Fake Eggs in Nesting Boxes-- Good Idea, Nah, or Meh?

[BlindLemonChicken]

I only use them when I have pullets and no grown hens to show them where to lay.

 

[Growley Monster]

I only use them when I have pullets and no grown hens to show them where to lay.

This flock started from scratch, no wise old hen to show the young pullets what to do. So I will use the counterfeit eggs. I have a half dozen white wooden ones arriving in a couple of days.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Also a fan of golf balls here as the dimpling means you can feel under a hen and differentiate them from eggs. Are there oddballs that WON'T lay in boxes that other birds use? Yes. I now leave one without any fakes. But the others definitely prefer the boxes with the fakes.

I did try to remove all the fakes at one point but one of my hens at the time was so upset by the missing "eggs" that she paced around in distress until I put them back, and then immediately hopped into the box.

 

[AshVau22]

I used fake eggs when I had all pullets. I don't know if it worked or helped. I'd like to think it did. They weren't cheap lol

 

[Debbie292d]

I guess when you have silkies, you don't need fake eggs as I've never needed them. They lay anywhere you will let them, and on nothing at all even. We put horse bedding pellets in our nests, and a couple of the hens scratch those away and lay on the plywood.

I feel left out of that, as fake eggs sound fun actually!

 

[Triangle Nostril]

I used fake eggs for my chickens, they immediately knew where to lay once they began. I don't quite know if they are too fond of the them though, because I often see them kicked out the nesting boxes, but I like keeping them in there anyway. At this point maybe the eggs are more to make me feel better (always looks like a way larger harvest) than them.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Makes sense to me, that a hen would be more likely to lay where laying is apparently already occurring. But a neighbor says nope, the hen will avoid laying in that box because another hen is using it. I have seen plenty of hens doubling up on the same nesting box so kind of had to call BS on that. But should I, or not? I bought some ceramic ones at TSC the other day and put them out in 4 of my 6 boxes last night. This morning I got one egg from one of the boxes with no ceramic egg. Another egg out in the run, on the ground. I have a half dozen wooden eggs coming, too, BTW.

Does color make a difference? The ones I got at TSC are light blue and green. Hens are Brown Leghorns laying white eggs a bit smaller than the fakes cause they just started laying.

Howdy
I have the same eggs. But in addition to blue green, I also have brown. (I wanted other color options I've seen online, but didn't get any.)

This is my first time using nest eggs.
I don't know anybody who has ever used them before, and their birds usually use the nests just fine.
I wanted to deter curious pecking.

The birds do know the eggs are fake, but most of them don't mind. It still seems to give a feeling of "that's an egg, so it's safe to nest there".

Cons --
-- some birds may push the eggs from the nest (ceramic can break)
-- fake egg may accidentally crack a real egg

And, you're right. The birds will use a nest that has eggs in it.
In my mind, the logic is "this has an egg, therefore it's safe to use" and also "instincts tell me to hatch eggs, I need to use this nest so my offspring will hatch"

Most days, many of my birds PREFER a nest that has an egg in it. But, they're confident in the nest boxes, so they will use empty nests as well.
This applies both with fake eggs, and without.
Some will impatiently wait for an occupied nest to be open.
Some can't wait, and pick an unoccupied nest.
I do have 1 box they all prefer most days (twice as wide, good visibility, plenty of room to escape if startled.)

Some days, all 5 of my layers have eggs in the same box.
Today, 2 had eggs, but used different boxes.

 

[chooki]

Yes, there is a such thing as too many fake eggs in the nesting box. Once I put 3 fake eggs in one nesting box, my chooks laid another 2 - 3 eggs inside that box everyday, before soon, one of my hens became broody. She probably thought: half a dozen, good to go!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

TLDR: heartily recommend.

I have two fake eggs in each box. They’re a rough ceramic. Brown, so I put a X on one end with a Sharpie. The EE lays her blue-green eggs with the browns (both fake and real) and obviously doesn’t care. Every once in a blue moon I’ll find one on the run floor, next to the coop nest boxes, likely from a girl who couldn’t get into her favorite box in time.

The original three (now the layers) were all same-aged pullets, so no hens to imitate. The Barred Rock nutball (the one in my profile picture) pecked at them enough before she started laying that she broke off the tip of her beak , and hasn’t molested any real eggs since.

 

[RoseHawke]

I always keep fake eggs in my nest box. They aren't really needed once they know where to lay but they don't hurt anything. I would actually advise getting a color that your birds (or at least most of them) don't lay so you don't grab the fakes by mistake when collecting eggs

Been there done that. I've got little x's on the fakes so I can tell the difference, but in the twilight, they tend to disappear. I really need to put marks on them that are a bit more obvious.