Hi JM,
All eggs have yolks, so that has nothing to do with the egg being fertile. If you didn’t see a yolk the first time, she probably ate it. If she is eating the eggs, she probably will never sit on them and hatch them. Eating eggs is a bad habit that generally can’t be stopped. A fertile egg has to be incubated around the clock before it even begins to develop. Then it still takes several days for any signs of life to appear. So there is no way to know if the eggs were fertile. If any eggs do not break, you can move it to the nest box. If all of these eggs break, you need to take the nest box away for 6 months and rest her. You can’t allow her to have clutch after clutch without resting her. It’s also important that she and the male are at least 2 years old. There is nothing you can do to make her lay eggs in the box. But if she keeps laying them from the perch, even after a 6 month rest, then you shouldn’t try to breed this bird again. Not all birds make good breeders so she might not be cut out for breeding. Her diet could use improvement. A seed mix does not provide the nutrition she needs. You need to feed them a pellet or our foraging diets.
Thank you for asking Lafeber.
Brenda
