question

[Holly the U2]

yesterday stewie & holly were playing on top of the cage like they normally do,
stewie was on top of holly & she was panting heavily.
what do i do if holly lays a egg?

 

[wrench13]

Just remove it. Having one around will only make your hen more 'broody', and try to handle her to see if there are more coming. Be aware of and read about egg binding, where eggs can not be expelled and cause problems.

 

[LordTriggs]

I wouldn't just remove the egg as this can lead to chronic egg laying. From what I've seen it's best to replace with a fake egg if she were to lay one, only do it when she's out of the room or you may be at her mercy or the other one I heard once was to once again let her be in a different room if possible out of eyesight and quickly shake the egg so as to scramble the inside essentially then just put it back and let her give up on her own.

the biggest concern if she lays would be egg binding so make sure her clacium is good and try to avoid letting her into "nest" spots, like any enclosed area really could be bad

good luck and hopefully you don't get an egg

 

[Cas27]

How come you wouldn't just let her take care of it and let it hatch?

 

[LordTriggs]

How come you wouldn't just let her take care of it and let it hatch?

there's a lot of risks involve and ultimately ends up with having to give a baby bird away. It's not healthy for them to be stuck with their parents, in the wild they leave their families when they fledge but if kept in captivity as a family it can cause issues

 

[itzjbean]

Did you observe them mating? Maybe it's different for other birds but when my two go at it, it's a couple minutes long and there's chirping and they both seem to...ahem....enjoy it. But if they're just sitting on top of each other 'breathing heavily', then I'm not sure if the job was done, if you know what I mean... haha!

She may lay an egg anyways even if it may not be fertilized, but I always just toss them. My hen isn't a chronic layer and when I throw them out, she stops, but not all hens are like that and the hormones really get them going to keep laying. Put a cuttlebone in the cage if you haven't already, or feed calcium-rich foods like leafy greens, or you could scrape some cuttlebone into their food dish. Keep an eye on her in the meantime to check for any changes in behavior.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Is Holly being nesty? Looks like separate out times for a bit unfortunately.

If you can ensure Holly especially gets some sunlight each day as well.

 

[Holly the U2]

She gets outside sun a few hours a week, I have Feather Brite lamps with full spectrum bulbs over top each of their cages, they are on whenever they have to be caged.