Lovebird Hen and her Eggs

[jack300s]

Hello,

I have a pair of Lovebirds. The female laid an egg in the bottom of the cage. I took it out and threw it away. I went out and brought a nest and the materials for the lovebirds. They have now laid five eggs in the nest. The first egg was laid 19 days ago, and the other every other day since.

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can answer for me.

What is the normal time a hen spends actually sitting on the eggs? During the day mine will spend about 30 minutes and then come out of the nest for about 4 or 5 minuties and eat a little, sometimes play with a toy and her mate, then goes back in the nest box. It seems to me that she's not spending enough time on the eggs?

I heard it takes anywhere from 21 to 25 days for the eggs to start hatching (if fertile). Is that date from the first egg?

Thanks
Jack

[linda040899]

Hi and welcome to Lovebirds Plus Community! We are very glad you've chosen to join us here. :)

Tell us a little bit about your pair of lovebirds. Are they Peachfaced, Fischer's, Masked? How old are they? Were they a proven pair when you got them?

Most hens will sit very tightly on their eggs once they start incubating them. As hatch time draws nearer (approx 23 days from the day the egg was laid, which includes the day the egg was laid), you may find her out of the box a bit more but normally, she depends on her mate for food. The eggs will hatch every other day, in the order in which they were laid.

Have you candled the eggs to see if any are fertile?

[jack300s]

Hi and welcome to Lovebirds Plus Community! We are very glad you've chosen to join us here. :)

Tell us a little bit about your pair of lovebirds. Are they Peachfaced, Fischer's, Masked? How old are they? Were they a proven pair when you got them?

Most hens will sit very tightly on their eggs once they start incubating them. As hatch time draws nearer (approx 23 days from the day the egg was laid, which includes the day the egg was laid), you may find her out of the box a bit more but normally, she depends on her mate for food. The eggs will hatch every other day, in the order in which they were laid.

Have you candled the eggs to see if any are fertile?


Hi Linda,

Thank you for the warm welcome...

Both are Peachface lovebirds about a year old. The hen is a Orange Headed Green Opaline and the male is a White Faced Violet.

The female is my lovebird and the male is my granddaughters. We would put them together to play, and they have always gotten along very well. About six weeks ago my granddaugther asked me to take care of her loverbird while she was out of town. We decided to put them together in the same cage. I guess they became a little to friendly.....

I have not checked the eggs with a candle. I just decided to leave them alone and see what happens.

The female seems to come out of the cage about every 20-30 minutes. She'll eat and drink and play a little and go back in the nest box (about 4-5 minutes). She also comes out of the nest box if she hears my voice or when i feed and water them.....

Any help or information would be appreciated....

Thanks
Jack

[Chickobee]

Yes, it does sound as if these birds have been very friendly! :rofl:

Candling is an outdated term from when the light from a candle was used to see if eggs were developing. Please don't use that method!

The easiest way to check is to use a penlight flashlight to see what is happening inside the egg. An infertile egg will be translucent and show no red veining or a dark area which would be the developing chick.

Even infertile eggs should be left in the nest because the hen will need to sit on them until she abandons them in order to prevent her from laying more to replace them.

Also, if some eggs are fertile and some are not, the infertile eggs will help to give the babies something to rest against and prevent the parents from leaning too hard on tiny babies, although they are very careful.

The eggs will hatch in the order they were layed. If some are infertile there will be gaps in the hatching sequence. There is some variation in the length of time it takes for an egg to hatch, and especially if the hen is not sitting on the eggs continuously. They can still be viable, but may take a little longer.

Sometimes the first two eggs will hatch on the same day because some hens do not begin to incubate their eggs until the second or even the third egg is laid.

An example of this is with chickens. They will lay approximately twelve eggs, one a day, and then begin to incubate them all at the same time. This way all of the chicks hatch on the same day. I've even read about lovebird breeders who will replace each egg with a fake egg and then put all of them back in the nest when the clutch is complete. Then all of the babies would hatch on the same day or within two days. (I'm not advocating this. I just thought it was interesting. I still think Mother Nature knows best.)

Lovebirds are generally very good parents so no intervention is needed. It is still a good idea to peek into the nestbox at least once a day to see what is happening.

[Dave_K.]

A follow on note.... you need to leave dad with the family as he is responsible for feeding all of the chicks and mom.

[jack300s]

WOW, thank you all for the great information.......

They laid the first egg on the bottom of the cage on Aug 1st. I took that one out the threw it away. I put in the nest box and she laid on Aug 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th.

BTW, I've noticed she is staying in the nest box more today.

With the hen being a orange headed green opaline and the male a white faced violet, What the heck color with the chicks be? My granddaughter thinks they'll be this strange color? lol

I also read somewhere that birds breeding this young (year old) might be to young? Any thoughts?

Also, I was thinking if the the eggs don't hatch. I should take the nest box out and let them get a little older? I'm a little worried that she'll start all over again?

Jack

[linda040899]

In lovebird genetics, there are green series birds and blue series birds. Your hen is green series, while your male if blue series. Green is dominant over blue. Translated, that means that unless your hen is invisibly carrying the gene for blue, all babies will be green series. All babies will inherit the gene for Whiteface Blue from dad and Orangeface from mom. You will know a lot more if any of the eggs is fertile and there are babies.

When/if there are babies, green series ones will have orangish colored down. Blue series babies will have greyish white down. Yes, you can tell that much at a very, very young age.

Since mom is a visual Opaline, all males will inherit the gene for Opaline from mom but you won't see any Opalines unless dad happens to be carrying an Opaline gene from one of his parents.

Hope I haven't confused you too badly. Let's not get too far ahead and see if any of the eggs is fertile.