Question re: fake egg usage?

[BGcoop]

My first fake egg was a ceramic Easter decoration that is hollow and has a nickel sized hole on one side(to make a flat place so it won’t roll I guess) and a picture of a bunny on the other side. The chickens don’t seem to care.

 

[nao57]

My chickens have never noticed any difference in plastic Wal-Mart ones or expensive ones. I usually use the el-cheapo ones myself.

Very cool! That's what I wanted to know. Thanks.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Very cool! That's what I wanted to know. Thanks.

I've even used painted rocks before lol

 

[orloffer]

My first fake egg was a ceramic Easter decoration that is hollow and has a nickel sized hole on one side(to make a flat place so it won’t roll I guess) and a picture of a bunny on the other side. The chickens don’t seem to care.

I use a 3-D printed egg made by at a summer camp some time ago. It looks a lot like a real egg, but it's much lighter.

 

[Mrs. K]

Even golf balls will work, although after years of using them, I got a chicken that despised the golf balls, and would throw them out of the nest.

I often use egg shaped rocks.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Does it matter if they are white? Or how real they look? (Or if they are easter colored plastic ones?)

Nope, they just need to be roughly the size and shape of an egg. I use golf balls, doesn't bother the chickens any.

 

[nao57]

Nope, they just need to be roughly the size and shape of an egg. I use golf balls, doesn't bother the chickens any.

What?!

Golf balls even work?!

:O

Although I wonder if gold balls would work with ducks too, since they seem a bit smarter than chickens?

And I had to ask this also...after talking to you guys through comments a new question popped up...

Is it bad if the chickens and ducks see you taking the eggs? (I got worried about this and haven't had a chance to figure this out yet. And if possible I'd like to avoid finding out through the messy way.) If chickens and ducks see you picking up the eggs that they laid will it mean they could stop laying or change where they lay? (And are they less likely to notice if there's an amount of time after they lay that you pick them up?)

You can see how animal psychology totally plays into this.

Like for example, I've already noticed that my ducks and chickens don't lay at the same time of the day. (Still not all the ducks producing yet. So we'll see.) But one of the ducks lays earlier in the morning, but the chickens seem to be laying later in the day.

But I also wondered, OK, if these guys are laying eggs today, does that mean the egg was queued to be made in their bodies today, or yesterday, or some other day, even though it came out today?

Thanks!

And wow, its fun to learn about stuff.

 

[aart]

Nope, they just need to be roughly the size and shape of an egg. I use golf balls, doesn't bother the chickens any.

...and weight.
The light plastic easter egg need to be filled with something heavy like sand.

I use golf balls too....and the ones from TSC, are some kind of hard plaster, not ceramic.

 

[SilverLacedFarmChik]

I’ve toyed with the idea of just making some out of Sculpy clay as well. Since I happen to have 5 metric tons of the stuff laying around from when my kids were younger, lol

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

Golf balls do double duty for me. They encourage chickens to lay in the right place, and when they disappear, I know a snake has visited and the girls aren’t slacking off. Bad year for snakes this year!