2015
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We decided 2015 was going to be a good year and with 3 eggs in the nest we are hoping for the best. Mayzie laid 4 eggs and as usual broke the first one. I was hoping to get the cage cleaned but she laid the egg before I could get that done. She is tending the nest and Myles is keeping watch for anything and everything. So far all is well.
In early April the first egg hatched and we had a healthy chick we named Story. Myles did his usual great job caring for the baby and we waited for the next egg to hatch. Unfortunately the next two eggs turned out to be infertile and we removed them from the nest after an extended wait.
Normally we don't handle the chick while it is young and its eyes have not opened unless we have concerns. So Myles is on his own in caring for Story. When his/her eyes have opened we will begin to spend lots of time with Story. This is also when we need to monitor Mayzie because she will pluck the baby. We think this is related to us handling the chick while she is aware of what we are doing. Therefore this year we will try to prevent Mayzie from seeing us handle the baby. Myles not only doesn't have any problem with our intervention but seems to enjoy it.
Below is a picture from 19 April 2015.
2016: Unfortunately after I wrote this things turned for the worse. Mayzie "double clutched" leading to her developing another egg. She then killed the chick to prepare for the next nesting. She went on to lay many more eggs as some were broken and attempted to have a successful brood.
Mayzie had not killed a baby before but she had not laid a set of eggs followed by a second set before. Once the new set of eggs was in the nest we waited for the hatchings. None of the eggs was successful, and inspection seemed to indicate that the humidity was too low and prevented the chicks from hatching. We use a heater on the box, and we suspected that it was drying out the eggs during the incubation. For the 2016 season we will change our setup to prevent this problem.
