Hyperdistributions and the Intercept term?

[GDistiller]

Hi
My question relates to the intercept and whether or not the intercept is included in a particular temporal hyperdistribution (such as for annual survival estimates). The few examples I have come across seem to leave the intercept term out of the hyperdistribution.

I am currently fitting a time dependent model where the intercept is equal to the survival estimate for the reference year, for a resident (ie non-transient) bird. I initially left the intercept out of the hyperdistribution but this seems wrong to me since if it relates to the survival estimate in my reference year then it should conceptually come from the same distribution as my other yearly estimates? If a bird is transient then there is a fixed effect to handle this. Does this seem correct?

Thanks!

Greg