what would be best???

[serz]

Im colony breeding at the moment and everytime i go to take the nest boxes out another bird has laid an egg so i leave them to hatch and so the cirlce starts again so after this brood i am giving them a couple of months break but I have just checked my best breeding birds nest and she has laid 4 very healthy looking eggs which i am quite reluctant to throw away.

So my question is while they are still eggs could i take the nest box out and the cock and hen and put them in a seperate cage in the house till they have reared the babies so that i can give them all a break from breeding. What would you do in my position please?

[scott1984]

i wouldnt move them, i would block the other nest boxes and keep the 1 with eggs but good luck with what you do regards scott

[barrieshutt]

Remove the nest box and cage the family in a cage together when the youngest chick is 28 days old

[serz]

Thanks for the replys. Scott i thought of that but wouldnt the other females just try to get in her nest box as there would be non available for them??

and barrie leaving them in for 28 days again wouldnt really solve the problem as in the other 28 days it will be the end of november and by then the others will have laid more eggs which will result in them not having much space between then and the end of december when i was planning on putting the nest boxes back up. Couldnt i just remove the family now while they are still eggs??

[sydney]

if you transfur the pair and nestbox to a cage they will most likely abandon the nest due to the change of environment. only thing i can think of you doing is remove the eggs from the other nest-boxes and replace with dummy eggs as everyone is laid that why you wont feel bad later on.
how many times have you let them all breed?

[Deleted]

I would just remove the nests and throw the eggs away , give them a rest and re-pair when they are back in condition.