Piper and Winter have been quite lovey dovey lately. They are old enough, and I think I would like to let them have a couple of chicks, if they want to. I ordered a nest box for them. I will be able to keep them in a separate cage from the tiels once I get the nest box. What I am thinking is that, if they lay eggs, I will control the number I allow to hatch. I feel they may be in the mood, and I would like to experience the process one time through and maybe end up with two very tame budgies, if I handle it right.

Suggestions welcome.

Don't let the cockatiels see that nestbox lol. You could end up with cockatiel eggs as well as budgie eggs.

Warning: I know next to nothing about budgie breeding, so anything I say is heavily influenced by cockatiel habits and may not always be applicable to budgies.

Do Piper and Winter act like a bonded pair? If they do you have a good chance for a successful experience. If they don't, you might end up with fights over the nestbox instead of a clutch of eggs.

You need to think about how you're going to "weed out" the eggs you don't want to hatch. If you only want two, your best bet is to let the two oldest hatch, to make sure that the parents don't give up on the eggs. What will you do with the others? It'll be best to let them see that they still have the same number of eggs that they laid. Will you boil the others or replace them with fake eggs?

Now the hard part: will you really have the heart to stop these eggs from hatching? It's a difficult decision to make. When will you stop the development process - as soon as the egg is laid, or after you've made sure that the first two are fertile? That's not an easy choice either. It takes a few days for an egg to develop enough to see the signs of fertility. If you intervene right away and it turns out that one or both of the first two eggs isn't fertile, you'll always wonder if the discarded eggs might have been fertile. If you wait long enough to see if the first two are fertile, you might also be able to see signs of fertility in the younger eggs, which is going to make it harder to discard them.

If you successfully hatch out two chicks and they turn out to be brother and sister, you may have incest problems later on (believe me I know). You'll spend a lot of time playing hormone police.

Raising babies is a lot of fun but there are some heavy responsibilities and tough decisions that go with it. So it helps to consider all the possibilities in advance and be prepared for anything that might happen.

Thanks. Very helpful, Carolyn.

You can always rehome chicks that you like less when they are old enough

I would personally let them lay and see what you have hatch out. You can always choose which babies you click with the most. I've JUST made a post on another thread about keeping my budgie chicks back and it it's not always ideal. Keep a couple if you want them or perhaps just one!

All very good advise there

I ordered the nest box and the cage expansion. It should be here in a couple of days. I'll keep you posted.

Exciting times are coming!