FINCHforum

I have three societies housed together. I know for sure that one is a male. One started laying 5 days ago at the rate of an egg every night. Yesterday there were 4 eggs and today there are 6. I had thought I had 2 males and a female. Is it possible for one hen to lay 2 eggs in a day or do I have 2 hens and a cock?

A hen will lay one egg a day so unless you miss calculated I would say you have 2 hens.
good luck

Thank you! Would my male have fertilizd both hens?

Mrs Potter --- It's definitely possible that a male could mate with two females.

Also, females can hold sperm for up to a couple weeks, I believe. So if you just recently got them, then there's a chance you could have fertilization from sperm from another male that she was with prior to coming to you.

It takes a solid 24 hours for the eggs to form and get laid. But remember to consider your timing in terms of when you checked on them. If you checked once in 24 hours, it's possible a female could have laid just after your last check and then just prior to your next check. (So in other words, on the very ends of the 24 hour window.)
Relatively unlikely, of course, but possible.

Mrs Potter definitely a possibility (and more likely than not) your male fertilized both.

I've had them all longer than 2 weeks. There were definitely only 4 eggs at noon yesterday and 6 at 7 am today. Looks like we may be having more babies than I counted on lol.

Well, they have 8 eggs this morning so definitely two hens. The fist hen has laid 6 and the second 2 so far. Do I need to worry about overcrowding in this nest?

I would say you would have to worry about overcrowding, as you could wind up with 10-12 eggs in that nest. I don't think there is any way to separate the eggs into another nest in that same cage, as all three birds most likely will stay with the first nest. I once had two Gouldian hens sharing a large nest box. They laid 13 eggs, hatched 11, but then tossed 7. They then raised the remaining 4 perfectly. My feeling was that 11 babies was just too overwhelming, so they eliminated babies till they were happy with the clutch size. If you could move all the eggs into a much larger nest box, they might be able to raise all of them

I have a larger wooden nest box but it was in the cage for a month and they wouldn't go near it. I could get a larger basket. Would I just prepare it like this one? Would moving the eggs cause them to abandon them?