Help, how do I know if eggs have hatched in breeder box?

[erinm51]

Hello, my husband and I recently adopted a pair of macaws from an elderly woman and they were not supposed to be breeders but around the 17th of last month we saw that they had eggs in the breeder box ???
They have not let us get near the box since and we have no way to see inside. From what I've read if the eggs were viable they should have hatched around 27 days but we are way past that now and we haven't heard or seen anything yet. How much noise if any do newly hatched blue and gold macaws make? Any suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated

 

[noodles123]

Not sure, but if they aren't supposed to be breeders, why did you give them a breeder box? Birds do not need these in any way, shape or form. Never provide such a thing unless you want them to lay eggs.
Raising chicks is a HUGE ball of wax (as the parents often fail or require interventions) and so in the future, unless you have access to bird-specific-formula, a brooder, humidity monitoring equipment etc, and TONS of time, I would get rid of the box (and any dark spaces) and prevent them from feeling triggered to mate/lay. It also poses risks to the female bird...egg-binding is a real issue.

Even if the eggs aren't viable, you now must leave them in until they lose interest or the cycle will repeat.

Never provide a single bird with any box/dark cavity (let alone 2 of the opposite gender)--unless you WANT eggs/babies and are prepared to hand-raise in the event that things get nasty (as they often do)...As you have observed, it also comes with hormonal behaviors (nest guarding etc)

 

[erinm51]

We adopted the birds from an elderly woman who was a breeder and whose son was rehoming all of her birds after she was moved into a nursing home.

There was 2 sets of macaws and were told that the set we were adopting was not a breeding pair but the other pair was.

The son did not have a lot of information on all of the many birds he needed to rehome so I don't even know how old the birds are. We also adopted a pair of African Grays that are supposed to be none breeders and so far that has held true.

The birds came with their homemade cages and they already had the breeding boxes attached to them. It would be difficult to remove the boxes, they seem to be fixed to the cages.

The elderly woman had an outdoor breeder setup with many many birds.

The birds are not very tame because of this but so we thought we would adopt the none breeders and give them a nice life. All the other birds they were trying to rehome were breeders and would be easier to rehome to other bird breeders.

We're think it's possible that the women's son got confused on wich of the macaw pairs was the breeding pair and possibly gave us the wrong pair?

We were not intending or wanting to breed the birds and were very surprised by the eggs. But having said that if there are babies I want to make sure there well taken care of.
Im not sure there eggs are viable and think if they er they should have hatched by now but we're haven't been able to look and haven't heard any different noises coming from the nest box.

Do newly hatched babies make a lot of noise, would we hear as anything?

 

[noodles123]

Let them be for now-- worst -case-scenario, there are babies and you don't know it....but the risk is rummaging around and making everyone upset...I mean, if there were babies, you don't likely have the supplies to care for them independently of the parents at this point, so it is more of a waiting game.

Sorry to sound like a downer...Like I said before, you will have to wait for them to lose interest either way, but unless you know they are in there, I wouldn't rock the boat.

 

[LaManuka]

Let me preface my response by saying I’m not a breeder, the only experience I have with egg layers are the infertile type with hens whose hormones have gone into overdrive!

According to the info on the interweb, macaws eggs should hatch anywhere between 20 to 24 days after laying, sometimes earlier sometimes later. As it’s now over a month you may very well be dealing with unviable eggs. My lorikeet is one of those hens who lays random infertile eggs and we handle it by allowing her to sit on them until she works out for herself that nothing is going to hatch and she eventually loses interest.

Certainly if there were babies I would think you could expect to hear a lot of noise coming from that nestbox, if not from the babies then definitely from the parents. While they’re distracted with the nestbox it might be a good time to look for a nice big new cage (or cages) so you can get rid of the old one altogether and perhaps have more success controlling or even hopefully eliminate laying in the future.

 

[erinm51]

Thank you for the advice, I will let the m be and wait it out.

 

[LaManuka]

If it was me I'd still be trying to get a peek inside that nestbox. Is it only the female or is the male in there too?

Sometimes they can break the eggshell through continuous intensive sitting on the egg which may result in a nasty mess, or a young one may have hatched but not survived. Definitely still a good idea to get a look in there and TRY to monitor the situation if you possibly can!

 

[Noahs_Birds]

After a say a week, observe the parent after having a feed, and as they return to the box you should hear chicks begging for food
I agree with LaManuka, try to check the nest box where you can, it won't hurt them at all and will return to the nest happily
It may be their first run at breeding, so there is a large chance something has gone wrong
Thanks
Noah Till

 

[Birdman666]

At the risk of being a smart ass... BABIES MAKE NOISES... LOTS OF THEM... ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE HUNGRY! Like screaming to be fed kinds of noises....

Pretty hard to miss. In fact, sleeping through it is kind of a *****...

 

[ParrotGenie]

At the risk of being a smart ass... BABIES MAKE NOISES... LOTS OF THEM... ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE HUNGRY! Like screaming to be fed kinds of noises....

Pretty hard to miss. In fact, sleeping through it is kind of a *****...

Good to see someone as sarcastic as I am?