Bourke pair not producing

[AerieAviary]

Hello again,

We have had Bourke's for about a year now, starting with the pair I will be writing about. They were sold to us as a proven pair, though I have no evidence that they ever actually produced successful clutches. They are, however, absolutely completely bonded. The male is a gorgeous rosy and the hen is a large white-faced pink. They are 2-3 years old.

We have set the pair for breeding about 3 times in the past year after the hen continually enticed the male to breed. (She has even done this with Bourke and Kakariki cage mates!) She seems to want to raise young so badly, and yet none of the 3 clutches have produced young. Through candling the eggs, we know that at least one clutch had some fertile eggs. However, the eggs from the first two clutches eventually "dried up" inside the shell- by the time we removed them from the nest box, they rattled inside the shell. Coral has been sitting on her third clutch for over 3 weeks now, and I finally moved her off the eggs (she doesn't budge) to check on them. They appear to be clear this time around.

Does anyone have any suggestions for success? We have other Bourke's but have not tried to breed any of them yet, as we are working on the completion of a new aviary and the rest of them are in a temporary flight cage. The pair in question has been put in their own cage every time we have set them to breed. We have had them in everything from a 16" h x 16" d x 24" l breeding cage to a 30" h x 18" d x 62"l flight, all by themselves, with their nest box attached. The nest box we got for them is 10" h x 8"d x 12" l and we have used compressed grass pellet bedding, bermuda grass hay, coconut fiber, and "luxury" nesting mix in the box in various combinations. The grass keets all eat a high quality parakeet seed blend and Brooks Brand Birds Choice, have occasional fresh veggies, dried fruit, nut, and veggie treats, among other things.

Thanks so much for your help! We would love to get some babies out of them, and I know Coral, the hen, wants that more than anything else herself.

[Monica]

Perhaps you might consider introducing other males to her? Or perhaps having other pairs set up for breeding all at the same time, thus they encourage eachother to reproduce?