Originally Posted by FeathersNFur8

I avoid anything that will trigger a breeding response from my companion 18 year old GreenWing hen. Learning from past experiences as to what will solicit an immediate breeding response from her; there are no cardboard boxes, no blankets to burrow into, no playing on the sofa, no access to dark little spaces, no petting down the back or under the wings, etc. I am guilty of making diet mistakes that have triggered hormonal responses and am learning what to cut back on and when.

But despite avoiding all I know how to avoid, when I know she’s becoming reproductive I have found we get through the process and it's not immediately repeated if I provide what she needs to facilitate her so that she's comfortable and prepared to pass eggs. I also let her complete the sitting process and try to keep it as stress free as I can for her. We had some extenuating circumstances with her when she first came to live with us and we learned that when she did not complete the cycle and sit on her eggs, she repeated the process much sooner than what was healthy for her.

This may be of some help to someone so I'll explain what happens with my GreenWing and what I do here;

Eggs don’t appear out of the blue, so I have time to prepare. A few days preceding the actual egg I will start to see messy large droppings with an excess of urine, broody behavior, aggressiveness, reluctance to leave her cage, tail pulling, weight gain, and loss of appetite to name a few. I know her habits pretty well now. When I see the above signs, I supplement Calcium. I don’t supply a box of any kind, as the size I would need to accommodate her tail would take up her entire cage bottom. I remove the grate in her cage (She will not poop in her cage) I line the tray with brown Kraft paper. I put bottlebrush and other hardwood chewing items toward the bottom of the cage. Oddly, the only time she will chew on wood is when she is sitting on eggs. She also will shred the layers of paper. I supply an extra heat source by her cage until she’s done laying eggs.

I can pin point the night she will pass her first egg as she will not be interested in her dinner at all. She will lay an egg within 20-30 minutes of quiet and lights out. Which means she has actually been having contractions before that time which I attribute to her missed dinner on that evening. She lays every 72 hours. Once I’m able to visually see the contractions the actual process for her to push the egg out does not take long at all. Sometimes the shell of the egg will be lightly streaked with some blood. I always check the egg carefully to see if it’s broke or if there are any thin spots on the shell. She has laid as many as four eggs, but I usually only keep two in the cage for her to sit on. I don’t know why but she doesn’t seem to care if she sits on her first egg and is usually quite content to carry on as if she never had an egg. It isn’t until she’s laid the second egg that all the instincts kick in and then all she wants is her eggs. When she is sitting on eggs I put her food and water dish within her reach.

She allows me to remove her from her cage every few hours so she can eliminate. If she’s comfortable I will leave her out. If she gets anxious I return her immediately. Per my AV’s instructions, I now watch the calendar during this process. If she doesn’t give up her eggs in 4 weeks time, I remove everything and she immediately returns to her normal behavior.

Originally Posted by Beatriz Cazeneuve

Very naturally, very easily, no drama. I believe that suppressing natural biocycles is not healthy in the long run and that breeding is not as stressful as the frustration of not been able to, at least, go through the motions year after year after year.

So far, it has worked for me. I don't have a single chronic layer in the bunch and have never, ever (knock on wood!) had an eggbound hen or an off-season layer or even a single soft-shelled egg.