22-day gap in eggs

[Ned TJ]

Hello everyone. Hoping for some insight of what complications may arise. Kiwi and Buddy are on their 1st clutch. They are 5 and 2 1/2yr old Conures. Kiwi has laid 5 eggs to date, my problem is the huge gap in egg laying.

The ages of the eggs and events
Egg 1- 22 days old (She started laying on it after 1 day)
Egg 2- 19 days old (the 2 oldest eggs were candled and alive)
Egg 3- 7 days old
We lost an egg 2 days later, not sure which one it was. It was empty with no sign of a baby. We assumed it was the youngest egg.
Egg 4 - 4 days old
Egg 5- 1 day old it was laid yesterday.

They are still mating; we cannot separate them. He's helping lay on the eggs and feeding her. The cage is still open, she only comes out for very short periods and is on the eggs all day.

Issues that come to mind.
-Will she still lay on her eggs while feeding the hatched ones?
-Will the older one’s trample on the little ones with such a large gap in ages?
-Should I split up the nest with something like a 3-inch-high barrier, it would separate the smaller babies but still allow Kiwi to take care of them. Any other idea for a nest set up?
-If you look at the eggs, one is darker than the rest. Is that an indication there is a problem with it?

I have everything needed in case we have to take over the feeding and care. The original plan was to co-parent the first clutch and let them learn what to do. We would still prefer to do that.

Any guidance would be great. We are so excited to share this time with Kiwi and Buddy and want to do everything possible to ensure the health and survival of them and their babies. We have also installed a live web cam in the nest from the beginning to keep an eye on everything and of course to watch the eggs hatch!

Thank you

 

[Zara]

Welcome to the Avenue Ned

Have you candled 1 and 2 recently? They may have passed away.

I had a darker egg like that once from my lovie - It had gone over incubation time by a week, I candled, no sign of life, I cracked it open and OMG the stench. (This is just my experience, there may be another reason for a darker egg)

If the egg you lost was egg 3 then that means you have 2 eggs from this clutch (eggs 1 and 2 are not the same clutch).

If eggs 1 and 2 are alive, then you will have to monitor the family progress and possibly remove them from the nest if the younger guys hatch.

 

[Ned TJ]

Hi Zara. Thank you for the reply. No I have not candled them lately and I no longer know which they are. I didn’t realize it was safe to number them, would have been great, but I didn’t realize they were going to lay more. I thought that eggs weren’t to be candled within the last 5 days since they are so fragile. Is it still safe to do?

My concern now is if the darker egg is dead and I’ve lost one egg that cracked that leaves me only one egg of the original 3. If that egg is the one that’s only 7 days old is kiwi going to get tired of laying on them and abandoned them? Should I be getting an incubator or do I just let nature take it course? Oh my so many question!

 

[melissasparrots]

Having late eggs can go various ways. The jostling around with new babies could kill the younger eggs and you won’t have to worry about it. However, if they do hatch, there is a high probability you’ll need to pull the older chicks so the younger ones get fed.
You can candle eggs late in incubation. Just be quick about it. I usually shine the light over the air cell to check for shape changes that mean hatching will be soon. Also, it’s easier to see red vessels near the air cell in late eggs so you know it’s still alive. The off colored egg is either soon to hatch or dead. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with color changes.

 

[Zara]

Looking at your dates again. If we take into consideration that the broken egg was not egg 3 that changes a lot. That would mean that you actually have eggs 3 4 and 5 all from the same clutch plus the grey egg that is either egg 1 or 2. The hen could have eaten the other for calcium.
This would be the better scenario.

is kiwi going to get tired of laying on them and abandoned them?

I think that the hen can sense life in the egg and so is less likely to abandon viable eggs