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Hello, this is my first post on this board. I have 7 tiels and 2 parakeets who I adore. My question is about one of my female tiels. I got them as a pair back in January and 2 weeks after I brought them home, they laid a clutch of 5 eggs, 4 that were fertile and hatched. They were both great parents except they started plucking the babies so I hand fed them.

At the beginning of this month I went out of town for a couple of days and when I came back she had laid 2 eggs, one on June 7th and one on the 8th. It is now 2 weeks later and she laid a total of 8 eggs, 5 that are fertile. The thing is that for the 3rd time last night she wouldn't sit on the eggs at night. She did this last Thurs. night as well. Then on Sat. night and now last night. She sits on them until around 2:00 am and then comes out and won't go back into the box until morning but then she sits on them all day long just fine. She never did this with the last clutch so I have no idea what is going on. What are the chances of these eggs even hatching? The first one should be hatching this week but they don't seem to be as developed as the previous clutch at this stage. Of course, it was a while ago so I don't really remember what they looked like this close to hatching. Has she suddenly decided to become a bad mom or do I just have to trust that she knows what she is doing?

The male & female "job share" sitting on the eggs. Is the male sitting on the eggs at all?

I know they are over 2 years old but I have no idea how old they actually are. They eat pellets, veggies, some seed. This is their 2nd clutch with me. I did not give them a box or anything when she laid the first 2 eggs, like I said, I came home and they were just there but when they made it clear that she was going to be laying more I put a nestbox in and it went on from there. Not all the eggs were laid every day. The first 3 were laid one after another, the next 3 a day apart and the last 2 were back to back. They both sit on the eggs together all day long and split them up. He gets 2, she takes 6. It's only at night when he doesn't sit on them that she comes out. She chirps like she is trying to get him to come back in the box but when he doesn't, she stays out as well. It only happens every other night though so go figure. It's almost like she suddenly doesn't want to be alone in there. If I turn on the light and uncover them, she will go back in the box for a little bit but when he doesn't go back in she comes out. They are in a cage that is 32x32x32 by themselves. Could she feel overwhelmed with 8 eggs to sit on? It's just confusing because with their last clutch everything went just the way it's supposed to. They would both sit on them during the day and at night she would sit by herself with no problems. Now all of a sudden she's gone goofy on me, lol. I am going to candle the eggs better today and see how they are doing. I guess it's just a wait and see thing now.