Decoy eggs?

[Cinco pollos]

One of my hens occasionally sets up another new place to nest in my yard. I'd like to keep her in one place, but she won't stay there if I take all her eggs. So I've been leaving one. Will she know when that one egg is old/rotten? Should I use a fake egg instead?

 

[sealer39]

Yes, you can get some ceramic eggs or golf balls work too. They are good to keep in your nest boxes for various reasons. They’ll help train your chickens where to lay. They’ll alert you to a snake (a snake will eat one so you’ll know). They also may deter a chicken from starting to eat eggs.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I use a couple of fakes to entice them to lay where I would like them to.
I don't have any white egg layers, so I got white ceramic eggs so I don't mistakenly collect them. . GC

 

[WindingRoad]

Yes, you can get some ceramic eggs or golf balls work too. They are good to keep in your nest boxes for various reasons. They’ll help train your chickens where to lay. They’ll alert you to a snake (a snake will eat one so you’ll know). They also may deter a chicken from starting to eat eggs.

My chickens are weird. They won't lay in a nest box with a ceramic egg in there, they lay on the coop floor to avoid the fake egg. The fake ones deterred them for awhile, and my worst eggs eaters like mustard/hot sauce. Also, I'd still lose an egg or two every day just making them. One time didn't work for my EE.. ( egg eaters). But as soon say my carpenter gets done scraping a house I'm gonna have him put in a tilted board on the back of the nest box. About 15 degrees and then put another board on the front on a rail so the eggs roll down front and under that board where the chickens can't reach them. Even weirder is the fact that if I am home they will eat eggs if I'm not out the checking ever HOUR. But I can go out to get feed and groceries etc for 3-5 hours and come back to 4-5 intact eggs. IDK

 

[WindingRoad]

I use a couple of fakes to entice them to lay where I would like them to.
I don't have any white egg layers, so I got white ceramic eggs so I don't mistakenly collect them.View attachment 2064197. GC

LOL I have brown layers and white layers so I had to buy both. Yesterday actually on of my chickens laid in a ceramic egg nest box. I picked up the ceramic egg by mistake. I did look it over and realized it was fake.Put and back and got the real one. I just took a magic marker and put a circle around them.

 

[aart]

Should I use a fake egg instead?

Yes.
...or...
Free range birds sometimes need to be 'trained'(or re-trained) to lay in the coop nests, especially new layers. Leaving them locked in the coop for a week or so can help 'home' them to lay in the coop nests. Fake eggs/golf balls in the nests can help 'show' them were to lay. They can be confined to coop and maybe run 24/7 for a few days to a week, provided you have adequate space and ventilation, or confine them at least until mid to late afternoon. You help them create a new habit and they will usually stick with it. ..at least for a good while, then repeat as necessary.

 

[rosemarythyme]

LOL I have brown layers and white layers so I had to buy both. Yesterday actually on of my chickens laid in a ceramic egg nest box. I picked up the ceramic egg by mistake. I did look it over and realized it was fake.Put and back and got the real one. I just took a magic marker and put a circle around them.

Chickens really don't care what color the fake eggs are so don't worry about trying to match the actual eggs exactly. And yes marking the fakes is a good idea... folks on here have accidentally cracked open their fakes, thinking they were real eggs!

 

[WindingRoad]

Chickens really don't care what color the fake eggs are so don't worry about trying to match the actual eggs exactly. And yes marking the fakes is a good idea... folks on here have accidentally cracked open their fakes, thinking they were real eggs!

Now see I went out to the coop late this morning. 8:30 8:40. and I had 3 perfect eggs in nest boxes with fake eggs in them. One white two brown. got done with chores about 9:30. checked for any more eggs none.. Went out again about 10:30 and my ISA brown had managed to break a white egg. She must have done is just as I came into coop because it was still warm and the yolk hadn't been touched. And then I found a wet spot in another box where they had eaten the whole egg shell and all. Little buggers. late this afternoon around 4pm I went out and almost stepped on a brown egg some one had laid on the coop floor. A few days ago I had them "outside" and I noticed one of my RIR all puffed up and standing up with her butt aimed at the ground. I said to her " are you gonna lay an egg" just as it popped out. The coop was maybe a foot from her. Silly girl. They are so unpredictable.

 

[Rita rola]

My chickens are weird. They won't lay in a nest box with a ceramic egg in there, they lay on the coop floor to avoid the fake egg. The fake ones deterred them for awhile, and my worst eggs eaters like mustard/hot sauce. Also, I'd still lose an egg or two every day just making them. One time didn't work for my EE.. ( egg eaters). But as soon say my carpenter gets done scraping a house I'm gonna have him put in a tilted board on the back of the nest box. About 15 degrees and then put another board on the front on a rail so the eggs roll down front and under that board where the chickens can't reach them. Even weirder is the fact that if I am home they will eat eggs if I'm not out the checking ever HOUR. But I can go out to get feed and groceries etc for 3-5 hours and come back to 4-5 intact eggs. IDK

I did get a good laugh out of your situation. I'm sorry I just found it funny and a drag!

 

[SoCal Chicken Mama]

Ok, I'm not seeing any threads related to my questions, so here goes...My four girls are just a few weeks away from starting to lay.
1. How do you teach them not to poop in the nest boxes? The coop has three, and I'm adding one more in the run, using a little pet crate I used to move them around with when they were tiny. Now it's just about the right size for one bird. Inside the coop "house" where they sleep, are the three nest boxes. I shut them in at night, and they poop over every square inch, including the nest boxes. Since the entire floor comes out, I clean all the poop out every morning, and shut them out during the day, so it will be nice and clean for them when they go to bed. But once they start laying, I'll have to leave the house open to give them access to the nest boxes. How will they know to stop pooping in the nest boxes once they start laying? Especially since there are no grown up chickens around to tell them?
I don't use bedding inside the house, I have a pet mat in there that is fuzzy like felt on one side and waterproof on the other. I put a clean one in every day (fuzzy side up) and they huddle together on that at night. There is one roost in there, but they don't know what to do with it. I've tried putting them on it, but they just jump right down. In the morning I roll up the mat and shake the poop into a compost bucket, then hose the gooey stuff off the mat. (I have four of them, cut to fit the size of the whole floor) After drying in the sun, I collect them and wash them in the machine twice a week.
I have smaller mats to cover the nest box floors. Now that they are almost laying age, I'm thinking of putting nest box excelsior mats in one the boxes to indicate this is for something else... and a nest egg.
2. How many nest eggs should I put in?
3. It seems like those excelsior mats would be impossible to clean if they got even one night's poop on them.
4. I'm thinking of putting the little pet crate nest box in the bigger run in a secluded place. When they were little the liked to use the crate as a hidey hole they would run into if anything scared them. I noticed that they didn't poop in it much. That way they could have a place to lay and I could still keep the house clean during the day. I can't imagine having to do the mat cleaning routine twice a day (morning and night). Besides the mat cleaning, after I shut them ip for the night, I rake the poop out of the under coop run (sand and PDZ), and turn the bark under in the bigger run. If it's too dark to do it at night, I do it in the early morning, before I open the door to the little house. I keep both 12"x16" doors of the little house open (with hardware cloth screens) for ventilation, so it airs out during the day.
5. Do they always lay in the daytime?
You can see the little pet crate in this picture. The Buff Orpington is so big now that I don't think she'd fit in the nest boxes inside the coop! The other picture shows how I had to rig up the screen door. There are structures inside preventing me from attaching it inside. Bonus, a couple of them like to jump up there and bounce up and down on the bungee cord. The won't do it for the camera, though!