parakeet eggs

Question
Hi. My girlfriend's parakeet laid 5 eggs between Aug 30th and Sept 6th. She (the parakeet) has been on the nest for most of the time ever since and seems to be fed often my her younger mate, although he usually pesters her when she emerges to feed herself. How long should the brooding take before a hatchling, and then what? I would expect the eggs to hatch one at a time not all at once. How does she continue to sit on some when she's got one emerging?
OR - If nothing happens after (now past 18 days)
when do we encourage her to walk away from her eggs? or will she decide to to that herself?
Thanks!

Answer
Hi, Bob.  Thanks for posting!

Fertile eggs will begin to hatch about 18 days from the date the female BEGINS incubating the eggs, which usually occurs with the second egg laid.  Incubation is when the female sits on the eggs most of 24/7 (she'll come out of the nesting box to defecate, drink, and maybe eat, although the male feeds the female most of the time while she incubates the eggs/cares for the babies).  

Since it's past 18 days for the first and second eggs laid (they probably aren't fertile), you don't start counting 18 days for the last egg until the last egg is laid.  In other words, 18 days for the last egg laid isn't up until around 24 Sep, so there's still a chance the 3-5th eggs might hatch.  It could be that none of the eggs laid are fertile/will hatch.  

Once any eggs hatch, the parents will care for the babies.  What happens next depends on what your intentions are for the babies.  If you hope to sell them or give them away, you'll need to handfeed them with baby parrot handfeeding formula and a handfeeding syringe in order to make them tame enough to make good pets (see my website for more information):

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

If you haven't, the above is something you should have pondered before allowing these keets to produce eggs.

Any fertile eggs will hatch in the order laid, usually one every other day.  Some adult birds push an emerging baby to the side to facilitate hatching, some keep the emerging baby under them while still sitting on the other eggs, some birds will keep an emerging baby half under them/half not under (a baby still has to be kept warm through the hatching process, which takes 24-48 hours).  

You should let her abandon any unhatched eggs on her own.  If you remove eggs before she abandons them, she may continue to lay and lay, which isn't good for her health.  When she realizes they won't hatch, she'll abandon them...you can then remove the eggs and destroy them.  

Before you allow these birds to lay again, think about what you will do with any babies.  This decision will drive whether you handfeed them or not.  If you don't handfeed them, chances are they won't be tame enough to sell or give away, then you'll have several new birds to care for!  Take away the nesting box immediately if you don't want them to lay any more eggs.  Keets are very prolific and will continue to lay as long as a nesting box is in place.

Chrys