My Chickens Are Messing With Me

[Snowbelt]

I have Wyandottes and Brahmas from last year's additions that are just starting to lay. I have five nesting boxes that are up about two feet for the new hens (and my older Buff Orpingtons) to use. To help the newbies, I put fake eggs in the boxes--one in each box. After a couple of eggs on the floor, they figured out how to use the boxes, but here's where things get weird. Two or three times, I went to check for eggs and found a fake one on the floor. That's fine, I just put it back so each box held exactly one egg. Then one of the hens moved a fake egg to an adjacent box, so one box had none, and one box had two. Hmmm. So I dutifully moved it back, and the next day it had been moved again to an adjacent box. After a couple of rounds of this behavior, I figured what the heck, if someone wants a clean box to lay in without fake eggs, who am I to judge? So I left one box empty and one box with two fake eggs. That worked for a couple of days, then one of the hens moved a fake egg from the box with two eggs to the box with none, so each box had one fake egg again. The next day it was back to two eggs in a box and no eggs in another. And now I just went out to check eggs, and it was back to one fake egg in every box. Are they just messing with me, or is there a reason for this behavior?

I know a human isn't moving these because the coop is surrounded by more than a foot of unbroken snow, and the only way out there is a path I shoveled, and the only footprints that go out there are mine. Plus the coop door locks with a key.

 

[kattabelly]

is there a reason for this behavior?

Yes. Chickens.

 

[fldiver97]

“Because they can”….. It’s funny but …. Yes, chickens

 

[SkyAJK]

I have Wyandottes and Brahmas from last year's additions that are just starting to lay. I have five nesting boxes that are up about two feet for the new hens (and my older Buff Orpingtons) to use. To help the newbies, I put fake eggs in the boxes--one in each box. After a couple of eggs on the floor, they figured out how to use the boxes, but here's where things get weird. Two or three times, I went to check for eggs and found a fake one on the floor. That's fine, I just put it back so each box held exactly one egg. Then one of the hens moved a fake egg to an adjacent box, so one box had none, and one box had two. Hmmm. So I dutifully moved it back, and the next day it had been moved again to an adjacent box. After a couple of rounds of this behavior, I figured what the heck, if someone wants a clean box to lay in without fake eggs, who am I to judge? So I left one box empty and one box with two fake eggs. That worked for a couple of days, then one of the hens moved a fake egg from the box with two eggs to the box with none, so each box had one fake egg again. The next day it was back to two eggs in a box and no eggs in another. And now I just went out to check eggs, and it was back to one fake egg in every box. Are they just messing with me, or is there a reason for this behavior?

I think they are just saying to you that....we know that is not a real egg and we do not like it. We do the real thing, you do fake egg. They really are messing with you

Some of my chickens do that, kick out the fake egg...Got to them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I know a human isn't moving these because the coop is surrounded by more than a foot of unbroken snow, and the only way out there is a path I shoveled, and the only footprints that go out there are mine. Plus the coop door locks with a key.

That was going to be my first guess, that somebody was messing with you. But you eliminated that.

Chickens can move eggs round. That happens with broody hens sometimes, they move eggs to their nest. One time when I was doing something I saw an egg laying on the coop floor. When I came back later that egg had been moved to a nest a couple of feet off of the coop floor. I don't know if it was a hen or the rooster that moved it.

Yours is the worst case I've seen or heard of this. I have no idea why they are doing that to the eggs.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I don’t use fake eggs anymore because the chickens always kicked them out of the coop and they would get all dirty. Then one day my husband was complaining about how this one egg just wouldn’t come clean no matter how hard he washed it No more fake eggs for us.

 

[Snowbelt]

I think they are just saying to you that....we know that is not a real egg and we do not like it. We do the real thing, you do fake egg. They really are messing with you

Some of my chickens do that, kick out the fake egg...Got to them.

I'm not going to move the fake eggs any more and let them decide where they want them, or if they want them. Once they are all laying in the boxes, I will remove the fake eggs. I think they are hilarious. I think I can identify at least one of the culprits--my golden-laced Wyandotte with the green leg band. I've seen her in the box that keeps having zero eggs. But one of her sisters seems to be moving them back. I have three Wyandottes that are BFFs so maybe they are messing with each other too. Or maybe they are just bored while they are spending their time in the coop waiting for the temperatures to warm a little before I let them out into the pen.