Dummy eggs

[TLWR]

When Ally and Cadbury decided to start laying their eggs in a nest in the woods that I can't get to, I decided to try putting a fake egg in their nest. I'd found a wood one about the right size at easter. Put that in their nest.
Some days... they just push that sucker right out of their bedding box. I swear they tell me, "yeah, we aren't that dumb" when I let them out in the morning.
Other times they will lay their eggs with it and all 3 eggs are in a nice little nest (like this morning). Other times, they kick out the fake egg and lay their own.
Seems to be no rhyme or reason to their acceptance or rejection of the fake egg. But each time I see them kick that sucker out, I think it is quite funny because it seems to always come with that pause before they walk out of their house and the accompanying look...

 

[cat1994]

I have also had this happen although most of the time my duck would just push it out and trash the whole nest but I painted it the same color as their real eggs and now my ducks don’t seem to kick it out so often