Should I leave eggs in nestboxes so my younger hen gets the idea?

[farmgirlsomeday]

My two Easter Eggers and one white Leghorn each lay an egg pretty much daily. However, my Welsummer pullet, who is somewhere between 8-11 months old at this point has yet to lay her first egg. Would it help my Welsummer figure out what nestboxes are for if I left an egg or two in each of the boxes (laid by the other three hens)? Or would that be pointless?

Thanks

 

[Hobbyfarmhens]

I would not leave eggs in the nest boxes because they will eventually get broken & you don't want your hens eating eggs. Buy some wooden or ceramic "dummy" eggs & put one in each nest box. I have 15 chickens altogether, 1 rooster & 14 hens, all were born last May. I have Wellsummers, Easter Eggers & Buckeyes. They have all just recently started laying & I'm getting 7-10 eggs a day right now. Last fall I closed up all my nest boxes because all the young ones were cramming into them to sleep at night & generally making a big mess of them. Since I wanted them to learn to roost at night & not sleep in the nest boxes and also knew they wouldn't be laying over the winter I left them closed. When I started finding a few eggs on the floor of the coop several weeks ago I opened up 1 nest box, cleaned it out & put fresh wood shavings in it. The next day I had 5 eggs in the box & 2 on the floor. I got 6 brown ceramic eggs from Premier 1 for $1.20/ea I think. I drew a line around each egg with permanent marker & put 1 in the nest box. Haven't had an egg on the floor since. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[farmgirlsomeday]

@Hobbyfarmhens Thank you! This is very helpful

 

[jerrey]

I just go to hobby lobby and get there ceramic eggs my girls look up in the nest boxes to see if there is a egg in there they like to lay were there is another egg