April 24, 1998 The Ringnecks were a little slow to start mating this year. There was alot of distraction in their immediate environment (they were sharing the childrens' playroom) and coupled with the fact that they were recently relocated from an outside aviary in Florida to their new indoor environment in Georgia could all be contributing factors to the delay in beginning the mating process. Today the male (Pete) began to re-line the box with a mixture of regurgitated newspaper and regurged molted feathers. A little later on he was seen mounting the female (Petra).
April 25, 1998 The courtship ritual begins .... Petra sits on the perch watching Pete eat seeds below the perch. He then he flies up to the perch, raises his foot in the direction of Petra, and proceeds to "kiss" her (feeds her regurged seed). They do this several times before Petra goes back to the box. Pete does a lot of displaying to the hen, dilating his eyes in the process. There is a lot of commotion in the box before Petra emerges and it all begins again. BTW, Pete is becoming more sociable these days and actually greeted me with a "Hello" two days ago, but now that the courtship has begun, he is oblivious to his surroundings.
April 27, 1998 Pete is taking care of so many of Petra's needs, including preening her feathers. I very seldom see her eat, but she is getting plumpish.
May 9, 1998 Took a peek inside the breeder box ... Petra has now laid her eggs. I could see two, but only got a short look because the hen was quick to obscure my view in her attempt to protect the nest. Not sure if one egg was cracked, or if the dark spot I saw was just a bit of the new feather lining in the box.
May 13, 1998 One of the eggs must have been cracked. I found it this morning laying outside of the breeder box, the egg still full, but a seeping crack on it's side. Since I hadn't physically inspected the egg until this morning, when it was easily accessible, I don't know when the crack occurred, but I suspect that this did not happen when originally laid, as the birds would have removed it at that time.
Noticed that the pair is back to doing their courting routine, so I thought I'd wait until they were done romancing and settled down again before taking a peek inside the nesting box. A nice surprise was waiting for me ... three eggs. Not sure when the additional two were laid, but considering that the normal clutch for Ringnecks is 4 eggs, then they are right "on track". As far as them courting again today, I hadn't seen this activity since the first pair of eggs was laid. Perhaps the hen only dropped the last two after this activity.
June 2, 1998 I hear some very muffled sounds from the box. Took a quick look and both Peep and Poop have now hatched. Third egg has been relocated in the box, away from the chicks.
June 9, 1998 The third egg still has not hatched. Rule of thumb is to pull it three days after the 2nd chick hatched. I've been more than patient. The Hen is quite aggressive and protective of her clutch, so I'm going to try a small fish net to see if I can scoop the egg out of the box without getting bitten.
Surprise, surprise! While the fish net idea worked great, I discovered that the egg I'd been watching was only a half shell. Couldn't see evidence of a whole egg anywhere, so it's history now. Hen was quick to reposition the chicks though after my intrusive actions. I can no longer see them from my vantage point either.
June 10, 1998 I thought about it early this morning .... I've been HEARING the Hen turn an egg in the box. Poked my head in again and found it :)) Fish net worked great :))) Too bad we can't design a little soft leather fish net to scoop the babies out with. Or, can we??
June 13, 1998 In combination with my heart beating too fast, the hen making terrible noises at me, the male screetching like Hell and my hands just not being agile enough, I'm having trouble holding the flashlight, managing the "net" (to keep her away) and getting my third hand in the box to pull the babies. I've got a pair of leather gloves which are obviously necessary.
Got 'em !!!!! I hung the flashlight on the wall ... didn't use the net .... and just stuck my gloved hand in the box and pulled each chick. Hen never tried to get me :))
Each chick only took 1 1/2 cc of formula for their first feeding before their crops were full, both taking to the syringe without any difficulty. After a bit of a fuss the chicks have found each other in their little box and are snuggled and sleeping now :) They'll be on a 2 hour feeding schedule around the clock for the first week which will be adjusted to a 4 hour schedule once their intake reaches 2 to 3 cc per feeding.
Now that the chicks have been pulled, the pen and box get a thorough scrubbing in preparation for the next clutch. It's interesting to observe Pete and Petra now ... in human terms they appear to be clinically depressed, quietly sitting on the perch, not interacting with one another, totally ignoring their food and water. A couple of slices of a Golden Delicious Apple has been enough to entice them to eat, and after a few hours, they were again consuming their higher fat diet as well.
June 15, 1998 It's nice to hear the soothing tones of Pete and Petra this morning as the bonded pair once again begin to interact with each other.