Okay Robin, thanks for the extra information. You didn't say how old she is but if she, and her mate are anything less than 2 years for her and 18 months for him, they are waaaaay too young to be allowed to actually hatch any eggs. The advice I'm going to give you, you may not like so I'll do my best to help you understand the why I'm suggesting it. In the first place, she has reached a point where she is on the edge of over laying. She has seriously depleted her calcium reserves making solid shells for those eggs. The cuttle bone is the only thing standing between her and the life threatening situation of becoming egg bound. She needs a place to keep her eggs safe from being damaged but you do not want to provide her with anything that even remotely resembles a true nest box. Nest boxes are semi dark and much too "private and safe". An enclosure like that will only spur her to lay even more eggs than she might otherwise. That's a possible serious health issue which I'll address. I suggest giving her one of the clear plastic, shoe box size storage boxes like you can find at WalMart, KMart, etc. Leave the lid off, line the box with many layers of plain white paper towels, and ever so gently, (while you are probably being pecked and fussed at) move her egg into the box. Now, for the health issues. You must be ever vigilant that she is getting enough calcium from a literally bottomless source. The easiest and most obvious is to keep her in cuttlebones. She will likely go through them very quickly right now. She must have very good calcium reserves in order to produce firm, solid egg shells and to help give her body the ability to produce the contractions needed to deliver the egg. If she is calcium deficient, her body will start to pull calcium from her bones. The danger of broken bones is obvious. The added danger is when there is not enough calcium, from anywhere, her eggs will become soft shelled. She will not be able to pass them and will become egg bound. The danger that goes hand in hand with this is an egg could rupture inside of her. Either of those two scenarios is a life threatening emergency and she will die without intervention from a well qualitifed avian vet. If your bird is on a seed only diet, she is in danger of serious health problems, with or without the added physical stress of laying eggs. I'm going to give you a link to diet information for birds. A good quality, name brand seed mix should not be more than 20%-30% of her dailey intake. She needs a good brand of pellets (LaFeber is one of my personal favorites), fresh vegetables, cooked brown rice, well cooked bean mixes, cooked pasta, hard boiled or scrambled eggs, etc. They also need green leafy items like Kale, Mustard, Turnip and Collard greens and Romaine lettuce. No ice berg and no spinach. The lists will give you additional suggestions. It will also list some fruits but don't be surprised if she won't eat them. Many Tiels do not care for fruit. If she is on a seed only diet right now, she will probably be resistant to the new, strange items but do not give up. Keep offering them. Just don't leave her "wet" food bowl out more than a couple hours as it can quickly grow harmful bacteria. The reason you need to leave all undamaged eggs with her is because Tiels are what we call "opportunistic layers". If her eggs are damaged or removed, she will, more than likely, continue to try to replace them, leading to the above health risks. If something should happen to her eggs so that they have to be pitched, a reasonable substitute needs to be found. You can probably find a reasonably sized facimile egg at craft stores and place them in her box. I'll be giving you a ton of links to a lot more, in depth information about proper diet, safety issues because of the toxic products you have and probably use without realizing how dangerous they are and very important, links to locate your nearest true Avian vet, in case you don't have one yet. Even if you don't need one now, it's wise to get him/her located and put it with your other emergency numbers. Odds are when you need one, it's going to be an emergency and neither you nor the bird will have time for you to have to search one out. Several of the links will refer to other species of birds but the basics are the same. Now, my advice about the eggs, I always advise folks how I would handle situations, if they were my own birds. (And 6 of my flock of 9 are Tiels.) I would take half those eggs at a time, I would gently hard boil them, put a tiny mark on them with a felt tip, return them to her but in the clear box, and boil the rest. I would get rid of the private nest box as soon as I had all the eggs boiled and relocated. Beyond insuring she has the safe, yet not private place for her eggs and making sure she has the proper diet and calcium, there is nothing else for you to do beyond waiting her out. Normal gestation time for Tiel eggs is 19-21 days. She may sit her eggs that long, maybe less, maybe more. You just have to be sure, beyond any doubt, that she has totally abandoned them before removing. To take them too soon, is to inspire more. If you have not seen her go near them for at least 3-4 days, then it should be safe to remove them. Because of their very young age, there are a lot of problems that can arise in a breeding situation that is happening way too early. There can be malformed chicks, chicks requiring assisted hatches and even if the hatching goes okay, the parents are still babies themselves and they may, or may not, be able to, or even know how, to properly feed the little ones. Should that happen, no matter the time of day or night, first you have to be able to instantly recognize the problem. Then you need to be able to step in and hand feed those babies, every two hours, around the clock. You will have to already have proper hand feeding formula and everything that is required, ready and waiting. That alone is a monumental task, even for an experienced breeder and hand feeder. Hand feeding is not something that can be learned, only by reading about it. It must be learned, hands on, with an experienced person standing right over your shoulder. Inexperienced people, attempting to hand feed, 99 out of 100 times, will kill the chick the first try. Included in all these links are detailed instructions about hand feeding and the myriad of problems that will arise if you are not absolutely precise in every step of it, including keeping that formula at exactly the correct temperature and consistency, knowing how to feed without forcing it into their lungs, knowing how to immediately recognize slow crop, sour crop, impacted crop, on and on. I expect you are seeing by now, this is not in the least, a simple matter. Raising birds, safely, goes so far beyond just putting two of the opposite together and crossing our fingers. I'm also going to give you a link to explain "candling". That is how we determine if an egg is fertile. I'm doing my best here to help you prepare, no matter what your final decision may be. But I can't stress too heavily, how bad of an idea, and how heartbreaking it could turn out to be, if you let them bring this clutch to a hatch. If you will boil those eggs, use the several months you have to really study up on the whole thing, you will be in a better position to proceed safely, if you want to allow them to sit fertile eggs, after they are plenty old enough. Alrighty, I'm sure you didn't expect to get a "novel" as an answer but as you now see, nothing about bird keeping is simple or easy and attempting to raise them is not a money making, walk in the park. I hope this helps but if you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask. I want to to be totally comfortable with what ever decision you make. Patricia.
Life After Weaning - Your Companion Bird and You
Caring For Your Pet Cockatiel
Fatty Liver Disease in Cockatiels
Click here: Cockatiels as Pets - Choosing a Cockatiel, Cages and Feeding
Click here: Alerts Dangers and Toxins for Pet Birds Parrots
Click here: Bird; Birds: Safe, Toxic Trees, Woods. Safe Tree Wood. Poisonous. Parrots.
Click here: Toxic and Safe Plants/Trees for Birds - Household Poisons
Click here: Birdsnways - Safe Plants & Trees for pet birds, pet parrots &exotic birds
Toronto Humane Society :: Common Poisonous Plants
Click here: Find your local Avian Veterinarian
Click here: Avian Veterinarians Recommended by Bird Breeders and Owners http://www.birdsnways.com/articles/abvpvets.htm
Click here: Avian Vet List
Click here: BirdsnWays - Avian Veterinarians - Vets - Vet Services for Pet Parrots & Exotic Birds
This one looks like an advertisement for Harrison pellets but they are only sold by vets so it's another good list to check. Click here: Harrison's Bird Foods is a family of certified organic pet bird diets that were formulated to make your bird as he
Candling Eggs - Incubation and Embryology - University of Illinois ...
Learn about Candling Eggs - 4-H Embryology
Candling Pictures by The Easy Chicken for beginners
Click here: Handfeeding Step-By-Step
Click here: BirdsnWays - Possible Hand Feeding Problems
Click here: Breeding Lovebirds Part II Handfeeding Weaning and Socializing
Click here: QuakerParrots.com - Abundance Weaning
Click here: Winged Wisdom Pet Bird magazine ezine - Bountiful Weaning produces quality pet birds and parrots
Click here: Abundant Weaning & Fledging
Click here: Album: Assisted Hatch Click here: Album: Assisted Hatch
Click here: Breeding Cockatiels, Assisting Egg to Hatch, Assisted Hatch, Egg won't hatch,Photographs of Baby Cockatiels from E
Click here: assisted hatching
Click here: Assisted Hatch of a Red Fronted Macaw Egg The one of the Macaw has some of the best pictures.
Parrot C&onsultant
Published author, free lance bird behaviorist, adviser to the parrots at Sarasota Jungle Gardens.