Canary breeding - advice please?

Question

I have 2 canaries, a male and female. The female has been bred before, but only twice. The male is a complete first timer. However, my question is, they are in the same cage and appear to be in love. She has made a nest and yesterday she laid an egg, which she is incubating, however, it was not followed by another egg today. Is this usual to only lay one egg and is it more likely to be infertile because there is only one?

Thanks, and although they are in a cage together, getting all the right diet, I have not seen them actually mate, which I do know is usual for birds (they like their privacy)

Answer 1

Most birds lay 1 egg each morning at dawn for 5 days. Make sure her underside can get moistened by a bath so she has enough humidity for the eggs to be able to hatch.

Answer 2

It isn't totally unheard of for a canary hen to lay a egg and skip a day before she lays her clutch. You definitely wouldn't want to breed out of her if she only lays one egg. You would prefer to have hens that lay 4-6 eggs per clutch.

I have a friend who spent thousands of dollars to import his pigeons from his homeland of Greece. When I first met him he bragged about his best breeding hen. She only laid one egg per season but it was always a fantastic pigeon. This went on for four or five years. I start flying this variety of pigeon also. I got my start from this Greek guy.

Most of the hens would only lay one or two clutches a season. Some hens were laid out before their second year was up. He had ruined that family of birds by breeding that hen and her progeny into the rest of his birds. You will mess up Canaries by breeding out of a hen like this.

She might finish laying her nest in the next couple of days. If it goes over two days without a egg then pull her and find a real canary hen. A hen does her best breeding the first two season that she is bred. The third year they seem to fall off considerably. Then they are not much count from a breeding stand point. That is all the hens are much good for. They don't sing and most stay ragged from pulling feathers.

Answer 3

i am a canary breeder and i have had them for pets for 5yrs. It is common for them to lay one egg and then the next day not to lay an egg. My hen will have 2eggs in a row and then no egg and then 2 days later poof an egg.

I have seen mine mate before but usually they do it when your not in the room/paying attention.

as for the egg she is incubat... take it out and put it in seeds.

when she lays an eggs right away take them out because when she has an egg she will sit on it and she will not allow the male to fertilaze the egg because she is sitting, you take out her eggs daily and usually by 3-5eggs you return them. That way all babies are the same size and have equal chance of survival and all the eggs are fertilized. I do that and so far my hen has had 2 clutches of 5 and usually 3 or 4 chicks hatch the same day and the odd chick hatches a day later.  however sometimes i dont remove the eggs and there is only 1-2 in the clutch

best of luck

Answer 4

just give them some time