! :-/

Allergic! :-/

Well, apparently I've developed an allergy to cockatiels ... or at least, to cockatiels' feet! Every time I hold Storm, my hand breaks out in itchy red blotches. They go away after a couple of hours, but still. :-/

Edited 6/2/12 to add:  We've ended up having to find another home for the cockatiel.  The red splotches were getting to the point where I couldn't get him out of the cage at all, and with Robert working 12-hour shifts, the poor birdie wasn't getting much attention.  :-(  He's living with my sister and her husband now, so we can still see him whenever we want.  She's got a 12-year-old son who's had previous bird experience, so we feel like it's a good match.

Some New Pics

Above: Powder. Poor little thing and his/her brother got plucked by their dad the day they fledged. They're both re-growing the feathers, and will be beautiful again soon. :-)



Above: Storm in flight.



Above: Cloud in flight.



Above: Cloud in flight again.



Above: Storm



Above: Ash and Powder (the siblings that were plucked)



Above: Domino



Above: Cloud again



Above: Blizzard

It's Been Awhile!

I've been soooo busy that I haven't had a chance to update my birdie blog. There hasn't been a WHOLE lot going on, bird-wise, but I do have one new youngster from Onyx and Blackie, hatched about 10 days ago. I also got some new birds at the Chattanooga Bird Fair a couple of weeks ago ... a male and female crested zebra, a couple of female zebras with unusual coloring, and some society females. I'll try to get some photos and add them to my "Meet My Birds" page soon. :-)

Patches and Sugar's two youngsters are doing okay. They're fully weaned now, and they're re-growing their feathers. Patches plucked them one day while we were asleep. Needless to say, we moved him to his own cage right away so that Sugar could finish raising the youngsters in peace. The two youngsters are Powder (white; gender unknown as of yet) and Ash (normal pied; male I think).

The new birds from the bird fair include Sandy (fawn pied female), Tawny (silver pied female), Copper (recessive silver female), Kristy (crested black cheek female), and Alfalfa (crested male).

I've also had a few pairs to have mishaps with their eggs, mostly young females who haven't quite gotten the hang of laying the egg IN THE NEST rather than letting it drop from the perch (splat!). After 2 or 3 dropped eggs, usually the hen figures out that she should put the egg in the nest, but usually they won't incubate a single egg. I've been gathering the single eggs, and have a whole little mixed-up clutch under one of my society trios. So far they're incubating their little hearts out. :-)

I've got another society trio on eggs of their own. They're also incubating very nicely.