My silly chicken

[TweeTea]

lol I know what you mean, I must have put the eggs to my ear a hundred times listening for pipping. I managed to hear the internal pipping but missed the rock'n'rolling and the outer pip and zip.

I also have cockatiels inside who are learning how to be parents. The pair hatched one chick and the dad did all the feeding and raising, then while the chick was still in the nest they started another clutch lol. Now the female is trying to make up for lost time and they fight to be the feeder. The poor chick is getting force fed so much food it looks like it might explode!

 

[Kleonaptra]

I cant say Ive ever put an egg to my ear! I have a very powerful stethoscope I use for the horses and Ive tried to use that but its very hard to keep my hand still, and noises I thought for sure were tapping were actually minute movements of the scope on the shell.

I took five dark eggs today and made a sort of brooder/incubater. Its a big plastic tub and I sit the heat lamp on top so theres warmth but the heat cant build up in there. I sprinkle them with warm water to keep the humidity up. The one I think might be moving has changing dark shadows on it, which might mean something is alive, but maybe not. I dont have much hope, but in prev years I only had 2 ducks that didnt lay much so every egg was nerve wracking, now its not so bad as the girls are continously laying fertile eggs so I know Ive got more chances. Im very proud of my drake, he was a home hatch, eggs rescued from a land clearing site. He was very lucky to hatch and has always been a little slow so its very exciting for me to see him doing all the right Daddy Duck stuff.

Ah the murky waters of breeding parrots...I did that years ago. I have 2 pigeons trying desperately to breed, they only managed to hatch one squab this year after about 4 years of failure. Poor little guy didnt make it as they had trampled him. Im still trying, found a perfect egg shell last clutch but no squab, found out that a rat has been taking them! Ive set traps but the wily thing wont touch them.

 

[TweeTea]

what do you bait your trap with? I have found stale bread (holds onto the trap really securely) or hard cheese with peanut butter is quite irresistible for vermin. They are quite cluey though the cheeky sods and may figure out that thig big metal jawed snappy thing = bad. I wonder if changing how it looks would make a difference, like painting it a different colour/s?

I am really hoping your eggies hatch! If you have them under a heating lamp you might want to cover them with a bit of sand, I think that helps dissipate the heat evenly I tried to finish off incubating a couple in my bra but they had stopped developing at 2 weeks so my last 3 days were futile - but I did read up HEAPS on viability lol. I discovered you can candle, float test, listen, check for movement, cross your fingers, and sit for 3 days with eggs under your boobs lol