January 27, 2023
My lovebird had her first egg on December 25 into 2022
I was just wondering my lovebird had nine eggs when should it be born the first one was on December 25, 2022 but the rest of them were on January 1 2023
Question:
Answer:
Hi,
If you are absolutely positive that there were 9 eggs laid between 12/25 and 1/1, then it sounds like you have two female birds. A single lovebird isn’t capable of laying that many eggs in that short of a time. She only forms one egg at a time, and each egg takes 48 to form and be laid. In rare cases, she might lay two if one was not passed before the next one was formed. At most that might happen once in a clutch, and it is very rare. So if the first egg was laid on 12/25, she would have laid one on 12/27, 12/29, & 12/31 then 1/2. They are very protective of the eggs and nest, so possibly she was blocking your view of her eggs when you looked in the nest box. Basically it would take her 18 days to lay 9 eggs, and that would be two clutches worth. So if she is the only female, she kept you from seeing the eggs and she laid two clutches back to back. A normal clutch is 4 eggs, sometimes as many as 6. Of course if you have 2 females laying eggs, none will be fertile. If she’s the only female, and if they mated, and if the eggs are fertile, the eggs will hatch in the same order they were laid – 18-24 days for each egg. This means the last egg would hatch 18 – 24 days after the first one. If that happened, you would have to remove some of the older chicks to hand feed, or the smaller ones would probably not survive. A lovebird pair probably could not manage 9 chicks, if they all hatched. But, again my guess is you have two females. Whatever the outcome, as soon as the eggs are gone or the chicks leave the box if any hatch, you must remove the nest box and rest your birds for at least 6 months before letting them breed again. And if it turns out you have two females, then they do not need a nest box and you will need to make some changes to discourage egg laying. It takes a lot out of the hen to form and lay each egg, and when a hen keeps laying eggs over and over, she will eventually die from the stress on her system. So for now just wait and see if any of the eggs hatch – the first are past due, but the last one laid could still be good.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
