This is a tale of my two smallest children. Katie a 2 year parakeet and her friend Pee Wee who is 3 years old. Katie and Pee Wee enjoy their time out every night after the bigger birds have gone to bed. They fly from cage to cage playing with everyone’s toys and getting into mischief.

One day Katie decided to lay eggs. At first, I was not impressed with the idea. After all, she is my baby. After laying several eggs in the bottom of the big birds cages and since none of my attempts to stop her seemed to help, I decided to give her a nest box in her own cage. At first, she was not to sure about the nest box, so I started putting her eggs in the box so she would get the idea. Finally, she did….

Her first clutch consisted of 7 eggs. She started laying her eggs on May 6, 2004. She would lay one egg every other day and soon was spending most of her time in the nest box. The eggs began hatching after 17 days, one every other day until there were 6 babies. As the babies began to hatch it became every exciting to me watching the babies grow. She would allow me to open the box to check the babies and as they became older, I would take them out to hold. She would make a little fuss but became accustom to my intrusion. She turned out to be a very good mother with beautiful babies.

These are the pictures of the babies as they were growing up. I have 2 of her first clutch left. Katie laid her second clutch of 5 eggs starting on August 3, 2004. I still have all 5 babies and will be donating these babies for the hourly raffle at our clubs expo in November. She is now hatching her 3rd clutch of 7 eggs which began hatching October 4, 2004. She has hatched 6 of the 7 eggs.

It was a lot of work for both her and me. I make sure she has fresh greens, broccoli, carrots, and eggs every day. I also make a mixture of cuttle bone, eggshell and vitamins to sprinkle over her food daily. The babies are fun and enjoyable to watch…even as they fight over the swing. All the babies still eat their greens and broccoli everyday, as do all my other birds.

It has been a wonderful experience. I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to put in the extra time and effort.

Written by: Penny Halley

©2004 Imperial Bird Club