[Anina]

Hello everyone!
I was hoping someone could help me with some suspicious looking eggs.

Two of our birds recently started showing nesting behavior, so we got them a nesting box, and the female laid fertile eggs!
Sadly, I'm worried about them. It's been 21 days for the last egg today, and I'm not detecting any sign of life. One of the eggs got damaged and was lost earlier, but these three remain. However they seemingly turned grey/darker, which alongside the lack of any sign of life worries me lots. If they are DIS, do I just remove them? Or wait until the pair stops caring about them? Would love to hear from you guys! Any tips and advice are hugely appreciated!

 

[Smerft85]

Have you candled them to be sure? Small flashlight will illuminate the inside of the eggs, you're looking for blood vessels, a heartbeat, movement or a combination of any of those. If you dont see any of that it's a bit of a tough call, removing them will possibly make momma proceed in laying more before she is ready, and she may never give up on them if you dont remove them unless they start stinking and getting real bad.

 

[Anina]

Have you candled them to be sure? Small flashlight will illuminate the inside of the eggs, you're looking for blood vessels, a heartbeat, movement or a combination of any of those. If you dont see any of that it's a bit of a tough call, removing them will possibly make momma proceed in laying more before she is ready, and she may never give up on them if you dont remove them unless they start stinking and getting real bad.

The inside is very dark to the point it's hard to make things out, and I have not been able to 'witness' a heartbeat thus far..
I'm worried she'll just lay more eggs If I do remove them, but like you said, it'd be bad if they sat on them to the point they go awfully bad

 

[Smerft85]

If you dont see life you have a 50/50 shot at her going into lay mode again. Leaves the decision entirely up to you, personally I'd give it maybe a week and see if she pushes them out of the nest or anything, if not discard at the end of the week unless they go soft or really dark before then. She either already knows and taking them out will alleviate her work load, or she'll think you got rid of good eggs and lay more with or without a male. Would I be wrong in presuming this is their first clutch?

 

[Anina]

If you dont see life you have a 50/50 shot at her going into lay mode again. Leaves the decision entirely up to you, personally I'd give it maybe a week and see if she pushes them out of the nest or anything, if not discard at the end of the week unless they go soft or really dark before then. She either already knows and taking them out will alleviate her work load, or she'll think you got rid of good eggs and lay more with or without a male. Would I be wrong in presuming this is their first clutch?

They had a small one before this! But those went bad too. They had an early DIS case.. we made the mistake removing those too soon resulting in this new clutch. Apologies for leaving that information out! I'll probably do as you mentioned and give it another week or so to see what they do. The female was trying to swoon the male again just earlier, perhaps implying she already wants new eggs, but who knows..

 

[Smerft85]

Very well could be the case, she may be recognizing the eggs are bad and following every creature's instincts to reproduce. May not matter either way if you remove them or not at this point, if she's asking for it, probably won't be long. Separating bonded birds can also cause issues, putting you between the proverbial rock and a hard place.