Budgies Laying Eggs

Question
As Jennifer mentioned to us the other day, it seems that our male is indeed wooing the female. We've put a nest in the cage for them and lined it with cotton balls and their own feathers. How long till they might lay eggs? Do you keep the first batch of eggs or what? How long till the eggs might hatch after being laid?

Answer
Dear Sydney,
thank you for your question.
I don't recommend breeding them, since there are so many budgies in animal shelters ect. and it will be very hard to find good homes for them. Apart from that, you will have to learn about genetis ect., there are for example some combinations of genes that causes malformed or dead chicks. If you really want to breed your birds, I strongly recommend that you join a breeder club or at least get in contact with an experienced breeder.
When they have no nesting box, they won't lay any eggs, it's perfectly okay not to offer them one, they won't miss it and the female will not get sick or something (except in very rare cases). It sometimes happens that they find a place to lay their eggs by themselves, but this is also very rare.

Budgies don't need a nest, they lay their eggs on the naked floor of the nest box (in the wild, they nest in tree cavities). The eggs hatch after 17-19 days, only the female will brood. It's important that you offer the parents a varied diet of birds seeds, germinated seeds, fruit and vegetables. The babies leave the nest after 40 days and are  completely weaned with eight weeks and shouldn't be given away before that. But it's probably a good idea to start looking for good homes when the chicks are newly-hatched, to make sure you don't have to give them to a pet shop.
If you find eggs and don't want the budgies to raise chicks, you can exchange the eggs with plastic or gypsum ones. Just taking them away will not work because the female will keep trying to lay eggs until she has a clutch.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer