Birds eggs

Question
Hello. I have a budgie who has been sitting on her eggs since march 14, it  is now april 4th. i was told they should hatch on april 1st. are her eggs ok? she is still sitting on them in her birdhouse and still protects them. i really want these babies to hatch, but im worried that they aretn even fertilized. i need your help! thx

Answer
Hi, Steven.  Thanks for posting.

If fertile and developed properly, budgie eggs will hatch about 18 days from the day the female starts incubating them.  If she's been incubating them continuously since 14 March, they should have started hatching on 1 April.  Eggs hatch in the same order laid (1 egg laid every other day).  Therefore, if there are 4 eggs, the first egg laid should have hatched on 1 Apr, the second egg laid should have hatched on 3 Apr, the third egg on 5 Apr, etc.  If the first 2 haven't hatched yet, they may not hatch at all, but this doesn't mean the 3d and 4th eggs laid won't hatch.  

I can't tell you if her eggs are OK because I can't look at them.  If they aren't hatching, evidently there's a problem.  They may not be fertile (does she have a mate?...single female birds can lay eggs without a male, but the eggs won't be fertile), embryo development may have been affected by something and the embryo's have died in their shells, handling eggs by hand can affect hatchability...there are many reasons eggs don't hatch.

Your female budgie may continue to sit on her eggs even though they may not hatch.  Let her abandon them on her own versus removing the eggs from her nest yourself.  There's still a chance a couple eggs may hatch if they were fertile to begin with.  You can "candle" the eggs to see if they are fertile by shining a light source through the eggs to see if anything is inside.  If the eggs are clear, like a chicken egg from your refrigerator, they are not fertile.  If the eggs are dark inside, there's something inside...may be viable, perhaps not.  The female knows for sure if any/all of her eggs are fertile, but they don't always abandon them right away if they aren't fertile and developing properly (she can feel movement inside the eggs).  If you candle the eggs, don't touch the shell with your bare hands...use a glove or something to protect the oils/dirt from your skin from clogging up the pores on the eggs.

Come back if you need to.  Thanks.

Chrys