Faux or not to faux

[City Farmer Jim]

I'm sure it has been answered already BUT are faux/fake eggs needed? We have a 5 girl flock of laying hens and a 5 girl flock soon to be laying. How long are faux/fake eggs needed and will new to laying girls need them? Second question is are the fake eggs making a difference in our ONE broody hen again? She will collect an extra(the 5 nest boxes have an egg)fake egg to set on.

 

[Sublight]

I think so.
It helps the young ones know where to lay.
And it will stop them from eating eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

are faux/fake eggs needed?

No, they are not needed. They can be useful but many people do not use them.

How long are faux/fake eggs needed and will new to laying girls need them?

Many pullets and hens like to lay eggs where other's are laying eggs. When pullets start laying it can help to build their confidence that the nest with a fake egg is a good place to lay. It does not guarantee that they will lay in that nest but it can help.

I generally leave one golf ball in each of my nests. One time that golf ball was accidentally scratched out of the nest onto the floor in front of the nest. A mature hen laid her egg next to that golf ball instead of in the nest where she normally laid. After I put the golf ball back in the nest (and raised the lip so it as harder to scratch out) that hen went back to laying in the nest.

I have had hens that were used to laying in the nest just quit and lay their nest somewhere else. There was a fake egg in the nests and none where she decided to lay. As I said. no guarantees.

I find that the new pullets learn where a good place to lay is by watching the old hens. When my pullets just start to lay they are more likely to lay in a real nest if an old hen is laying in there. The few times I haven't had an old hen laying when pullet starts most still will use a real nest but some often don't.

Second question is are the fake eggs making a difference in our ONE broody hen again? She will collect an extra(the 5 nest boxes have an egg)fake egg to set on.

Probably not. Hens will go broody on one egg, 12 eggs, or no eggs. I've tried getting a hen to go broody by adding a golf ball a day to a nest until I got to 12 and then just left them for a while. I've tried that by marking real eggs and letting them build up. It never has worked.

One time when I left for 4 or 5 days my chicken keeper failed to collect eggs. When I got back they had piled up pretty high. I had two hens acting broody. But when I removed all those eggs and left just the golf balls both hens stopped being broody. They were probably thinking about it but removing those eggs changed their mind.