About plastic eggs...

[Cheep]

I finally saw a kids dispenser at the grocery store, & came home with a bright plastic two-color egg. I haven't seen any more natural looking, to tell the truth.
If golf balls work, then garish colored plastic will, too - right ???

 

[Cheep]

Wow - my girls are so smart

Here's how it went down:
5 min after placing that garish neon green & shocking pink egg in the 2nd nest, Chocklick went in the coop, came out later & sang for ~10 min. I can only assume she laid, right?
Now, I just went out to move my plant watering hose, checked for whatever Chocklick may have produced, & who should be sitting on the nest with the plastic facsimile in it? Sophie, who gives me green eggs

Which goes to show that hens are so smart they can think abstractly, relating the plastic thing - by its shape alone - to what comes out of their bodies. I am so proud

 

[2xchickenfarm]

I had one laying in the fence in area outside. So I put plastic eggs in each nest. Now all 11 are laying in the nest with the exception of the one still laying outside in the dirt. Seems she buries it in the dirt. She was my first layer and I thought once they all started laying she would follow them, but she insists on laying outside. What makes it bad is the area is totally fenced in, including the top. Have to use a stick to get it to the side and then reach out. I know which one it is because she is always there squaking at me when I am getting it. So the plastic egg worked on everyone else.

 

[newchicksnducks]

I had plastic eggs in my nest boxes for a few weeks before they atually began to lay. As far as I knew, the girls had never checked out the boxes before the day they first layed. But this is what they thought of the plastic eggs!

Checking out the boxes.....

Phoooey on the eggs!

But they did use the nesting boxes without incident from this day on! I had one that had started laying about 2 weeks before this day, and she always laid on the floor. On the day my new layers checked out the boxes and layed in them (5 that day!!

) my floor layer got on board and began using the boxes too! Hurray!!

 

[Yazzo]

I've been using plastic eggs for years.....they seem to work on most hens, but some are just too smart for that.

I think that putting a bit of weight inside helps them seem more 'real'. Also, the more natural the color, the better!

 

[grasjm36]

I filled my eggs with a little bit of oyster shell (its abundant haha) to give it some weight. This way it was a bit more difficult for them to fall out. My girls sit right on the egg and even shift it under them with their beak. Its so cute!! And it works.

 

[savingdogs]

We used old golf balls.....recycling!

 

[GoldenCometLady]

I have had good results with the plastic easter eggs. I put a heavy stone inside
each one. Of course they were pastel colored so I chose the ones nearest to
the color of a brown egg. I placed one in each of the 4 nestboxes.

After they began laying good I though I would remove the plastic eggs but
they began all laying in the same box so I put them back in and they went
back to laying in all the boxes. Mine seem to want to lay where there is already
an egg.

 

[sgtmom52]

I use brown wooden eggs from the craft store. They have a nice weight to them and are a more natural color.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

I'm thinking that a lot of it is the FEEL of it under their tummies?

I use resin composite eggs used for "decoration"... we don't need it for that because we have the real thing!