The Canary Who Laid A Billion Eggs

[Sheather]

My American Singer canary hen, Kari, has laid consecutive clutches of four eggs five times now, from the time she arrived in August until she abandoned her last bunch after 53 days of incubation - and immediately built a new nest elsewhere. I thought it was day length - but while isolating her and giving her the 'long nights' winter treatment which should have stopped her (only 10 hours of daylight for over a month earlier this fall), she continued to drop eggs despite absolutely no access to a nest or nest material and I gave up. I figured at least as long as she incubated, she was not depleting her calcium reserves, whereas she laid an egg weekly throughout the whole dark nights thing....

All nests are gone now, she's been back in the bird room since October, and she already, like I said, had another clutch. After abandoning it now and my removal of all possible nests, she's instead built her own in a potted plant several times, trying to lay again. Blocked this with pinecones and she's now piling up leaves in the corner, on the FLOOR.

Is there any way to win this battle?

She's never appeared ill, though eats huge amounts of calcium in the form of eggshells. I don't really care if she wants to lay eggs all the time, but I worry for her health... Not even isolation and 14 hour nights for 34 days curbed her habit.

[TailFeathers]

Sell her to me right now

[lovezebs]

Sheather
Are her and Steve in a errr... relationship? Have they mated at all?
What I mean, is if they haven't gotten together, maybe she realizes that the eggs aren't fertile and figures that they're not worth sitting on. Or maybe she's trying to give Steve a hint that she's a good, egg laying hen, and wants to raise a family...
Who knows what goes on in those tiny chicken brains of theirs?

~Elana~

[TailFeathers]

Please give her to me

[Sheather]

Tailfeathers - Where are you even at?

@Lovezebs - Steve and Kari exist on neutral terms at best to arch enemies at worst, varying by the day. Steve has never touched her, whatever that ambiguous little hair-do bird is. Kari is just laying clear eggs and laying on them until they dry out or end up breaking.

[lovezebs]

Sheather
I think Kari wants babies. Maybe beg, borrow or steal another male from somewhere, who might give her children. (?)

~Elana~

[TailFeathers]

Tailfeathers - Where are you even at?

@Lovezebs - Steve and Kari exist on neutral terms at best to arch enemies at worst, varying by the day. Steve has never touched her, whatever that ambiguous little hair-do bird is. Kari is just laying clear eggs and laying on them until they dry out or end up breaking.

I'm in Michigan

[Atbird]

Wow, I would reduce her daylight to 9.5 hours and take away any high protein food, like egg food.

[TailFeathers]

Did you continuously remove her eggs? If so, this encourages egg laying.

[Sheather]

I never removed them, she usually breaks and eats them after 30 - 50 days and starts over.

[TailFeathers]

Re arrange her cages, changes the perches out. Lessen the seed mix and give mainly canary seed. Move her to another spot in the room and make sure she cannot hear the male canary sing.

[Roldog]

Put her in a very small cage with a wire mesh floor,hang it as low as you can,8hours or less of daylight and plain canary seed in small covered seedbowl.

[lovezebs]

Sheather
As far as I recall, Steve doesn't sing, so that can't be the problem.
Dylan, have you tried switching her eggs to plastic eggs and let her sit on them? Maybe that will at least give her a break from this constant laying.

~Elana~

[TailFeathers]

Did u ever actually try mating her ? Maybe she needs to be mated... Keep the calcium Hugh.. You don't want her to die... Or maybe is she getting so much calcium that egg laying is a way of expelling the excess from her body?