gravid females - reabsorbtion?

I have a young female I produced last spring (18 months or so) and she reabsorbed her first clutch, laid her second and could possibly be reabsorbing her 3rd clutch.

My question is ... how bad is it for a female to reaborb her eggs twice? Does it hurt her?

I have never had a female reabsorb her eggs before, so I am curious to know if anyone has had this happen with one or more females before.

I have never heard of that how do you know she she has done it?

I could feel eggs, so I put her in the lay box. After two weeks of no eggs, I palpitated her and could no longer feel the eggs. This time the eggs were only about pea sized or slightly larger, again no eggs after a week or two.

Only thing I can think of is that they weren't fertile & her body knew it.

Everything I have read on the subject (which, noted, isn’t much) points to possibly the setting of heat, lighting, diet, hormones, or her body isn’t ready to lay them but it may also be that they were infertile as you suspected. In some cases it was also the setting they were in when expecting to lay which seems to be the common issue.
From what else I can gather, as long as she is within proper weight for producing eggs, there shouldn’t be any damage done to her body. Females that aren’t introduced to males reabsorb their eggs most of the time and don’t suffer because of it. Is the male she is breeding with proven?
Hopefully this information helps.

We have lost 6 clutches due to a dud male this year!

Originally Posted by jeskajohn

Everything I have read on the subject (which, noted, isn’t much) points to possibly the setting of heat, lighting, diet, hormones, or her body isn’t ready to lay them but it may also be that they were infertile as you suspected. In some cases it was also the setting they were in when expecting to lay which seems to be the common issue.
From what else I can gather, as long as she is within proper weight for producing eggs, there shouldn’t be any damage done to her body. Females that aren’t introduced to males reabsorb their eggs most of the time and don’t suffer because of it. Is the male she is breeding with proven?
Hopefully this information helps.

Male is not proven, this was a surprise. I thought he was to young to breed ... guess I was wrong, as the clutch she did lay is good. (I think)

I will double check her heat. Other than that, she is good on the other points. She is a good weight for her size, 14/ 15 in & the male is the same size. She eats everything in sight, so that part is cover.

Thanks for the info.