egg laying question????

[william]

today my gould hen lay a fourth egg for the first time! . first two clutches she laid only three with no success . but now i am worry because she didn't start incubating last night after her third, like shes normally done before, or tonight either after her forth egg laid this morning! is this normal?

[ac12]

That would tell me that she has not finished laying her clutch.
Sometimes they will not start to SIT until they finish laying the entire clutch. Since yours did not lay beyond before, can't say if she will SIT after 5 or wait till she finishes laying the entire clutch.

[william]

so far shes laid one every morning lets see Wednesday morning if she laid one more. do you think her laying more eggs then before its a good sign ? like shes more settle in the cage?

[Sally]

Don't know her age, but if she is young, they often lay small clutches at first, gradually building up to a normal size clutch.

[dan78]

As everyone has said she is probably going to lay more, age also has a factor that some first years don't quite understand the process properly, there are a few factors as to why she isn't sitting yet but just keep watching without disturbing the nest to much and more and likely she will sit when its time. Most hens start to sit when the second last to last egg is laid, on average a female can lay 3-6 eggs but can go up to 9-10. Will this mean that your birds are going to have heaps unfortunately I can't answer this as its to hard to say what the fertility of this pair is but with more eggs there's a chance that half maybe fertile that's why they say never count your eggs till they hatch, but I prefer never count your chicks till they are 3weeks fledged by this time they have a 95% chance of making adulthood.

[william]

i don't know anymore about this breed! she didnt lay a fifth egg this morning and she didnt start incubating last night and tonight shes already in her sleeping spot so..... i may have to throw this eggs with my friends zebras which they also have four eggs....