My love bird layed eggs

Question
I have two love birds. After i noticd mating behaviour i got them a nesting box. Soon she layed four eggs and has been sitting on them for alomst 30 days now.

I think the eggs are infertile - do i need to remove them? Is there anything i need to do at this point?

Thanks,
Alia

Answer
Hi, Alia.  Thanks for posting.

Lovebird eggs, if fertile, should hatch about 18 days from the date the female started incubating (sitting on them constantly).  Normally, this process begins with the second egg laid.  In other words, if she started incubating them on (for example) 1 April, the 1st egg laid should hatch on/about 18 April.  Since eggs are laid every other day and they hatch in the same order laid, the second egg should hatch 20 April, the third egg 22 April, the 4th egg 24 April.  

I recommend you leave the eggs in the nestbox with the female until she abandons them on her own (or they hatch).  If you remove them, she could start laying again, and you don't want her to continue to lay infertile eggs over and over again.  Are you sure you have a true pair (male and female) and not 2 female lovebirds?  Female birds can lay eggs without a male, but the eggs won't be fertile.  You can "candle" them to see if an embryo is present in the eggs.  Candling is the process of shining a light source through an egg to see what's going on inside.  If an egg is clear, like a chicken egg from your refrigerator, the egg isn't fertile.  If an egg looks dark inside when you shine light through it, there is an embryo inside, but if the eggs aren't hatching, the embryo could have died in it's shell for some reason, or perhaps it might still hatch.  This is another reason why I recommend you allow the female to abandon them on her own...she knows if her eggs are viable or not (although she still may incubate them).  

If you don't want baby lovebirds, remove the nestbox.  The nestbox encourages the birds to lay.  In order to be able to sell or give tame lovebird babies away once they hatch, you need to handfeed the babies (pull the babies from the parents and feed them 4 times per day with a handfeeding syringe and baby parrot handfeeding formula) at about 10 days of age until they wean/fledge.  Are you prepared to be able to do this?  If not, you should not allow your pair to lay eggs.

Visit my website for additional information if you'd like:
http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.com

Come back if you need to.  Thanks.

Chrys