tiny blue chicken

Obviously, this is NOT a tiny blue chicken, although Pear the Budgie seems to think she is. Fact of the matter is that she's become a willing subject to Pineapple's advances, and for a couple of weeks now she's been gracing us with a new egg on the cage bottom every other day. Which would be fine if we could do something with them. You know, like make a tiny omelet. But really, there's not much you can do with a parakeet egg, other than make other parakeets.

I mean, look at the size of that thing! It's the size of the nail on my little finger!

We've been taking them out as she's laid them, given that we really don't WANT any more parakeets, and I was hoping the stress of having them disappear on a regular basis would be enough to convince her to stop laying. I mean, in addition to the fact that we've purposely been doing everything WRONG if we'd wanted to be breeding Budgies. Their cage is in the kids' room, at the foot of Zoo Boy's bed, so they have two laughing rambunctious children jumping in their face all day long, not to mention at least two cats at at time staring through the bars of their cage licking their lips. Tropical birds need warm temperatures, an abundance of fresh foods, humid conditions, and a steady supply of light to breed. These birds live in a room that is never above 65 degrees, get dry seed, in a room that's a dry as a bone, and have lights on at varying times of day and night. Yet, they're popping out eggs like it was rainy season in the tropics.

All this reproductive energy has caused strife in our previously harmonious birdie community. So much so that we had to remove Lemon and Apple from the larger flight cage to their own accommodations, just to protect them. I didn't feel right about separating the pairs that were already bonded (they REALLY love each other, and Pineapple and Apple, the two males, just don't get along, so I just couldn't subject them to living with each other as roommates for the rest of their lives). And we eventually gave in and provided Pear with a safer place than the cage bottom to put her eggs (which she's continued to lay despite the change in living arrangements), so the egg that was laid today will stay (it's not good for her to be laying so many eggs, poor thing, and once she has a full clutch -- anywhere from 4 to 7 -- she'll stop laying). It remains to be seen, but my guess is that we're going to be looking for homes for little blue and white parakeets come spring. Put in your reservations now! The kids are pretty excited at the prospect of watching little birdies hatch out, and now that I've gotten used to the idea (and spoken with the local pet store owner to make sure he'll buy any birdies we have to sell), it has the makings of a pretty cool homeschooling project.

Meanwhile, the happy couple is taking full advantage of their private bridal suite. I don't see how they have time to eat, they are too busy try to make sure every one of those tiny eggs is well fertilized. They particularly like getting busy when it's the kids' rest time. Zoo Boy, on observing them for the better part of an hour one day, said to me "Look at the birds!" I said, "Oh? I wonder what they're doing?" I figured he'd tell me that Pear was giving Pineapple a piggy back ride, or that Pineapple was practicing for the circus with Pear. Nope. "They're marrying," was his explanation.

Farm kids. No need to explain the birds and bees to them!