Chris Meistre

On 1 July 2009 I saw that we had another Love Bird egg in the nest.  2 days later there were a total of 5 eggs in there.  So hopefully around the 29th we should have some little babies!

Love Bird Eggs

At the same time I saw the little Diamond Doves had laid eggs as well.  So this whole week I’ve been checking the nest morning and night to see when it will hatch.  For the last 2 days there’s been little cracks on the eggs.  I checked this morning, nothing.  When we checked tonight, one baby had hatched.  I think this is the soonest we’ve seen them just after hatching.

I will wait a week or two for them to first start getting fed by the parents, and then I’d like to try and hand rear these Diamond Doves.  Don’t even know if it’s possible to tame them?

Little Baby Diamond Dove - Around 3 hours old

It’s so sad to even be writing this.  Yesterday when we checked up on the little lovebird hatchling’s progress, we found him lying still and lifeless in the nest.  On closer inspection it looked like he perhaps snapped his neck somehow, because he was lying very awkwardly and it was red/blue around his neck.

The lovebirds feed the little ones while the little ones are lying on their backs, so somewhere after having being fed, something must’ve happened.

We were so excited about this little one, giving it the name Jojo and planning on how we’re going to hand rear it, even worrying how the dogs are going to react to another pet in the house.

It’s always difficult when stuff like this happens to animals, or when they get mistreated, because I always wonder how they must feel or what must be going through their little minds.

RIP little Jojo

The first little lovebird hatchling is now 5 days old, and we’re still waiting for it’s brothers and sisters to hatch.  It’s amazing how quickly the little one has grown.

It’s wonderful to be watching the parents take care of this little chick.  Every now and then you’ll see them both come out of the nest covered in food.  Then it’s a process of cleaning and washing themselves before they disappear into the nest again.

On Sunday evening I was sitting in the lounge wondering why the lovebirds are still making little noises so late in the evening.  Normally once they go into their little nest for the evening, they’re quiet until the next morning.

Anyways, I wrote it off as them just being nervous about becoming parents soon.  On Monday morning I checked their food and water, and decided I want to check into their nest as well.  The first thing that was strange as I opened the little nest box, was that they did not fly away like they normally do.  They just moved to the one side and sat and watched me.

I was surprised to see this little ball of pink crawling around the nest.  I had to look twice before I clicked that it’s one of the hatch-lings.  I’m so glad I brought them into the house just in time, because now it’s easier to monitor the progress of the chicks.

When I check this morning again, one of the other eggs also had a crack in it, so by this evening or tomorrow morning there should be another one.  Already one day later, it has a lot more fluff on.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that there were some more eggs in some of the nests.

The lovebirds now have 4 eggs that should hatch any day now.  When I saw the first egg, it looked really tiny, but by the time there were 4, I could swear the eggs had grown in size.  I don’t know if this is possible though, as I haven’t been able to find any information on this.  I’m quite excited about these, because I want to hand rear the chicks.  It falls at a difficult time though, as we will be away soon for a while, so I’ll need to get someone to help me feed them.  Last night I took them from the outside aviary and brought them in using a cage we’ve got here.  It will be easier for me to check up on them eating, and to see when the eggs finally hatch.  While sitting outside and watching them before I brought them in, I noticed the funniest thing.  The female would go into the nest, and as soon as the male wanted to come in she would chase him out.  It was funny at the time, but I wondered if something was wrong though.  She was probably just angry with him for some reason, because later the evening they were both snuggled into the nest, so they must’ve made up!

The new quails I got have 5 eggs that should also hatch within the next week or two.  These eggs are the most amazing colored eggs I’ve ever seen.  They’ve got a gold color with black spots on them.  The gold makes the eggs look like real gold!

The one finch pair also had 2 eggs in their little nest, but I do not really see any of them sitting on the eggs, so I don’t think they’ll hatch.

I’m glad we decided to start with keeping on birds, it’s amazing to see them courting, and how they react towards each other.