# My hen is laying eggs again



## jodylynn37 (May 2, 2017)

Her babies are less than 4 weeks old and I woke up to an egg being in the nest box.. It can't be fertile because I had to put her mate in another cage because he wasn't helping her at all with them (He bonded with another female and they both tried to destroy the nest) How do I go about this.. Do I take the egg out or leave it in there for her... I have to assist with feeding because she doesn't do it half the time..


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

You can try taking the nestbox down to see whether that will stop her. She may not be too motivated right now since she's just finished a successful clutch and doesn't currently have a mate with her. It's likely that she'll lay at least one more egg before she stops, because you can't stop eggs that are already in the pipeline.

Have all the babies fledged yet? If they haven't, and you want to leave them with her instead of pulling them, you can put them in a non-enclosed box or basket on the bottom of the cage. This will hopefully be less inviting to the hen as a place to lay eggs.


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## jodylynn37 (May 2, 2017)

Not fully fledged yet.. but getting there.. I will try the basket on bottom of cage and removing the nest box... Thanks.. the white one will walk but the other one refuses.. I think there is something wrong.. he is always laying down.. even when I feed them


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Does the grey one's leg always stick out to the side like that? Chicks can be pretty careless about where their legs are, and if it was just temporary it's not a problem. But if it's always like that it's splay leg.


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## jodylynn37 (May 2, 2017)

He usually has them in front of him, always scoots backwards and is always down on his belly.. The other one can practically run... and they are only 3 days apart..


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It's good that it's not splay leg, because it might be too late to fix it if it was. Do you think that his behavior might simply be because he's trying to get away from you? Chicks generally do scoot backward when they're trying to avoid something, it doesn't seem to cross their minds that they could go forward if they wanted to.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

Chicks don't have a good grip on flat surfaces. You can try putting the chicks in a bowl with wood shavings. Their feet should be normal then.


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## jodylynn37 (May 2, 2017)

*Update*

I finally got her to stop laying eggs after number 5... But now she refuses to have anything to do with the babies since removing the box over a weeks ago.. I have been hand feeding them pretty much from 6th day of life (They are now 32-35 days old) but the past 3 days they have been refusing to eat.. Even going as far as holding it in their mouths and spitting it out.. I make sure its the right temp... Nothing has changed as to how its been done the last 4 week.. They are even flying around.. and getting on the perches.. Very active.. I have seen them eat millet and try the moistened pellets, but they have gone from 103 grams in weight and now down to 89 grams.. I am worried.. Is this normal?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Yes, it's normal for chicks to lose weight at this age, and the weights you gave are pretty much exactly the same thing that I see in my babies. 

Your chicks are fledglings now. Their growth rate is down to almost nothing and they can't fly if they're weighed down by an overstuffed crop. They still need to be fed because they haven't learned to feed themselves well enough to meet their own needs, but they don't need as much food as they did before. 

At this age my chicks tend to resist being handfed with a syringe because they don't like being restrained. So I switch to feeding them from a spoon. I don't try to tip it into their beaks in the normal spoon-feeding way, instead I just hold the spoon level and let them take the initiative in taking food from the spoon. In the beginning you need to sort of shove it into their beak so some gets into their mouth and they realize that it's food. But once they learn what it is they'll eagerly gobble the formula from the spoon.


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## jodylynn37 (May 2, 2017)

Oh, Good.. I will try that with them today... Had no idea it was the syringe. How much should they take now.. I always thought 10% until done.. but now it seems like they want very little... I feel so much better now.. 
Thanks so much...


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

Feed them 10% of their weight and don't feed them again until their crops are emptied. How many times a day are you trying to feed them?


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## jodylynn37 (May 2, 2017)

I am trying to do 3 feeding a day and they practically wont touch it til night time now.. they might get 2-3cc morning and the same for afternoon but at night they get 10cc


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

Start lowering their afternoon feedings. Once they start eating, you can ditch the afternoon and start lowering their morning feeds. Don't overfeed them at night. Make it so that they can evenly eat the same amount morning and night.


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