Bean and Winston

[Aquaseafoam]

Bean has started laying too!
There are some details from the beginning in this thread http://talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?t=36362

I'm not quite sure on Bean's mutation, i'll try to get some better pictures of her wings soon.

The Father is probably Winston (T2YF skyblue dilute opaline) but possibly Demetri (olive green spangle split to rec. pied.)
Demetri will be the caretaker of the chicks anyway, and he and Winston are already doing a good job of standing by their ladies outside of the box waiting for instruction.. or something ;)

March 10
Boxes introduced

March 23
Bean's first egg laid

March 25
2nd egg laid

March 27
3rd egg laid

March 29
4th egg laid

March 31
5th egg laid

first egg expected to hatch April 10th or 11th :budgie:

[Zeena]

LOL.....the chicks may need paternity tests done in this case :laughing:
Anyways, this must be so exciting! i cannot wait until all the eggs are laid and the hatching starts :)
Good luck!

[Aquaseafoam]

I know, I can't wait to see what they look like!
I guess if there are spangles then Demetri he has to be the father.

[enicol6]

I foresee a little Maury Povich in the future. Do you see this babies cheek flecks...THOSE ARE YOUR CHEEK FLECKS!. Do you see the marking on the wings?!?!?! Tell him Maury, tell him!!!!!!!

Congrats on both sets :):)

[Aquaseafoam]

Good news!
I witnessed Demetri and Bean mating today, looks like i'll have more spangle babies afterall :)

Which brings me to this... since they mate throughout the laying period- does this mean different males can father the chicks? I would think it does.

[enicol6]

Yes. If you have them together, there can be more then one father.

[Aquaseafoam]

It seems as though all but Bean's last egg are infertile.
None of hers have hatched so far but the last egg looks different than the other 4, so I have hopes that it contains a growing chick!
the first four are darker and kinda of translucent, the last is an opaque white. I have not candled them though.

I'll plan on moving one of her duds over to Violet's nest box to help support the last chick so that it doesn't get trampled. If she proves to be as good of a mother as Violet I may move one or two chicks to her nest box as well to ease Violet's load.

[Aquaseafoam]

April 18th
Bean egg #5 (the last one) hatched today! It was the only fertile one. Really excited she had one hatch. Hope Demetri is the father:)

She is also now fostering one of Violet's chicks, one of the older ones.

[Guthwulf]

Once all the chicks have hatched it can be beneficial to balance out the nests. Combine the chicks, then split them evenly between both nests so that each pair is nursing a good amount of chicks. Try to put the oldest half of the chicks together in one nest, and the youngest together in the other nest.

Most birds should readily accept fosters without even blinking twice! Best of luck!