eggs/breeding

Question
My female is about 3 years old and the male is about 2 years old. They have never laid eggs before. I know my female has enough calcium because there are cuttle bones in the cage 24-7. Because the eggs not hatching was a little upsetting, would it be okay if I removed the eggs so she can lay more? If I waited until she abandoned them, would she still lay more later on? In the unlikely event that egg binding would accure, what are the signs and what should I do? Sorry about all the questions but I don't now a lot in this category. If you could take the time to answer them that would be awesome! If I can remove the eggs, how should I go about doing that? Should I remove one every day so I don't stress her? Thanks so much and please let me know if I'm crowding you with too many questions.

Sacha
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello again,

I believe we talked before about my budgies and their eggs. Well it turns out, none of the 5 eggs hatched, which I find sad and surprising considering I knew at LEAST one of them were fertilized. So now I don't know what to do with the eggs. I know that if I remove them she may just keep laying and laying, which I wouldn't mind considering these ones didn't hatch. But then I thought about egg-binding, and if taking away the eggs would be too risky. But then again, I don't know much about egg-binding so would this be an okay thing to do? To take away the eggs (slowly) and let her lay more. You have told me before that she will eventually abandon them, and if taking away the eggs is too risky, then that's what I'll have to do.
Thankyou again for your time,
Sacha
-----Answer-----
Hi, Sacha.

One egg may have been fertile to begin with, but many things can happen during development.

Has the female abandoned these eggs yet?  If not, don't remove them until she does or she'll lay again.  Problem I see here is why aren't these eggs hatching?  Are they infertile to begin with, are the embryos developing some problem during incubation that they die in their shells, is something contaminating the eggs affecting the babies, etc.  Need to get to the bottom of this issue.  How old are your birds?  Has your pair laid eggs previously that didn't hatch?  If so, did you open the eggs up to see what was going on inside after the female abandoned them?    

Egg-binding has to do with LAYING eggs, not removing them after being laid.  If a female bird doesn't have enough calcium in her body to form egg shells, she can become egg-bound.  This is when an egg is too soft or other and the bird can't expel the egg once the egg shell forms.    

You don't want to overbreed your bird.  You should only allow a pair of budgies to lay 2-3 clutches of eggs per year (depending on the success of these clutches).  The rest of the year, the birds should be at rest (recovering from breeding the other part of the year).

Chrys

Answer
Hi again, Sacha.

The problems you are running into are exactly the reason why bird owners shouldn't allow their birds to mate/breed until the bird owner knows more about parrots in general so they know what to do when problems crop up.

The decision as to whether you want to remove the eggs now or wait until she abandons them on her own is your decision.  As a parrot breeder/aviculturist, I don't believe you should allow your birds to breed again so soon.  Taking any eggs away one by one could result in other problems.  Therefore, I believe you should allow your bird to abandon her eggs in her own time.  Your female will lay eggs again eventually...what's the rush?!  Egg laying/breeding is hard on female birds...don't be in such a hurry to have your birds produce offspring.  You still have much to learn before this occurs!  Like I stated before, there's some reason why all those eggs didn't hatch.  Could be because it's a first-time clutch, but your birds are old enough that there should have been at least 1 or more babies hatch.  This is what concerns me.

When a bird becomes egg bound, you may see a partial egg protruding from her vent.  An egg bound bird will have difficulty breathing, will usually stay on the cage bottom, the bird will appear to be very ill, she may keep her back end raised up....you will definitely know something is wrong.  When a bird becomes egg bound, it's a very serious situation and an emergency for your bird...you would have to get your female to an avian veterinarian for treatment IMMEDIATELY or the bird will die within hours.  There is nothing you can do to help this situation except immediately place the bird in your bathroom where you can turn on the hot water in order to produce much steam in order to keep your bird comfortable until you can leave to take her to the bird vet.  Often times, it helps the egg bound female if the bird owner puts a couple of drops of mineral or vegetable oil down her throat and around the vent where the egg is protruding.

To remove any eggs, you just take them out from under the female and throw them away.  Your female is going to be stressed no matter how to take her eggs away.  There will be less stress for her if you let her abandon them on her own.  

Chrys