Breedin with dummy eggs

[ADAM s P]

You
I am starting my breeding season and am using dummy eggs for the first time in a long time for breeding my canaries. I've got a large free breeding aviary. I do not wish to breed too many birds this season, so I was planning on only replacing 2 real eggs back into each nest after the female has finished laying. Do I need to leave the left over dummy eggs in her nest along with the real ones I have replaced so as not to worry the hen that some eggs are missing?

 

[zoo mom]

I have no clue. I am tagging someone with breeding experience.
@finchly

 

[Zara]

so I was planning on only replacing 2 real eggs back into each nest after the female has finished laying. Do I need to leave the left over dummy eggs in her nest along with the real ones I have replaced so as not to worry the hen that some eggs are missing?

If you only want to allow 2 chicks per nest and the bird lays more, simply swap back in that number for that amount of dummy eggs.
For example, bird lays 7 eggs in her nest and you swap each egg for a dummy as you find them. Once the full clutch is complete, take out two dummy eggs, and put two real eggs in their place.
Alternatively, allow two eggs to be laid,then from then on, remove and replace with dummy eggs. Once the clutch is complete, just leave all the eggs real and dummy in the nest.

If this were small parrots, I would say to use the older eggs as your two, so the ones first laid (Egg n#1 and #2, or n#2 and n#3) as opposed to the newer recently laid eggs. I don´t know about canaries, maybe @finchly or @Fife3000 has thoughts on that.

 

[Destiny]

I would agree that you should use the freshest eggs for best hatching rate. And yes, you should add enough dummy eggs to replace the removed eggs and leave them in place. Otherwise, the hen might decide to lay more to replace them.

 

[ADAM s P]

Thanks so much for your responses.
At what stage of the chick development do you think I can safely remove the dummy eggs?

 

[Destiny]

When the fertile eggs hatch, the dummies can be removed

 

[finchly]

Most people don’t remove eggs , whether dummy or just unhatched, until a week or two. The thinking is they help support the babies. I usually band and clean the nest around 8-10 days and that’s when I remove eggs.

 

[ADAM s P]

Ah, excellent.
Thanks so much for all the help. Feeling confident now!

 

[Garylee]

Dummy eggs are a great way to have your babies all hatch on the same day. This prevents some problems. If it was me, I would leave the last two fertile eggs along with two dummy eggs. And Iwould leave the dummy eggs in until the babies were a week or ten days old.