Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 1/12/2008

Question
My female, Sunnie is sitting on five eggs so far and today she spent allot of
time out of the cage.  She still checked on the eggs and went in and out of
the box.  I read that you could check to see if the eggs are fertile with a flash
light so I gently picked up an egg and it was see through with a little yellow
glob inside it.  The other two eggs that I looked at looked dark red inside.  
The thing that is bothering me is that they are some what cold to the touch
and I wonder if they are supposed to be warm?   I'm worried that they may be
dead.  The first one is due to hatch on the 21st of January and today is the
11th.  Should I be worried?  How can I help her to keep the eggs warm?  Every
thing else is going as planned, my male is feeding her and they are still very
loving to each other.  The last 10 days she has spent almost all her time in
the box with the eggs and today she was in and out more then normal.  What
should I do?

Answer
Hi, Rhonda,

I found your question(s) in the question pool this morning.  Evidently, the person you sent your question(s) to originally could not answer for some reason.

The female should be incubating 24/7 (except for coming out of the nesting box to defecate, sometimes to eat, drink) and keeping her eggs warm.  If they are cold, she must not be incubating them properly.  If not incubated properly, they will die inside the egg and/or not develop properly, not hatch.  Since your post sat in the question pool for about a week, I don't know where your birds are at this point.  You can't make her incubate them and you can't help her keep them warm.  She knows what's going on inside her eggs...perhaps she has a reason for coming off them occasionally.  Also, if they are starting to pip (perhaps you don't have your dates correct), sometimes the female will come off the eggs during this process.  However, if you know how, have the equipment, and the eggs are viable, you could pull them and incubate them yourself.  But then this means you will also have to handfeed them from day one and care for any hatchlings.  

I recommend you just see what happens from here out.  If no eggs hatch a week or so after they should, and you know you have the correct incubation start date, they probably aren't going to hatch at all.  If they aren't going to hatch at all, she will eventually abandon them completely, and then you can remove the eggs.  
 
Chrys