Ate a boiled egg...

[dowgirl71]

My girls are about 25 weeks old and still not laying. So last weekend I thought maybe if I put a boiled egg, instead of a wooden egg in their laying boxes, maybe that might give them a better clue. Yesterday, when I was cleaning their coop, I noticed one of them gone and today, I found a piece of the egg and shell. I'm wondering if now, I may have introduced them to a bad habit?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I wouldn't worry yet.

Just put some golf balls or something hard in there that isn't edible. For egg eaters some fill eggs with mustard (removing the egg contents first) but I don't think you are there yet.

You might try 14 hours of light in the coop if you can do it safely to promote egglaying this time of year.

 

[dowgirl71]

Thanks for the reassurance. They now have their wooden eggs back in place, again. I've also been using lighting in their coop, so they have light for about 14 hrs. I read something in another post about them "squatting" when they are about ready to lay. What does this mean? One of my girls did that tonight, when I closed them in for the night.