I am so glad to belong to this group and the help in understanding my birds better.

When I got my first cockatiel a year and a half ago, I got a book and read it. However, participating in the discussions on here really helps!

I am trying to be sure to do fourteen hours of dark every night, now.

I see definite signs of hormonal activity. I think the cockatiels think the top of the bookcase in the dining room would be a lovely place to have a nest. Now that Silver has Emma going out there, they both go up there. The top of the bookcase is 6' off the floor. I'm tall, but that's high even for me. When I go to get them (climbing up on a chair), both of them look at me and open their beaks. Neither one will come to me, even for sunflower seeds. Nest site protection?

Until I get their wings clipped tomorrow, I have found tenor recorder, which is a black tubular musical instrument, about 30" long. It's sort of like a clarinet. For some reason, all my birds are afraid of it. So, when they go up there and I can't get them down, I come over with the tenor recorder. I don't even have to get that close to them before they fly off., and so far, they haven't gone back. Perhaps they think there is a hawk in the dining room, and it's not a good place to nest after all? When I was shooing them off with my hands, they just went right back and took the open beak stance again.

It's nice to know it may be hormones, and not a permanent personality change. Emma is still masturbating on the cage bars. However, she and Silver are not actually mating. Perhaps he isn't sure how to do it? Silver is being a bit more finicky about accepting head scritches from me.

Yes, that open beak is a nest defensive behavior. Beaker and Jaid do that to me whenever I come near one of their newly found gay nesting spots.

I agree, it's nesting behavior. Another way to discourage them would be to put something in that spot that blocks them out of it.

so Diane, what is your long perspective plan? Are you OK that they mate and lay eggs, or not? They probably don't mate because they haven't found a perfect nest spot?

I plan to do my best to keep them from raising a family. I think raising chicks could be more than I could handle. I suffer from fatigue and issues related to aging.

I am hoping to be a good parent to my birds for their natural lifetimes.

I understand.
Let me see... from their health perspective, is it healthy for them to be on a 14 hour nights all their life? I understand all the difficulty of this situation and I no way criticizing.
I am myself ready to pack all of them to take to Australia to let them out LOL
I just watch wild birds and think how happy they must be.
I know we all try to be good owners and such, but I myself imagined what it would be like if someone in my life would keep me from natural things when I am young and ready for motherhood.
Honestly, I feel bad having my birds on a 12 hour night while the natural world is breeding around me.
I am going thru the crisis myself. Sorry for being negative in your thread.

"Let me see... from their health perspective, is it healthy for them to be on a 14 hour nights all their life? I understand all the difficulty of this situation and I no way criticizing."

I don't know.

"I am myself ready to pack all of them to take to Australia to let them out LOL. I just watch wild birds and think how happy they must be. "

I agree with you.

"I know we all try to be good owners and such, but I myself imagined what it would be like if someone in my life would keep me from natural things when I am young and ready for motherhood."

I do feel sorry that they do not have a more natural life. However, they were bred to be pets. If I didn't have them someone else would. I feel it is a privilege to have them in my home, and I try to give them as good a life as I can.

this is a wise answer.
My daughter hates zoos. All of them. Regardless of how good it is.

Once the days start getting shorter there's a good chance that you won't need to enforce the long nights. Spring and early summer are when their hormones run the highest.

Our birds were all born in captivity and wouldn't know how to survive in the wild. With us, they are protected from predators, bad weather, and food shortages, and they get medical care when they need it. If birds could understand the issues and make a decision, I suspect that a lot of them would choose captivity over flying free in the wild. Yes they have to give some things up to live with us, but they gain a lot from it too.