Bird eggs and egg fertility

Birds can begin laying eggs from the early age of six months and continue laying eggs for up to ten years.
The ability to lay eggs does not depend on a male bird being present within the birds aviary or heated bird box. The male bird is only required to fertilize the egg.

Infertile bird eggs

can be a nuisance to the bird owner. The greatest risk of excessive egg laying by the bird can be to its health, feathers and general appearance.

Birds in the wild or birds contained in a large aviary that are feed a diet similar to what is eaten by free range wild birds can lay up to twenty eggs per year.
Seed fed birds that are kept in a small aviary or cage may develop health problems and a poor feather display with the laying of a single egg or small clutch of bird eggs.

Egg shapes may be distorted or lack calcium. The risk to the bird is the same regardless if the eggs are fertile or infertile.
Heating for the birds aviary and bird box can be obtained by using a small heater from this web site. Their range of portable and safe heaters is comprehensive.
For the bird to produce an egg it must produce a large amount of calcium carbonate for the egg shell. Depletion of the calcium carbonate that the bird has stored in its legs can leave the bird weak and vulnerable to disease and illness.
The birds feather and down covering will suffer and leave the bird with a ruffled appearance.

There are several ways a bird owner can discourage a bird from laying eggs. Do not let the bird have any access to nest building material or a soft substrate where it can lay eggs.
If the bird is housed in a large aviary its wings can be clipped to prevent the bird from finding suitable nesting areas for egg laying.
A change to a diet for the bird that contain very little fat will discourage any egg laying.

If the bird has produced a clutch of eggs that are infertile, do not remove the bird eggs from the nest. Allow the bird to attempt to hatch the infertile egg as this will prevent the laying of fresh eggs.
Altering the birds habitat can be a distraction for the bird and may prevent egg laying.
If heat is supplied to the nesting area relocate the heating source. The unfamiliar habitat will create a level of stress within your bird.
Remove any nesting boxes or nests that the bird may have built for egg laying.
If there are any secluded spots within the aviary remove them to prevent the bird from building a nest.
Items that may stimulate the bird should be removed from the birds enclosure. This will reduce the desire to start egg laying. Stroking or petting the bird should be resisted.
Hormones can be used to help in restricting egg laying by the bird.

To stimulate egg laying, reverse the previous suggestions for preventing egg laying by the bird.
The first egg produced by the bird should be removed from the nest. Keep disturbance to the bird or nest to the minimum. Removing the first egg will stimulate the bird into laying numerous eggs.

Bird eggs

that require checking for fertility can be candled for embryo development.
If there is a sufficient quantity of eggs available, a single egg can be opened to reveal the eggs yoke for an inspection of the yokes germinal spots.

Bird egg colors

Shapes and coloring of birds eggs are distinctive between species. Inspection of the style of nest built and the terrain plus the color or shape of the egg can be excellent indicators of the species of bird. Feathers around the nest are a help in identification of the bird eggs.

Egg shapes

Egg shapes can vary from a round ball shape to shapes of oval appearances.
Eggs that are coloured white tend to belong to bird species that lay eggs in dark or enclosed positions. Coloring of the egg for camouflage is not required as the eggs are hidden from the view of predators.

Bird egg colours

Birds that make a nest in exposed areas lay eggs that are coloured for camouflage.
The colouring of eggs is not uniform for birds of the same species as environmental factors have a bearing on the bird egg colours displayed.

Birds in desert regions tend to lay eggs colored a sandy shade while the same bird species that inhabit areas close to mountainous regions may display grainy shades.

The ( colouring ) coloring of birds eggs

is produced by breaking down the birds blood pigments. The break down of blood pigments will produce eggs with a light brown up to black shades of coloring in eggs.
Bile pigments will produce colour shades of blue and green in the eggs of birds.

Patterns of colours for bird eggs is controlled by the passage of the egg through the birds body. Birds have the ability to allows the egg to pass through slowly to produce full egg colours.
Other bird species can rotate the egg to produce swirls and spots of colours.

The thickness of the bird egg shell depends on the species and habitat. The weight of an egg shell can be up to 30 percent of the total weight for the egg.

Bird egg shells

are produced by extracting calcium carbonate from the birds feed. The calcium carbonate can be stored in the birds legs until required for the production of bird egg shells.

The yolk of a birds egg can weigh up to 50 percent of the total bird egg weight.
Although a birds egg shell appears to be solid, it actually has thousands of tiny pores or ventilation holes throughout the shell. The pores are required to expel gases from the egg and return air to allow the embryo to breath.

Incubating bird eggs

need to be rotated periodically to allow for an even heat distribution throughout the egg.

The yoke of a birds egg can weigh as much as 50 percent of the overall weight of the birds egg. The embryo of the birds egg sits to the top of the egg during incubation and it would be in danger of being damaged when egg rotation occurs.
The embryo will normally orientate itself to the correct position during incubation if unrestricted. The birds egg yoke is restrained from damaging the embryo by two forms of tendrils or springs called challaza which hold the yoke in the correct position.
Veterinarians and bird breeders now believe that the birds in the wild and captivity rotate the eggs to allow for the developing chick to be able to reach the nutrients in the egg.
Rotating the egg will also move the embryo out of the waste matter that has developed from the consumed nutrients.

Transporting incubating bird

Transporting fertile bird eggs and transporting bird eggs that have begun incubation requires two different heat settings.
The fertile eggs that need transportation should have an temperature that is the same of close to the storage temperature that the fertile bird eggs were stored.

Fertile bird eggs that have begun their incubation stage and need to be transported should have the temperature of the transporting incubator at the same temperature as the incubator used to start the the bird egg incubation.
If the bird eggs were retrieved from the laying birds nest then the temperature should be identical to the incubating birds nest temperature.

The hatch of chicks have different forms of feather protection for each species of bird. The amount of feathers covering a birds body on hatching dictate the time when the chick can leave the nest.
Chicks with a full covering of feathers such as ducks are mobile from the first day of hatching.

Bird eggs and colors. Eggs and fertility. Bird incubators