My girls started doing the laying down thing when I get close. I've heard they are getting close to laying. When I put them away at night they go to the perch. But when I go out in the mornings they have taken the fake eggs out of the nest or bury them in the straw. Does this mean they lay within the week? They are NH Reds and are 20 weeks. I'm just so anxious.
I'm new at this so I wont be much help. Mine removed a fake egg and I found it it the run. I also found two buried in the nesting straw. Later those same two had been pulled back into the middle of the nest. For mine it seems almost like a personal preference.
It's nothing to worry about. Some chickens seem to have very precise ideas about the fake egg and where it should and shouldn't be. I have one who always pushes it to the very edge. My other three chickens don't seem to move it at all. Just a personality thing. It does sound like they are getting ready to lay - you may even find the fake egg moving behaviour stops once they are laying themselves. Nothing beats the excitement of that first egg!
Mine wouldn't have anything to do with the fake eggs. They tossed them out along with any bedding they didn't like. When they started laying, I'd go out to the coop several times a day and move any eggs they laid in the nesting boxes. It took about 2 weeks but they are now laying in the boxes. No more crawling under the coop to get the lone brown egg, or washing the poop from the one that was dropped on the poop board full of poop. I've still got a golden comet that hasn't started laying yet. Hopefully, she will be on board when she starts.
When mine scratched the fake egg out of the nest while rearranging the straw, I raised the lip a couple more inches. No more bedding or fake eggs scratched out of the nest.
Got our first eggs today!!! I'm so excited. I gave them a pep talk last night. I told them if they didn't start laying soon they were going in the pot. One had no shell and the other got broken I think when they came off the perch. They had these this morning. Then one went into the coop and had one about 2pm. They were small.