She is LAYING her Eggs!!! What to do?

[Lana's_mom]

Ok, I wasn't expecting eggs just yet, but I opened my Het pied girl's tub and saw her and 2 eggs and a slug, 1 egg was by her, the 2nd egg and a slug were sitting off to the side. Does that mean the second egg is a slug? It is white, with a couple of spots of a darker white. I closed the tub once I saw the eggs. If I had know I wouldn't of disturbed her. Will have opening the tub caused a problem? Will she gather up the 2nd egg or leave it? When do I know when she is done??? Do I just leave her and the eggs until morning? Will it hurt the eggs to wait? Now onto the issue of the incubator. Since I wasn't expecting eggs for a few more days, the incubator wasn't up and running. And my vermiculite isn't in yet. So I put a small amount of water in the bottom of the egg tub with some egg crate. The water isn't coming over the egg crate so the eggs shouldn't touch the water, tomorrow morning I am going to run to a plant nursey and see if I can find some vermiculite. I have the thermostat in the tub with a thermometer, and everything closed up so temps can set, I will also pick up some press and seal tomorrow, thought I had some and didn't. If I leave the eggs over night to not disturb my female while she finishes laying should I drop her hot spot temp? The thermometer in her tub says its sitting between 89 - 91.5 degrees. Sorry for all the questions. Thank you for any answers

[stickyalvinroll]

Well, hurry up and get it running. turn up the heat in your room for a while until the incubator is the temp. Hurry up!! Btw you opening the tubs won't hurt her at all....

[Lana's_mom]

I have the incubator up and running now. Just waiting for temps to set. And to figure out when she is done laying. I saw 3 lumps in her yesterday, and a possible 4th lump. So I don't how long to wait to be sure she is done laying. Is the 2nd egg ok, the one by the slug? Or is it most likely not any good? I'll put it in the incubator either way as long as it looks good, but still wondering.

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, now she is up to 3 what look like good eggs and 2 slugs. But they are all over the tub. Not in a pile at all. This is her 1st clutch, so is the eggs being everywhere just her being new to this? Or does it mean something else? Or will she gather them up? Sorry for all the questions, this was sucha busy weekend.

[loonunit]

Actually, don't worry too much about the heat---she will have put the eggs in the spot in her tub she thinks is best for incubating. She can do the incubating for you for 24 hours while you heat up the incubator. You might throw a wet washcloth on the opposite end of the tub to boost the humidity---low humidity is much more dangerous to those eggs than low temps.

It won't hurt to wait an extra day. Plenty of breeders don't catch the eggs until the day after. And plenty of people do maternal incubation with great results. But if you live in a dry place (like me), the low humidity is an issue.

I think the water + egg crate is a good stop-gap solution. I'd use two pieces of egg crate, stacked, to keep the eggs well away from the water.

2nd white egg is likely a roll-out. Sometimes mom knows something you don't, and it turns out to be a weaker egg. And sometimes it's just a mistake on her part, and the egg hatches normally. If she doesn't coil around it later tonight, you might remove her, remove the slug and tuck that egg back in with the others, and then let her go back and coil the whole bunch.

[Lana's_mom]

Thank you Loonunit. With there being eggs all over the tub I will wait a couple of hours and do that, pull her out and tuck the eggs together and remover the slugs, and I will throw in a damp towel for humidity. I am near Dallas Tx. Its been pretty dry. Thank you again.

[loonunit]

Yeah, she's just making a mess. Heard of that happening, no idea why they do it. I bet she'll still coil them if you stack them together. Might want to mark the tops of the eggs with a pencil, and try to leave the upside facing up...