# Fake Eggs Forever?



## bobsinoregon (Feb 13, 2017)

Hello. I have a hen who loves to lay unfertile eggs. No male, I don't want to breed her.

I heard if you remove the eggs and replace with fake eggs, she will continue to sit on them and it will shut down her need to produce more eggs.

She is very tame, sweet and will get off her "nest", to come out with me.

Is the fake egg nest the right way to go to help her to stop producing her own eggs and perserve her health??

Thank you :cinnamon pearl:


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

No need to replace her eggs. The reason they usually replace eggs is because they don't want the fertile eggs to hatch. Leave her eggs with the mom for about 21 days or until she gives up on them. Give her at least 12 hours of sleep a night to help her hormones calm down.


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## SilverSage (Oct 19, 2014)

As stated above, the fake eggs are only needed if there is danger of her own eggs actually hatching. Go ahead and leave her eggs with her.

There are a LOT of things you can do to disrupt the hormonal cycle. I started researching this as an adult because when I was a kid I had a cockatiel lay herself to death (dozens and dozens of eggs a year) and I had no idea how to stop it. I have written an article on hormone control which I will link here for you 

http://www.silversageaviaries.com/handlinghormones/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## philiplolc (Sep 20, 2016)

first time i'm seeing my female tiel getting hormonal with a new bird that i brought in.. seems i've not been attentive enough.. alot more to learn.. thanks for the info


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The forum also has a sticky thread on hormone control here: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330

Supposedly you can prevent a hen from laying a full clutch by giving her a bunch of fake eggs as soon as she lays the first egg, so she thinks she has a full clutch already and doesn't need to lay any more. This might work on some birds but it doesn't work on mine. They'll lay 4 to 6 eggs no matter how many are in the nest. It's not just having extra eggs in the nest either. I can take a couple of eggs away and give them to a different pair, and it doesn't change the number that is laid. If I took away all the eggs they would probably lay more to replace them, but as long as there are some eggs in the nest, the number that each hen lays is pretty much fixed. 

The effect of having fake eggs (or infertile real eggs) in the nest only lasts for about three weeks. At that point the hen realizes that they're overdue for hatching and must not be any good, and she's likely to start laying a new clutch. So if you've got a single hen sitting on infertile eggs, you need to work on reducing her hormone levels before she decides it's time to lay some more eggs.


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