Note to self:start marking eggs....

I wasn't going to post this but I know many of you have first time clutches so I thought it may be of help to someone. As most of you know, we have a clutch of six eggs at the moment, they were laid, 1/29,1/30,2/1,2/3,2/5, and 2/7. Baby one hatched at day 19, baby two hatched at day 18 and about 20 hours(so pretty close to day 19), and baby three also hatched on day 19. Given this, I expected egg four to hatch on day 19 as well, which would have been 2/22(two days ago). Well, we just had baby 4 hatch today which either means that egg four hatched on day 21 or this is actually egg five and it hatched on day 19. Ugh, I'm really wishing now that I had marked the eggs with numbers. Is it possible that egg 4 is just taking longer to hatch because momma has been spending more time feeding the first 3 babies and less time sitting on the eggs? Or is it more likely that egg 4 just won't hatch and this is egg five? I guess there's really no way to know other than to just wait, and even then I really won't know for sure which egg he came out of.
Either way, I'm just happy that so far 4 of 6 have hatched and are all healthy but in the future, I will be marking the eggs so I don't have this confusion and for those of you that have eggs now, or will soon, I can highly suggest that you mark them to avoid this kind of confusion. Of course, always be sure that your hands are VERY clean before you handle any eggs and be sure to use either a pencil(may rub off) or a felt tip pen.

Here's a picture of the four of them. The newest baby is so tiny, his little body is about the size of the others' heads! I looked in today to find three big heads and one tiny little body lol

You must be a very proud foster mommy!

Good idea for other breeders on marking the eggs!

I would use a water soluble marker.
I had the same problem , sometimes they do hatch later then expected. It just ends up to be a waiting game. Another thing , sometimes the eggs can get pretty caked up with feces. ( IMO) This can inhibit the chick from breaking out and I would think it can affect the eggs internal temperature. You cant pick off the feces because you can break the egg. I found a warm wet tissue and a super light touch will help keep get most of the feces off.

Congrats on #4. I bet you'll end up with 6 little ones all together ; )

luvmytooo said:

I would use a water soluble marker.

Click to expand...

I would only use a water soluble marker if you want the numbers to rub off long before they hatch. I also suspect pencil would rub off quickly as well.
Ultra fine sharpies work great to label eggs as long as you are extremely careful not to punch through the shell. We've labeled well over 2000 finch eggs with sharpies with fewer than 100 accidental breaks.

I've seen both scenarios where egg 4 is a dud, or egg 4 hatched late. My guess though would be that egg 4 is a dud. But you'll never know for sure.

the sharpie doesn't hurt the babies at all? I was kind of afraid of using a marker because I know eggs are porous and I would hate for the ink to seep into the egg and hurt or kill the bird growing inside.

I just checked the nest again and the fourth baby didn't make it I was worried all day that she wasn't feeding him because of the three bigger ones but I kept telling myself I was worrying for nothing, that 4 babies is a normal clutch size and that she could do it. I even pulled two of them out for about ten minutes earlier, trying to get her to feed the smallest one but she still didn't. I'm pretty upset about it but in all honestly, we only had him a day, and I know that sometimes they don't all make it, there really wasn't much I could have done. My fiance on the other hand, is very, very upset. He almost seems like he's mad at the female because she didn't feed him. I keep telling him not to be so upset and I'm honestly really surprised that he is getting this emotional about it. But it looks like we will be burying the little guy tomorrow, I know it probably seems weird to bury such a tiny little chick, but I can't bring myself to just toss a life in the trash, no matter how small.

IcyWolf said:

the sharpie doesn't hurt the babies at all? I was kind of afraid of using a marker because I know eggs are porous and I would hate for the ink to seep into the egg and hurt or kill the bird growing inside.

Click to expand...

No , not a sharpie , but a water based marker . because it can get absorbed thru the egg shell...kids markers work great.

IcyWolf said:

I just checked the nest again and the fourth baby didn't make it I was worried all day that she wasn't feeding him because of the three bigger ones but I kept telling myself I was worrying for nothing, that 4 babies is a normal clutch size and that she could do it. I even pulled two of them out for about ten minutes earlier, trying to get her to feed the smallest one but she still didn't. I'm pretty upset about it but in all honestly, we only had him a day, and I know that sometimes they don't all make it, there really wasn't much I could have done. My fiance on the other hand, is very, very upset. He almost seems like he's mad at the female because she didn't feed him. I keep telling him not to be so upset and I'm honestly really surprised that he is getting this emotional about it. But it looks like we will be burying the little guy tomorrow, I know it probably seems weird to bury such a tiny little chick, but I can't bring myself to just toss a life in the trash, no matter how small.

Click to expand...

AWw , honey , Im sorry. But I do feel something wasnt right with the chick from the beginning and thats why she didnt feed it right away...we will never know , but its rare that a hen will have trouble feeding only four babies.....just my opinion though...if you still want to pull the others before two weeks , I will tell you though you wont get much sleep , its a tough time and theyre is a chance they may not make it.....
I would leave them with her , if she is feeding them all ..and just keep an eye on them...but i feel they will be fine. My hens were excellent mothers their first time around ,so I really think the chick was sick somehow from the beginning.

luvmytooo said:

IcyWolf said:

the sharpie doesn't hurt the babies at all? I was kind of afraid of using a marker because I know eggs are porous and I would hate for the ink to seep into the egg and hurt or kill the bird growing inside.

Click to expand...

No , not a sharpie , but a water based marker . because it can get absorbed thru the egg shell...kids markers work great.

Click to expand...

Have you used such markers to label eggs? I'd be shocked if they didn't rub off. I know dry-erase type markers do within a couple days.
Granted, zebra finches are super hardy, but they have much thinner shells so I imagine any negative effect would be amplified because of that. For all the many reasons nests fail and babies die, sharpie on the shell isn't one of them.

Kids markers are a bit longer lasting then dry erase markers , if you keep checking them , you can fix any rub off. Trying to mark the eggs with a pencil and not breakany , its not easy . And IMO , I personally would worry about the lead.
I would NOT use a sharpie...I mean , why even wash your hands then ?
Just how I see it , like I said , Im not a very experienced breeder , just a careful once in a while breeder.

luvmytooo said:

Kids markers are a bit longer lasting then dry erase markers , if you keep checking them , you can fix any rub off. Trying to mark the eggs with a pencil and not breakany , its not easy . And IMO , I personally would worry about the lead.
I would NOT use a sharpie...I mean , why even wash your hands then ?
Just how I see it , like I said , Im not a very experienced breeder , just a careful once in a while breeder.

Click to expand...

I've put quite a bit of information on quite a lot of very small eggs using pencil... it's really not that hard if you're cautious and gentle.
Also, pencils don't use lead anymore; they use graphite, which is basically just carbon. The well-established molecular biologist I work with trusts labeling finch eggs with pencil not to disrupt fetal development.

I suppose I am thinking in terms of labeling a few hundred eggs at a time... relabeling that many every day would literally eat like 6 hours, every day. But it shouldn't be a problem when you only have a single nest, or a couple.

mcw009 said:

luvmytooo said:

Kids markers are a bit longer lasting then dry erase markers , if you keep checking them , you can fix any rub off. Trying to mark the eggs with a pencil and not breakany , its not easy . And IMO , I personally would worry about the lead.
I would NOT use a sharpie...I mean , why even wash your hands then ?
Just how I see it , like I said , Im not a very experienced breeder , just a careful once in a while breeder.

Click to expand...

I've put quite a bit of information on quite a lot of very small eggs using pencil... it's really not that hard if you're cautious and gentle.
Also, pencils don't use lead anymore; they use graphite, which is basically just carbon. The well-established molecular biologist I work with trusts labeling finch eggs with pencil not to disrupt fetal development.

I suppose I am thinking in terms of labeling a few hundred eggs at a time... relabeling that many every day would literally eat like 6 hours, every day. But it shouldn't be a problem when you only have a single nest, or a couple.

Click to expand...

Your right , that would be a bit time consuming to say the least

luvmytooo said:

mcw009 said:

luvmytooo said:

Kids markers are a bit longer lasting then dry erase markers , if you keep checking them , you can fix any rub off. Trying to mark the eggs with a pencil and not breakany , its not easy . And IMO , I personally would worry about the lead.
I would NOT use a sharpie...I mean , why even wash your hands then ?
Just how I see it , like I said , Im not a very experienced breeder , just a careful once in a while breeder.

Click to expand...

I've put quite a bit of information on quite a lot of very small eggs using pencil... it's really not that hard if you're cautious and gentle.
Also, pencils don't use lead anymore; they use graphite, which is basically just carbon. The well-established molecular biologist I work with trusts labeling finch eggs with pencil not to disrupt fetal development.

I suppose I am thinking in terms of labeling a few hundred eggs at a time... relabeling that many every day would literally eat like 6 hours, every day. But it shouldn't be a problem when you only have a single nest, or a couple.

Click to expand...

Your right , that would be a bit time consuming to say the least

Click to expand...

You have no idea!


Also I feel really insensitive; I'm sorry to hear the little guy didn't make it. I've sometimes gotten invested in certain pairs and felt the way your fiance did, even though I know it's irrational and they're just birds (in the sense that they aren't being malicious when they aren't good parents).

I will give the pencil a try next time , thanks. I just would be so scared to damage a egg by pushing too hard....I could never forgive myself if I broke one.