When Peep first arrived at Aunt Mel’s farm, she had no way of knowing if this beautiful cockatiel was a boy or girl. But Peep soon showed her gender. Miss Peep regularly lays eggs.

Each egg is smooth and warm and white. They are the size of your thumbnail. She lays between 3 and 7. She clears a spot in a corner on the floor of her cage and arranges the eggs carefully beneath. She sits all day warming the eggs, moving they around with her beak, and serving her role as diligent mother. But they never hatch because they are unfertilized.

Eggs usually take 21 days to hatch. When the first egg appears, Aunt Mel marks her calendar. On the 21^st day, she removes the eggs so Miss Peep thinks her eggs have hatched. This seems to be a good arrangement. Miss Peep often seems relieved of this duty. She spends the next few days talking, preening and eating and enjoying a good head scratching.

Miss Peep’s eggs are delicate examples of the strength of nature and motherhood.