I put up the nestboxes on Wednesday of last week, and for the last couple of days I've been on serious egg watch, checking the nests two or three times a day. The first egg appeared this morning in Shodu's nestbox. The others probably won't be too far behind.

Do you think he babies would be ready for the upcoming bird show, or would you have to wait until the one this summer?

What?!? That was quick! I love egg times. Those were the best. I candled my eggs everyday so I pretty much know what day an egg is by seeing a picture of the candled egg. Good times. I hope you'll share your breeding journey with us.

I don't let the birds start breeding early enough to have babies in time for the spring bird mart. The next bird mart is on April 24 and the babies will start hatching around April 16, so they'll still be in the nest on the big day and some of them might still be in the egg. The summer bird mart is in July and the chicks will be about three months old then, so they'll be ready for that one.

I have a different technique for tracking the development of the eggs. I write the laying date on the egg with a sharpie marker so I know when it's due to hatch. I candle the eggs periodically to make sure they're still viable, but I don't do it every day because I don't like to disturb the parents too much. I had to fight Buster this morning so I could borrow the egg for a few seconds to write the date on it.

Congratulations! Babies will be coming soon.

I write dates on my eggs too. I still liked to check it to see the development. I thought it was interesting. My birds didn't care either. They were tame with me.

My birds are tame, but they are NOT PLEASED when I start poking around in the nestbox. Vlad is an absolute demon - I have to use gloves or a towel to remove him if I don't want him gnawing on my flesh like a piranha. Sometimes he'll jump on my head and start banging my skull with his beak like a woodpecker. He can't do any actual harm up there so that's just hilarious. But every now and then he'll decide to stop the head-banging and go for my ear instead, which is not a happy outcome for me.

The parents gradually relax as time goes on. Except for Vlad. By the time the chicks are starting to feather out, most of them don't really care whether I stick my hand in the nest or not. But every year we have to go through the "angry parents defending the nest" stage.

Marshmallow and Bio were pretty mellow with me. They would hiss at me, but they saw me as a co-parent. I did have to take their job at the end because Marshmallow was just plucking them, and Bio escaped. I enjoyed breeding. I thought it was pretty neat. I won't reject to Rio breeding if he wants to. I'll probably let them have one chick if they even decide. That's many years ahead though. Rio is single and ready to mingle. Heck, I don't even know his sex

Does there ever come a point where you can tell with sun conures, or do you have to get a DNA test? Or figure it out when an egg is laid lol.

I came home to another egg, from Pip and Ladybug this time.

Nope. Males and females look the same for sun conures. DNA test and egg laying can sex lol. I'm just waiting for him to either the male, or female mating position.