Hi,
There are no accidental babies with birds, like you have with a cat or dog. The eggs must be incubated around the clock for them to develop. So when you have unwanted eggs, the best thing to do is throw them away. But you also need to make changes to discourage more egg laying, which I will list below. If you don’t want a pair to breed, do not give them a nest box or allow them to make a nest or use anything as a nest. I’m not convinced that you have a male & female or fertile eggs. It would take a female a month to lay 14 eggs because they can only lay an egg every other day. It takes 48 hours for each egg to form and be laid. They can’t lay an egg every day. So unless the eggs were laid over a month, you have two females laying eggs. It’s also highly unlikely a female would lay that many eggs in a row unless she is double clutching. The average clutch size is 4-6 eggs. Probably you are seeing the eggs decaying or drying up inside. All it takes is a few hours to be allowed to get cold and the eggs are no longer viable. I would discard all of the eggs and remove the nest, then follow all of the changes below. If the hens keep laying eggs at this rate, they will end up dying from laying too many eggs. In the wild they lay one clutch a year, and then the season changes and breeding stops.
Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. The goal is to reverse these conditions.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
If she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only the head and neck – do not pet a bird on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
If the hen doesn’t stop laying, and continues to lay clutch after clutch, then a hormone implant or shots should be considered. The implant is proving to be very effective with most chronic egg layers.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
