Two Hen Budgies In One Nest Box? Chick Colours?

[zena]

Hi all,
I have been given a pair of breeding budgies from a friend who is moving and she didn't want to give them away to any of the people who showed an interest in them (Most of them had really tiny cages for the pair- or knew nothing about looking after budgies apart for giving them seed and water!). So we ('we' being me and my step dad) took them and they have settled in nicely with my other budgie pair. I have nest boxes in there but that was mainly for my other pair (Hen with cancer) as she sleeps in the boxes with her mate. The other pair I have now are a blue spangle hen, and a blue dilute cock. The hen has layed 11 eggs (which I think is a lot...) and now both my hens are in the one box. I looked in the box today and my grey hen has 'adopted' 4 of the eggs the original mother couldn't sit on. Should I move the eggs my grey hen has fostered and put them in another nest box? I don't have much worry about her with fostering because another hen I had abandoned her eggs this hen fostered and raised those one as well. Also what colours could the chicks be, as i know what both are split for. (Hen- none) (Cock- cinnamon, opaline, and spangle) Also would there be a way to predict genders- I know you can with certain mutations/splits.
This post was kinda long...

Thanks in advace ;D

[avinet]

I need to get things clear here. This is what I think is the situation:-

You have a pair - a grey hen with possible cancer, and a male of unstated colour.

You were given a pair, a blue spangle hen no splits, and a male blue dilute split cinnamon, opaline and spangle.

Is that correct?

Also how long have you had the 2 pairs together and over what period were 11 eggs laid?

I will start out by saying that 11 eggs is highly unlikely to have been laid as one clutch by one hen - the most I ever had with a budgie was 8 eggs, and that was highly unusual - usually 4 to 6 is the norm. Just what is the problem with the "cancer" hen - is she unable to lay or just never laid in the past?

It is quite possible that some sex predictions can be made from the male's splits, since opaline and cinnamon are both sex linked. However I need to be sure of the situation before venturing any predictions. In any case budge babies are easy to visually tell the sex once they have reached weaning age.

cheers,

Mike

[zena]

yes the above is correct, my grey hen's mate is coloured violet with double factor cobalt-
i'vehad the two pairs for about a month and 1/2... the eggs can't be from my grey hen as she is unable to lay... she did in the past but they never hatched... the hen that layed 11 eggs- from her previous owner she had done it before but it wasn't often- out of the whole time he had her when breeding it only happened once or twice. the eggs were layed a day apart- one every other day- also When I check out there today there was 3 of the 4 the grey hen was sitting on and four under the spangle... four have disappeared?