!!! Full incubation mode again, but this time at the other end of the nest ledge!
April 28, 2014 - Hamilton - Sheraton Hotel
CPF Postmaster Reports:
April 28th-2014
While we can’t actually say that the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel pair have laid a second clutch of eggs, it appears that the resident adult female is once again in full incubation mode, this time at the other end of the nest ledge, and Madam X is down hard in full incubation mode.
Interestingly, the first two eggs laid have been completely abandoned by the pair (with one of the eggs having been left abandoned), and the other egg having disappeared from view altogether.
A very bizarre happening indeed given the way that this serious of events have so far played out. Typically, the same female won’t start laying a second clutch of eggs until the first clutch has either been destroyed or eaten - (or absent)…. It is (in part), the absence of eggs at this hormonal stage that stimulates the female to go back into egg production mode, (and copulation between the male and female starts again).
One of the many tricks of the captive breeder to get the female to start egg production again and re-clutch for a second time in the same season. Once the first set of eggs have been removed from the incubating female - (at a particular time frame shortly after incubation starts), she can be stimulated into breeding and egg production mode again for the second time in the same season. Both the timing of the action, the time of year, the females hormones and her health has to be right for a second clutch of eggs.
This same procedure can sometimes be safely completed for a third time in the same breeding season to encourage the female into allowing copulation to take place and laying a third clutch of eggs.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out and see what is actually happening?
Stay tuned……..