Golf balls?

[jaseyboy1986]

Hi all,

I've noticed a few threads on BYC with photos of golf balls next to eggs. The threads I've seen haven't explained what they were for, I'm assuming this encourages hens to lay, am I right?

The reason I ask is I have four hens all around the age of 18/19 weeks that are not yet laying (I understand they probably won't lay until 20-24 weeks anyway) (and these are my first hens by the way, so I am very new to all this) and I wondered if the golf ball method is used just when waiting for the first egg or at any stage where the hens are not laying as well as usual?

 

[sourland]

The golf balls are used as an enticement to lay in a particular place. They will not help to initiate egg production in hens taking a vacation from egg laying.

 

[mamadawn]

Hens like to lay in a safe spot. Seeing other eggs seems to signal safe and instinctively they will add theirs to a growing clutch. Each gal is different and it may take a few times laying to achieve controlled laying and figure the nest thing out. Most old timers say hens can't tell the difference between golf balls and eggs. On the chance they can, (and my girls lay brown eggs) I use wooden eggs I got at the craft store painted brown. Yesterday I had a pullet drop a tiny egg right next to me as I fed treats to the other girls. Im so glad I had them out in the yard and she wasn't in our Chunnel

 

[aart]

It can help show them where to lay.....but one of my new layers wouldn't use the nest until I took the golf balls out of the nest.

ETA..I keep golf balls in all 4 nests in my main coop to help break the cycle of them all wanting to lay in one nest...and minimize the bitching and moaning if that one favored nest is occupied at a time of need, it seems to work most the time. Am experimenting with removing some of them to see if that changes any patterns.

 

[jaseyboy1986]

It can help show them where to lay.....but one of my new layers wouldn't use the nest until I took the golf balls out of the nest.

ETA..I keep golf balls in all 4 nests in my main coop to help break the cycle of them all wanting to lay in one nest...and minimize the bitching and moaning if that one favored nest is occupied at a time of need, it seems to work most the time. Am experimenting with removing some of them to see if that changes any patterns.

Good idea, good luck. Let me know how you get on

 

[Bunnylady]

Something else the golf balls help with is egg eating.Over the years, I have had more trouble with birds eating their own eggs. It can start with a curious peck, and then the bird discovers that there is something yummy inside that shell (chickens are omnivores, after all). They can peck at a golf ball all they like, and of course, it gets them nowhere. If they think there's nothing to be gained by the behavior, they are unlikely to repeat it.

 

[mamadawn]

So hope this theory holds true... Im using wooden eggs. I just found a pullet egg shell in my run I'm hoping it was an accident. I'm so bummed

 

[Double Kindness]

I put a golf ball in the nesting box when we got a chicken old enough to lay, and hours after bringing her home she layed the first egg I ever got, you would have thought I had layed it the noise I made. She was 12 months old when we got her and layed regularly until 10 days ago after one of my chickens died that was 16 weeks old (cocci).

But another one of my chickens started laying 4 days ago, 2 eggs so far, and always with the golf ball. If I switch the nesting box the golf ball is in, so does where each of my chickens had laid her egg, with the golf ball. Lay, hop off. Well the one that just started really belts out her egg song for hours before she lays, and the rooster making noises along with her. Like chicken lamaze.

 

[pitlizard]

I have golfballs and straw in the nesting boxes and some one is always kickin ball and straw out and laying in Bush out side.What could this mean

 

[aart]

I put a golf ball in the nesting box when we got a chicken old enough to lay, and hours after bringing her home she layed the first egg I ever got, you would have thought I had layed it the noise I made. She was 12 months old when we got her and layed regularly until 10 days ago after one of my chickens died that was 16 weeks old (cocci).

But another one of my chickens started laying 4 days ago, 2 eggs so far, and always with the golf ball. If I switch the nesting box the golf ball is in, so does where each of my chickens had laid her egg, with the golf ball. Lay, hop off. Well the one that just started really belts out her egg song for hours before she lays, and the rooster making noises along with her. Like chicken lamaze.

LOL!