Eggs MUST be duds? And ... complications

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Do your guys eat dill?
I have never tried dill with my kids.

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs yes, they stuff themselves silly. Vilu's favorite thing is to chew up the stems, drink the juice, and just leave the rest behind like used pantyhose. Drives me insane, but if that's what makes her happy, then whatever lol

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

I'll have to grab some next time I go shopping. I'm curious to see if my guys will go for it.

Out of the herb family, the only one offer is parsley, which they do enjoy (both the curley type, and the flat leaf). I haven't tried cilantro, because I can't abide the smell or the taste of it, blahh.

I can hardly wait for Spring and Summer, when I can take a ride to my old stomping grounds, and collect some bagfulls of wild grasses and seed heads for the kids. They enjoy them so much.

[Sojourner]

lovezebs

My guys recently started eating parsley but I should have thought - the flat Italian sort is WAY more nutritious than the curly stuff. I will have to remember that next time I buy it. I just grabbed the curly stuff without thinking!

I love cilantro but last I tried to feed it they wouldn't eat it. Now that they're eating veggies I need to try that again. I know some people don't like it but it is one of my very favorite herbs. No, it IS my VERY favorite herb. I love the smell of it also. I make a kickin' potato soup with French tarragon and cilantro. And potatoes, of course.

The first year I had my finches I tried to find seedheads for them but - desert. Nothing much edible grows here and at the time I didn't have space to try to grow anything seed-y myself.

[haroun]

About eggs laying. When i check a nest for any hatched i was surprised to found 3 chicks and 4eggs one seem to hatch soon and three where new laid. Originally there were only four and a few days before when i candelled them i count four good. Now there 3more so when the hen feel the necessity to lay she will do even on sit in on eggs or with chicks in nest. Fake or not when it's time she will do it

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

Any new developements???

[Sojourner]

lovezebs

Strange you should ask that. I JUST checked the nest (since they were both out of it, an extremely rare occurence) a few minutes ago.

2 eggs are showing color changes. However there are now EIGHT EGGS in the nest.

I have no idea what to do at this point. There is no way these guys will all be raised or, probably, even hatched. I did not mark the 5 eggs she had when I tossed all the zombie eggs because it never occurred to me that with 5 probably "good" eggs in the nest she would turn around and start laying again. Plus - not sure what kind of pen would have been safe to mark eggs like that. I'm pretty sure sharpies would be toxic.

I have REALLY screwed this up. I am seriously considering tossing the lot at this point. The best I can hope for is that after the first 3 hatch I must then dispose of ALL remaining eggs because there is no way the late hatchlings would ever catch up with their older sibs - and they would just end up tossed/die.

And if I DO wait for anyone to hatch and thereafter disturb the nest, the likelihood is that the first few hatchlings would get tossed anyway.

What a bad bad idea it was to put that nest in there! Apparently with THIS particular hen, it wouldn't do any good to go the fake egg route anyway as she just keeps laying on top of her existing clutch. I assume that my removing the 5 zombie eggs must have somehow triggered her to start laying again.

I had never seen or heard of that before. Other than Molly Brown the Canary, fake eggs have always worked for us in the past. Apparently even REAL eggs don't work with Pyewacket.

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

If you are really squeamish about tossing out good eggs, candle them and see if there is anything happening in there, and toss out all the clear ones.

She may go on laying ad infinitum, and then what? Eventually she may become egg bound, and you may lose her. Or she might deplete all of her resources, which will shorten her life in the long run.

Personally, I would check those eggs, and if there is nothing happening in any of them, I would toss the whole kit and kaboodle, including the nest,

Check this out:
https://ladygouldian.com/content/determ ... ten-reeves

[Sojourner]

Sojourner
She may go on laying ad infinitum, and then what? Eventually she may become egg bound, and you may lose her. Or she might deplete all of her resources, which will shorten her life in the long run.

I know. That is why I want nothing to do with breeding. She was better off when I was tossing the eggs individually, at least there was a month or more between bouts. And I assume she would have stopped once past the normal breeding period anyway. Or if I had just sucked it up, put on an extra sweater, and turned the heat down.

Dang me! Dang me to 'eck!

[haroun]

And from those new eggs at least 2're good. , i removed them put hem undet frostrinv parents
@Sojourner u'r true. The best way was that., toss the eggs and dont ley here incubate.

[Sojourner]

haroun

The plan was to take each egg as she laid it and replace it with a fake, as I had interrupted egg laying at least twice since late fall. I was hoping that allowing to let her sit on fakes would interrupt the breeding cycle for good, until next year anyway.

However I became more ill than usual and didn't get around to getting the fakes. So she was sitting live eggs. All 5 of the chicks died in the egg, but by the time I discovered that she had laid 5 new eggs. So I discarded the dead eggs and decided to let her sit the 5 "new" eggs.

However now she has laid 3 more eggs on top of the existing 5.

So I doubt that fake eggs would have helped, as REAL eggs aren't helping. For this hen, things don't seem to work as usual.

At this point I have no idea what the "right" thing to do would be. I am not really very happy with myself.

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

Awww, come on now, don't be so hard on yourself (you're not the one laying the eggs, girlie).

Even iffin you do end up with babies, it's not the end of the world. They are adorable babies, and you will love them.

Finding a Pet Shop that will take them, is not that terribly difficult, if you decide not to keep them.

[Sojourner]

lovezebs

My issue is the safety of my birds. I strongly believe that having taken a pet on, you must be responsible for its care and well-being. You don't abandon them because they've grown to big or they eat too much or you got a new pet or for any other reason. If you truly cannot care for them you find them other homes.

So my failure in this situation has been that I have placed my hen in a position where she is apparently constantly laying eggs, when before I stupidly put the nest in there she was laying about the equivalent of one clutch and then "resting" for 4 to 6 weeks - which HAD to be better than the situation we have now.

I also feel that I have a responsibility to the (obviously) developing chicks still in the egg. When an egg is disposed of prior to incubation, that is one thing. But now that there are actual developing birds in the egg, that is quite another kettle of fish. There is NO WAY all these can survive due to the fact that they've been constantly incubated, as opposed to the normal development cycle where they don't start incubating until most of the eggs have been laid. Then most of the chicks will hatch out about the same time and most or even all should survive.

That WILL NOT HAPPEN here. I cannot hand feed and my guys won't be able to properly care for chicks strung out like beads on a string, instead of clumped together, in their development. That's the thing that bothers me most. I'll get things under control for Pyewacket, now that I know she is one of those fortunately rare hens who don't respond to eggs already in the nest. But this double-clutch, and the previous clutch that all died - that's on me.

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

Sweetie,
These things happen, they happen to people who breed, they happen to people who's birds accidently breed, and they happen in nature.

I've come to accept these happening with the quiet philosophy, that it was simply not meant to be. Otherwise I would have gone insane, many years ago.Not every life can be saved, as much as we would wish it to be otherwise.

I do share your way of looking at pets. They are part of the family, and treated as such. I give them the best life that I possibly can and I love them dearly.

When and if these chicks hatch, allow your birdies to do what nature meant them to do. You offer the right environment and the best food and conditions, they'll do the rest. In the end, that's all that we can do.

[Sheather]

You may be surprised on the ability of the parents to raise a lot of babies, even of different ages.