When to remove infertile eggs?

[Dan&Rozie]

Hi all!
My ekkie has recently laid an infertile egg under our sofa, and whereas before I removed the egg immediately to encourage her away from nesting, I’ve since learned that this can encourage more egg laying. This time I’ve left the egg under there hoping she’ll abandon it, but she still goes back and forth to tend to it. Now I’ve just read this can cause emotional and physical harm, so I don’t know what to do. Any advice?

 

[hiriki]

I always leave eggs until the hen abandons it. But, I've never had a bird lay an egg outside of the cage somewhere like under the sofa.

Is she completely cage free? If she has a cage for nights, I'd take it away while she sleeps personally, and then I'd block off the underside of the couch at least until her hormones pass.

In the future, if she lays eggs in her cage, you can also replace with fake/craft eggs so that she's not sitting on an egg that will eventually spoil... but generally just taking them away will ju result in her laying more to replace what you took.

 

[pebbles1553]

my bird has laid 13 INFERTILE EGGS in just 3 years! what i did was i left them in there for a while and then after like four weeks she still didn't want to forget them. after a while, we took them away, and i also took the coconut toy she had in her cage that is where she laid eggs in away. This gave her no place to lay eggs... and she hasn't laid since. i also read that fake eggs can be bad for them too, idk how and why...sorry.

 

[Dan&Rozie]

I always leave eggs until the hen abandons it. But, I've never had a bird lay an egg outside of the cage somewhere like under the sofa.

Is she completely cage free? If she has a cage for nights, I'd take it away while she sleeps personally, and then I'd block off the underside of the couch at least until her hormones pass.

In the future, if she lays eggs in her cage, you can also replace with fake/craft eggs so that she's not sitting on an egg that will eventually spoil... but generally just taking them away will ju result in her laying more to replace what you took

Hey, thanks for replying. Yes she goes to her cage at night and then as soon as I let her out in the morning she’s been going back to it. She has laid in the cage before but they just tend to drop and crack since it’s just a perch. I’ll think about the craft egg idea, thank you!

 

[hiriki]

my bird has laid 13 INFERTILE EGGS in just 3 years! what i did was i left them in there for a while and then after like four weeks she still didn't want to forget them. after a while, we took them away, and i also took the coconut toy she had in her cage that is where she laid eggs in away. This gave her no place to lay eggs... and she hasn't laid since. i also read that fake eggs can be bad for them too, idk how and why...sorry.

I don't think they're bad for them, if it's a plastic egg and they ingest the plastic that could be bad but it's easy enough to find wooden eggs to buy.

They're not for everyone though because some birds will reject them if you put them in the nest at room temp, if they're wooden you can heat them up a bit to try to trick them but some birds are smart.

Edit: if you want to avoid craft eggs tho and you have a male/female pair, you can hard boil the eggs to keep them from hatching. I have heard that submerging them in water can also stop development but personally, I'd hard boil just to be safe, it'll probably keep the egg from rotting for a bit longer also.

 

[hiriki]

OK so maybe if she's going back to the egg consistently after she's let out, removing it will encourage her to replace. Maybe someone with direct experience might chime in.

Have you tried simply moving the egg into her cage? If you can convince her to nest with the egg in her own cage she'll be able to sit on it for a while, tucker herself out from the whole thing and get bored, and then you can take it away with no worries.

 

[Dan&Rozie]

my bird has laid 13 INFERTILE EGGS in just 3 years! what i did was i left them in there for a while and then after like four weeks she still didn't want to forget them. after a while, we took them away, and i also took the coconut toy she had in her cage that is where she laid eggs in away. This gave her no place to lay eggs... and she hasn't laid since. i also read that fake eggs can be bad for them too, idk how and why...sorry.

Ah interesting, thanks for that insight. That’s great yours stopped laying all together! Yes I definitely need to section it off but she tends to just try and find other nooks to hide in around the living room. I might just need to rethink letting her out so much..

 

[Dan&Rozie]

OK so maybe if she's going back to the egg consistently after she's let out, removing it will encourage her to replace. Maybe someone with direct experience might chime in.

Have you tried simply moving the egg into her cage? If you can convince her to nest with the egg in her own cage she'll be able to sit on it for a while, tucker herself out from the whole thing and get bored, and then you can take it away with no worries.

I haven’t tried that yet, it’s a good idea. She doesn’t have anywhere to nest in the cage since it’s just a series of perches, but maybe just seeing it there and not returning to the dark couch area will help her hormones calm down. Thanks!