Bourkes have eggs

The pair of rosa Bourkes I have in the shed cage have two eggs.  That's Rocky and one of the new bourkes, which is now a proven hen (Rosie).

I hate to admit it but parakeets are more ready to breed when put in cages rather than in the aviary, perhaps they feel more secure. I still prefer them in the aviary.

The other Bourkes are doing nothing after their initial mating activity.  The Rubino cock (that was Rosey) is renamed Pinky.  As for the 'hen', I'll wait until I'm sure of the sex before I give her a name!

Eggs are fertile

I was a little bit premature the other day with Marge's eggs, as the first egg I checked this weekend is indeed fertile. I check the eggs by shining a light through the eggs, if the egg is fertile you can see blood vessels and the blob of the start of an embryo. I didn't bother with the other eggs, as there was no point risking handling them.
I'm still worried about Barneys foot, it's obviously giving him discomfort as he's restricting his flying and tends to lean onto his good foot.  I wish I had a good local avian vet.  Unfortunately general vets have absolutely know idea with birds, but they are very good at taking your money!.
Also Barneys not feeding Marge, which is also a worry. Although I think this is mainly due to Marge not letting him. She's always been a bit of a loner and tends to growl at other birds.  Hopefully things will improve when the eggs hatch.

Infertile eggs

All Marge's eggs look infertile.  I'll leave them until weekend to be certain.

Photo of parakeet in flight

Digital camera's are great. I must have taken over a hundred photo's trying to catch Rudolph flying, most had nothing on (he can fly fast). This was probably the best....

All my bird photo's and Buster (my dog) photo's are at...http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/isparakeet

Sitting..at last

Finger crossed, Marge appears to be now sitting on the eggs full time. She sat last night and has stayed in tonight.  The eggs take 18 days to hatch from the start of incubation, so they should start to hatch on the 4th May. I'll check them next week to see if they are fertile.
I am still a bit concerned about Barney not feeding her, she appears to spend to long off the eggs feeding herself.

Since taking the photo, she's laid another egg. That's seven in total...too many! This probably explains the late sitting. This happened last year with Barneys old mate and all the eggs were infertile.

Goldie is now going in out of the nestbox. The turquosines share the aviary with one pair of the bourkes and I have 3 nest boxes in the aviary for them to choose from. The turqs have been trying them all at the moment.

Usual fustrations

I was hoping to write that Marge had starting sitting on her eggs, as last night she stayed in the nest box.  However, tonight she's not sitting again.  She now has 6 eggs!
Still nothing yet with the other grassparakeets, although one pair of Bourkes have been mating frequently.
If things don't start to improve soon this year I'm seriously considering giving up on grassparakeets altogether and go into keeping another species......the past few years have been just too frustrating and I've had too many loses!