Carmen is having eggs again!

[sweetCarmen]

so my birds laid eggs about 2 months ago and I found the babies dead in shell the birdies had formed quite a lot already, they had their little teeny wings, eyes and head and beak and claws. (I opened a shell after it hadn't hatched after waiting perhaps 20 days after they should have hatched) There were 6 eggs and 3 were infertile. It was really sad, but now she's just had another egg 2 days ago and it's been a little over 2 months. Should I just let her have them and try to distract her next time or what?

[sweetCarmen]

Please someone respond, I don't want to do anything stupid and hurt anyone, eggs or lovies.
sweetCarmen

[Keltoth]

Yes, let her keep the current new clutch of eggs and let her sit on them until they hatch or abandons them. Once that point comes, you will want to try things that will discourage her from laying again; change the location of the cage in the room, switch the cage itself (if possible), swap the toys out for unfamiliar ones, remove all shreddable material from tha cage, remove any enclosure that might feel like a secure nesting hole (nesting boxes, Happy Huts, etc), remove and food dishes that the hen could nest in and replace with much smaller containers, etc etc.

Sometimes environmental issues can cause chicks to go DIS (Dead In Shell) like yours did; I had a pair of lovies just this past summer that lost a clutch of five fertile eggs about 17 to 19 days into the incubation cycle because the temperature spiked in late May, and their room warmed up too much before I got the air conditioner reinstalled for their aviary. Lack of humidity - or TOO MUCH humidity - can also cause eggs to DIS. Sometimes it can just be what seems to be nothing but luck. A pair that DIS'd their clutch one run can give you 4 healthy chicks the next time - and vice versa.

...and of course, there is the fairly common issue of hens that become chronic egg-layers that are triggered by an unsucsessful hatching in a laid clutch. Some hens are just wired to produce offspring, and I read an article over the summer which forwarded the supposition that this is why many lovebird and budgie hens who have no mate to fertilize their eggs become such determined, aggressive egg-layers; they just cannot help themselves, and they lay and lay in vain, expecting to get young chicks that never materialize, until laying-sitting-laying-sitting ad naseum is the normal condition for them. According to the article (I thought I had it bookmarked, but I cannot seem to find it; if any of you know the one I am talking about, I'd appreciate a link), if you have a hen that has had a successful previously hatched clutch, this becomes even MORE of a challenge, as the hen has a very reall, concrete idea of what she expects to happen when she lays eggs. I have one young hen (Roxie) who was a previous mother, who laid one clutch (DIS), then layed a second clutch (eggs transfered out to other hens for blanks) and then laid a THIRD clutch (allowed to keep two fertile eggs which hatched sucessfully) - all within a 4 month timespan - before she finally was able to quit laying. Sometimes, all you can do is keep them from getting real comfortable in their cages by taking steps like the ones presented above, and give them access to as much calcium as they are willing to use (hard-boiled eggs with some of the shell mixed in, cuttlebone, broccoli, oats, etc).

Anyway, once a hen starts laying eggs, all you can do is sit back, let the eggs be, and wait it out. Taking the eggs away will just stimulate the hen into laying MORE eggs in an effort to complete her clutch and often triggers chronic egg-laying - the very thing you are trying to avoid.

Just wait it out, give alot of calcium-rich food sources, and then take steps to discourage egg-laying once she abandons the eggs or they hatch.

- Eric

[sweetCarmen]

well, the last time she had eggs, she kept sitting on them until I took the nest away, and that was about 40 days of sitting...is it definite that she will abandon the eggs? Also, I have been reading that lovebirds can't eat anything with pesticides in them, so would the eggs that I might boil need to be organic, or am I totally wrong on that one. Thanks so much for the advice, very appreciated.

-sweetCarmen

[Kathryn]

Can't offer any more advice than Eric. Second his comment on environmental factors to dead in the egg babies.

You won't need to purchase organic eggs to feed your lovie.
Most egg producers don't use pesticides around their poultry flocks since there are strict guidelines to be followed for human consumption of those eggs.

Good luck Carmen!