# Egg without a mate???



## de Vera Loft (Mar 11, 2009)

I have a pair that I separated for them to have a rest.. Suddenly, the hen continuously laying eggs even though she doesn't have any cock beside her.. I put her in a single cage alone for a rest.. Now, I'm planning to put them back together for breeding, but she layed eggs again.. I know the egg is infertile, because she is laying 2 eggs three times in two months of rest.. Is is possible to put them back together a day after she layed the last batch off eggs??? Or do I have to give her something/supplements before putting them back again???


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

de Vera Loft said:


> I have a pair that I separated for them to have a rest.. Suddenly, the hen continuously laying eggs even though she doesn't have any cock beside her.. I put her in a single cage alone for a rest.. Now, I'm planning to put them back together for breeding, but she layed eggs again.. I know the egg is infertile, because she is laying 2 eggs three times in two months of rest.. Is is possible to put them back together a day after she layed the last batch off eggs??? Or do I have to give her something/supplements before putting them back again???


you should of let her have her unfertile eggs so she would not lay so soon again, you will need to suppliment her for a few weeks and let her keep her eggs, then you can take the eggs and put the two together.


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## de Vera Loft (Mar 11, 2009)

spirit wings said:


> you should of let her have her unfertile eggs so she would not lay so soon again, you will need to suppliment her for a few weeks and let her keep her eggs, then you can take the eggs and put the two together.


What could be the negative effect/s for the yb if I put back the pair together a day after laying infertile eggs as I mentioned?


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

If she has been laying eggs, she really hasn't had a break at all. If you put her back now, she hasn't had a break.

I would make sure to keep her sperated another month or two, and make sure she doesn't visually see her mate or hear him (if she has in the past).

If she does lay eggs, just let her keep them until she is ready to give them up. Give her a good variety of grain and seed, access to sunlight and swimming/bathing, some greens-and a pigeon multi vitamin. Make sure she has plenty of oyster shell grit.


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## cutter (Feb 12, 2009)

Your hen does need a break from laying. A lot of hens tend to want to lay they will pair with other hens or just get in a snug spot and lay to fix this make her uncomfortable put her in a cage with a wire floor for starters. And guess what I found a pair of youngens in my stock hens loft the other day and there aint no cocks in there and they were seperated back in Janurary.


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

Trees Gray said:


> If she has been laying eggs, she really hasn't had a break at all. If you put her back now, she hasn't had a break.


Here is a dumb question. When a hen lays her eggs and I replace them with dummy eggs, she sit on them about three weeks then lays another pair of eggs. If I let her keep the eggs, they hatch in 18 days and she raises youngs for about three weeks before she lays another pair. So the break the hen gets is Not from laying eggs but raising young, correct?

Just trying to get my facts.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Big T said:


> Here is a dumb question. When a hen lays her eggs and I replace them with dummy eggs, she sit on them about three weeks then lays another pair of eggs. If I let her keep the eggs, they hatch in 18 days and she raises youngs for about three weeks before she lays another pair. So the break the hen gets is Not from laying eggs but raising young, correct?
> 
> Just trying to get my facts.


both, they don't tend to lay right away if they are sitting and raising, if you took her eggs direct she would gear up to lay more right away.which is not healthy when it happens continually.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Big T said:


> Here is a dumb question. When a hen lays her eggs and I replace them with dummy eggs, she sit on them about three weeks then lays another pair of eggs. If I let her keep the eggs, they hatch in 18 days and she raises youngs for about three weeks before she lays another pair. So the break the hen gets is Not from laying eggs but raising young, correct?
> 
> Just trying to get my facts.



Actually like SW said........if they raise babies they get a bit of a longer break. 
With dummy eggs....they sit for 18 days (or so), then lay again in 10 days or there abouts, so basically, every 28 days, they're laying two eggs.
If they actually raise babies....they sit on the egg for 18 days, raise their babies for around 14 to 17 days and then lay again, so actually they're laying eggs every 32 to 35 days. Not a huge difference really. 
Of course every hen is different and some lay sooner than you would like when they're raising babies. I just had a new, young hen this past year that laid her second AND third set of eggs when her babies were 11 days old. She laid her first set of eggs after being with her mate for only 6 days. She's quite a little pistol.......
Then I had another hen that didn't lay her second set of eggs until her babies were 23 days old..........there's a big age difference in these two hens though. The first on is a 2008 bird. The second one is a 2003 bird. She's been around the block a few times, so I guess she figured there wasn't any reason to get in a big hurry about everything.


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

OK, I get it. To help with my loft numbers I use use dummy eggs to keep my hens from laying every two weeks because I removed her eggs. The break is also to keep her from raising more babies and laying more eggs than normal because I remove them, but at the same time help me keep my birds from over stocking my loft. Thanks.


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

These birds are egg laying machine. Obviously chicken is even more so. A leghorn chicken can lay more than 200 eggs a year. Thank god you don't have that.

The hen lays egg because she wants to. Or maybe she can see the cock and it induces her.That is all I can think. I have hens that do that--lay another eggs 2 weeks after the babies are born. Then I have others that do it 3 weeks. I just put dummy eggs and let them incubate it for the whole incubation duration.


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## de Vera Loft (Mar 11, 2009)

RodSD said:


> These birds are egg laying machine. Obviously chicken is even more so. A leghorn chicken can lay more than 200 eggs a year. Thank god you don't have that.
> 
> The hen lays egg because she wants to. Or maybe she can see the cock and it induces her.That is all I can think. I have hens that do that--lay another eggs 2 weeks after the babies are born. Then I have others that do it 3 weeks. I just put dummy eggs and let them incubate it for the whole incubation duration.


So you mean it is not good to have a next batch of youngsters while raising a 2 or 3 week old yb's???


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