Reproduced by kind permission of Austanschzentrate der Vogelliebhaber und Zuchter Deutschlands (A.Z.) e.V.
In January, I bought from a well known breeder a suitable 8 month old hen for one of my budgerigar cocks. I put it in with the cock and they seemed to get on together well. Very soon the hen went to the nesting box and offered herself to the cock for mating. But I noticed again and again that the cock could not make up his mind whether he wanted to or not. Six eggs were eventually laid, but I soon found out that they were not fertilized. I therefore decided to separate the two birds despite their obvious affection for one another, and mated the hen with an old, experienced breeding cock. The first cock was taken out of hearing range. For the rest of the breeding time, nothing happened, because the hen rejected the new cock. By now it was May and the whole brood was put in the big outdoor aviary where the first cock and the hen in question met again. They stayed together until autumn.
When winter came, and I allocated the pairs for mating, I remembered the awkwardness of this particular cock and for safety reasons I put him in with a lower standard hen, but I mated our problem hen with an experienced cock. Eggs were laid soon, but once again, these were infertile. This time, the hen refused to be mated. I therefore tried to use her as a foster hen. As I had several fertilized hatching, I took two of the fertilized eggs and put them under her. After about 6 days both eggs hatched. However, the young were immediately killed by a bite in the neck from the hen and put aside. I wanted to give her another chance and waited for the second hatching. It was the same as before, the eggs were infertile. Once again, I offered her two strange eggs, but the young were bitten to death again.
As I was about to discard this unmotherly female, I remembered her first cock from the previous year. he had just finished raising his young successfully and I knew that he was capable of fertilizing. So I rearranged the pairs and as soon as his old "girlfriend" was inside the cage, she was quite willing to be mated by the cock and disappeared into the nesting box. After 5 days the first egg was laid.
However, I did not give it much attention, as I had not much ope of success. On the 16th day I became so curious that I had to look and see if any eggs had been fertilized. The miracle had been performed - they were all fertile! Now I had to wait and see whether she would kill her young as she had done before.
Well, the result is that now, with the partner of her choice, this budgerigar hen is the most caring mother you can imagine! Budgerigars are very very unpredictable to say the least.
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