Why are my budgies eating their eggs?

Could you please tell me why I have a pair of budgerigars that are eating the eggs as they lay them? The birds have iodine blocks, cuttlefish, and eggfood with mixed vegetables every day. The water in my area is hard, so I use calcivet sparingly in the water.
A.B., Ipswich.

Dave Herring, former Budgerigar Society president, replies: I wish that I knew the answer because this year my wife and I have had two birds that do exactly the same. In our case both were very young, and perhaps were not yet ready to settle down to breed mentally, although physically able to do so. We have split up those pairs and will try them again later.

Sadly there are some hens that appear to enjoy eating newly-laid eggs, and will therefore not find any additions a reasonable substitute. If chicks from that hen are so important, you may be able to take them away and foster them as soon as they are laid.

Another solution, which I have never tried but other fanciers have, is to raise the concave in your nest-box. Drill a large hole in the concave and place sawdust underneath so that if an egg falls, it will be unbroken and out of harms way.

Another ploy tried by fanciers is to place dummy eggs in the nest-box, or even some old, clear eggs coated with aloes, mustard or other such solutions to try to break the habit.