surprise eggs - need advice

[amewnorian]

UPDATE: we ended up doing the nest swap, not too long ago, and she's already sitting again. I got everybody out of the cage except Henry and when I started detaching the nest, she came out and onto her favorite perch, watching fearfully. Timmy came over to her from outside the cage and started talking to her, calming her down as they watched me move the eggs and put the new nest in. I carefully moved each egg with a warm spoon onto a towel, dumped the filling from one nest to the other, and carefully put each egg into the new nest. Timmy seemed to know exactly what was going on, and was just comforting Henry (I've only had Henry for a little over a year, so she doesn't entirely trust me, while I've had Timmy for about 8 years, and he knows I would never do something to hurt them). Once the nest was back in the cage, I closed the door, leaving just Henry in the cage, with Timmy on the outside comforting her and stuff. After a few minutes, she slowly started heading towards the nest. When she started to go in, Timmy started squawking and the others flew down onto the cage, cheering her on I opened the cage door to let Timmy in, but he was perfectly satisfied comforting her from outside the cage. She stayed in the nest for about half an hour, but then she came out, back on the perch again. Well, Timmy was not happy with that XD He made a fuss, flapping his wings, doing little mini fly-jumps, getting Junior and Roxy riled up as well, haha. Then he started to lead her back towards the nest again, and she got back in, and he's been sitting right outside the nest chirping away trying to comfort her. Good old Timmy, knows exactly what we were up to and why we did it, and as usual is doing all he can to cooperate She's climbed out a little bit, peeking out, but she went back in. I'm pretty confident at this point that Timmy's not gonna let her abandon the nest But I'll let you know how things are going in a few days

---------------------------------------

Original Post:

Last Spring, my parakeet, Henry (who I discovered was ACTUALLY female around Christmas), laid 4 eggs in a log she and Timmy hollowed out (like this: http://www.amazon.com/Wesco-Woodchew-Playnest-Holistic-Parakeet/dp/B0002G71VI) Two eggs hatched, and they raised two healthy babies, Roxy and Junior. We took out the log so they wouldn't have MORE eggs, but (stupidly) we left another, much smaller one in there that had been in there for a long time because they loved chewing on it and we figured was too small to possibly be a nest (the one they used before was pushing it). Now she's laid 5 eggs in it, and we're realizing that if two or more hatch, there just isn't going to be any room in there at all.

Now, we're willing to take care of them through this like last time, but we're worried there won't be enough room in there. I put the old nest back in there, with a few minor modifications (repairing the hole in the bottom and stuff) and we're thinking of maybe moving the eggs into that old nest and removing the current one, in hopes that she'll switch to the larger nest. I'm just worried she'll freak out and reject the eggs. But since it's a nest she's already used, and quite similar to the one she's currently in, I'm hoping she'll keep taking care of them if I do switch the nest.

I haven't been able to find much help googling and stuff, but from what I've read it sounds like if I do swap nests I've got to:

1) not actually touch the eggs. I should use gloves instead, since the oils on my hands will cover up the pores in the egg and suffocate the babies/the mother will reject the egg because of my smell (not sure which is true, but they both are reasons not to touch the eggs so it's the same in the end)

2) somehow get the eggs from one nest to the other without shaking the eggs or dropping them, or rolling them too much. Not sure how I'd do that since the nests are pretty tall.

Numbers and stuff:
current nest size: 9 inches tall, 2.75 inches in diameter (approximately)
old nest size: 9 inches tall 3.5 inches in diameter

also FYI: We kept the two eggs that didn't hatch, so we could swap them for the good ones to decrease the probability of hatchlings, to decrease the number of babies in such a small nest, but I feel she would probably know the difference, and stealing eggs would cause her even more stress than swapping nests, and would have the same difficulty as swapping nests (don't touch the eggs, don't break the eggs, figure out how to actually get the eggs out, etc.)

Any advice? Is it worth risking the nest swap or should I assume they know what they're doing and can raise the babies in the itsy bitsy nest?

[LemonLover]

if youd like to have babies dont do anything the mother and father will be perfectly capable of doing evrything a bird does rasing young. If you hand feed them it can kill them. Go to helth and nutrition on the website and click why to never Buy a UNWEANED Bird. And read all the things that could go wrong for everyone one even pros. SO just let them do the work and when the babies come out start hand tameing them.

[liz]

I have changed nest boxes on my cockatiels. And since teils don't clean their nest very good, I have taken eggs out and changed bedding before putting them back.

I wash and dry my hands real good to get any oil or bacterial off them before touching my birds. You don't have to worry about changing the position of the eggs but they are very easy to drop.

Your male seems to know what you are doing. The female will soon trust you with her eggs and offspring.

They know the difference in the eggs. If they have an infertle egg in the nest they will push it out or as far away as they can so as not to waste time on it. If none of the eggs are fertle they will abandone the nest.

A lone female will sit on her eggs until they rot. I guess she thinks that is all she has.

[amewnorian]

Thanks for all the advice guys

Update since the original post: The first couple of eggs have hatched now, and we can hear little noises coming from the nest - SOOOO cute Everything seems to be going well now, but I'm not sure how many will hatch yet. But from the sounds of it, we're going to have at least two new birds

[liz]

Isn't that the most adorable sound.

My tiels usually nest in January. Then only one of the three pair will produce offspring. I don't know if they flip a coin or what but the first nest to hatch is the only one to hatch. You have heard the phrase that it takes a village to raise a child. Mine go by that. It takes a flock to raise a hatchling.

I have a three sectioned wooden box built for me by an old friend. I put it in the cage in the winter in case they need extra warmth they can huddle together in there with the connecting walls tranfering body heat between the pairs.

Tommy & Tammy did not wait for the coin flip and nested in December. Christmas eve we heard the sweet sound of a baby and we didn't even know they had a clutch.

[amewnorian]

another update: So far, three eggs have hatched, and one egg has been skipped. The last egg could hatch today or tomorrow, based on the timeline. The oldest one is about 3x the size of the smallest one, and is growing little feather spikes on his back/rear end

[liz]

She sat on the eggs as she laid them instead of waiting for a full clutch. She will have all different sizes.

A chicken waits until it has as many as it want so that they all hatch together. She would have to abandon any late hatches to feed the early ones.