Hehe, yes. I love it when they enter that rich, chocolate brown stage. What better indicator could you ask for?

Queen Scoopalot, the fertility of the eggs depend on Dad. Her first clutch was sired by Lemon (the yellow bird you see in the preceding pictures). He was moderately young- 2 years. It could be his immaturity or his genetic predisposition, but out of 10 eggs, only one hatched. OTOH, Lime's second clutch was sired by Alex. He was a year older- 3 years- and 9 out of 9 eggs hatched. I can't really say for sure, because I've been told that fertility can be passed on by generation...I'm not quite sure what the dummy eggs would do, though. Can you explain? I'm so excited!!!