Nest Eggs

I'll be placing these nest eggs in the nesting boxes so my chickens realize what the boxes are for. This is part of my collection of eggs. Some of them are carved wood and some are carved marble. I think I'll try the marble ones first since they clean up...if I put the wooden ones in there, they'll be pretty disgusting by the time I don't need them in the boxes anymore.



Due to their age and some of their recent behaviors, I think my chicks are getting ready to start laying eggs. I'm excited at that prospect. I can't wait to have fresh eggs. They are so much better than store eggs.

Chickens aren't the brightest creatures on God's earth and sometimes they need a little help figuring things out. They say that using nest eggs sort of helps them decide where to lay their eggs. Apparently they can be fooled into thinking another hen laid an egg in that box so it must be a good place to lay an egg! I'd much rather they were laid in the nest boxes that I have lined with clean bedding and dried grass clippings, than on the ground in the poop!

Oh, and since the nest eggs are made of stone, hens being hens and pecking everything that they see at least once, should discourage them right from the beginning that pecking their eggs isn't a good thing. Hens can become cannibalistic very easily if they are allowed to peck (and eat) their eggs! A couple good pecks at these marble eggs should end any of that foolishness.

I placed the eggs...



And it wasn't a few minutes before they were getting nosy about them...



Here's one of the hens about to take a peck at the "egg"...



I've seen a few of my pullets sitting in the nest boxes and I'm hoping that by putting a couple nest eggs in each box that it will convince them that those boxes are sort of like a work cubicle or a place where they should get down to business ... not a comfortably padded lounge chair for them to just kick back and chill out in!

Hopefully the next photos of eggs I post on my blog will be the real thing!