All penguin species live in the Southern hemisphere, although some at considerably warmer temperatures than others. Temperatures considered balmy for an Emporer penguin would kill a Humbolt penguin. Keeping the penguins at the temperature they are used to in the wild usually encourages breeding.
Penguins make their breeding colonies wherever they can, as far away from people as possible. If they feel the place isn't safe, they will not breed. They all have the instinct to make a nest or burrow. Observations of wild cousins of the captive penguins you have will give you clues as to how to make their breeding environment.
Penguins pair off when they are about 4 years old. After an elaborate and noisy courtship, the pair work together to raise the chicks. All penguins lay eggs, usually only one or two. They can only raise one chick, so if more than one egg is lain, that chick usually dies. Although the pair work to raise only one chick, they will not breed unless in the company of other penguins of their species. Chicks grow very fast after hatching. In about 3 months, they can find food for themselves.
Although it's often thought that penguins mate for life, this theory has been recently challenged. Adelie penguins have been observed cheating on their mates quite frequently. A Humbolt penguin at Brookfield Zoo named Zurita took an adolescent male as a mate and raised a chick completely by herself. This indicates that penguins are capable of adapting other breeding strategies.
Although there has been some success at breeding penguins in captivity, we shouldn't rely on captive-breeding populations to keep a penguin species alive. Many penguin species, like the Macaroni, are threatened because of loss of their traditional breeding colony areas due to pollution and global warming.
On the whole, penguins lay the smallest eggs in proportion to body size of any other type of bird.
