Hens are moving the fake eggs

[Goshen]

I am new to raising chickens and find the following pretty interesting.

Someone told me to place a golf ball in the nest to encourage the hens to lay there. Well, I have two nest boxes, side by side with a short divider between them. I placed a golf ball in each nest. Everyday when I checked for eggs I found 2 or 3 eggs and both golf balls in the same nest. The hens only seem to lay in the one nest. I thought my wife was moving the golf ball into that box. When I asked her about it she said she thought I was moving it.

Now this went on for several days and I decided to move both golf balls into the nest that is never used. I thought this might encourage the hens to lay in the other box. But the hens just moved both golf balls back into their favorite nest and continue to lay their eggs there.

We only have three hens laying so they really only need one nest box, but its interesting to me that the hens are so partial to that one nest.

Goshen

 

[eggchel]

They often have a favorite nest, and yes, they "steal" golf balls just like they were the real things.



chel

 

[Mahonri]

They'll do that.

 

[melissastraka]

they were bored and wanted to keep you guessing

 

[katrinag]

I have both golf balls and ceramic(sp) eggs in the nest boxes, they are never in the same box in the morning.

 

[herechickchick]

I have 10 hens and they all cram in to the same box even though I have 6 boxes.

 

[SoccerMomof7]

I am so going to try that, but I cannot get my girls to even lay in the nesting box they make nest in the shavings and lay them in it. I tried putting plastic easter e g gs in there but that didn't work.

 

[Lobzi]

Golf balls did not work for my hen. She was too smart and just pushed them out of the box. In order to get her to lay where I wanted her to, I had to put 1 of her e g g s that I found elsewhere in the box then I let her lay two more. I kept track of them by marking them 1 2 3 then a b c and removing the oldest one.
I let her keep three e g g s at a time in the nest. She didnt seem to notice I was removing one each day. Finally she went broody so I let her sit on the last three she laid. Today I have 3 one week old peepers

 

[cmom]

My girls mostly prefer two nest boxs and I have 6 boxes. I have a golf ball in each nest box. They do like to roll the golf balls around. for the most part they gather them together in with the eggs. Once in awhile I find one burried under the spanish moss I use in their nest boxes. Sometimes they will bury eggs under the moss too.
Here are some pics.

 

[lisahaschickens]

newbie curiosity -

how do they move the eggs between two boxes with a divider? They can't pick them up, right? And rolling them wouldn't be possible because of the divider...

I have always been curious about this since I started reading about it a while ago... has anyone seen it happen?