My 1500 gram girls tend to lay 5 or 6 eggs their first year. The only undersized female clutch I have seen (not one of mine) was 4 very undersized eggs. One died, 2 are still limping along, 1 seems ok. (I bought the girl and I'm incubating her clutch for the prev owner).

Once the girls are between 1600 and 2000 grams, I get 6 to 8 eggs from them. Over 2000 to 3000, I get 8 to 12 eggs. Over 3000, sometimes I get even more (my largest clutch to date was 13 eggs from a 3600 gram female).

The faster I can get a girl to grow, the more eggs I get. Breeding a girl under 1500 grams is not worth it, because she is unlikely to both regain her weight AND grow significantly over the course of the year, so you lose out. I like to get my females stabilized before the breeding season starts--fattened up to a proper good weight, and then slow the feeding a bit. We know how 800 to 1400 gram girls like to go off feed over the winter--I let them rest, I don't breed them. Spring comes, and they take off eating like crazy, and then I get big healthy clutches from them the next season.

It's worked for me--this year I have had only 3 slugs, ALL of the females I expected to lay did lay, and I have not lost a single egg in incubation so far. (I also did not cool for more than 5 degrees or longer than 1 week last fall).

It has been a very wet and stormy spring and summer here so far, and this may be contributing to the high fertility and breeding rate.