posted 02-24-2004 01:55 PM         

the female was laying many eggs on the bottom of the cage but she did not sit on them so i decided to put in the nest box.
the female has an egg that she will soon lay and i saw them mating twice, she is spending a lot of time on the bottom shreding news paper but not going in the nest box.

o.k. now .....
what do i need to help her understand she has to lay eggs in the box and not on the bottom?

Or that she has to sit on them ?

Any advice is welcome.

posted 02-24-2004 02:27 PM         

The male will only go in the nest once there is eggs in there but also only if the hen will allow him as some females prefer the males to stay outside the nest.

What you using for nest lining as budgies are not nest builders i used plain pine wood shavings but they would soon remove them and i would have a cage floor full of shavings.

But all you can really do is place the eggs and the hen in the nest and she will use it because she has been in twice she should lay her first egg in there when she is ready.

If you would like more help or advice please feel free to email me and i will be pleased to help.

posted 02-25-2004 04:13 PM         

I guess that is a good sign.
The male does not tries to go in at all, so i hope by the time she lays the egg he will go in.

is there a good web site that shows pictures of nestbox with eggs? or a good information site to read?

Thanks for the info you gave me it helped.

posted 02-25-2004 06:11 PM         

mike

posted 02-27-2004 07:08 PM         

The budgie lay the first egg yesterday on the bottom of the cage, so I placed it in the nest box but she went Ballistic (crazy) and moved the egg from all the paper and threads , Today she ate the egg so I don’t know what to do…. Should I clean it all inside and put new shredded paper?

Any idea what will be best to do now?

posted 02-28-2004 03:51 AM         

The problem with hens are they are very stuck in there ways.
HAs the nest box been used for any other birds as she will not use it if its not a new clean nest as she will feel insecure.

If the dish or moving the nest bos does not help all you can do is keep putting her in the nest and see if she will eventually start using it.
The problem with her laying her eggs on the cage floor is that they dont uncubate properly resulting in half formed chicks that die half way through incubation as the hen can not turn the eggs correctly.