Review on 🐣 Ceramic Nest Eggs for Happy Hens by Jessica Smith

I was skeptical that chickens needed an artificial egg to encourage laying. For years I never had these fake eggs and didn't think I would need them. But now I'm a lot smarter! Firstly, I have new young hens who have not yet started laying. They were old enough to lay eggs, but they didn't go to bed week after week. (My older hens molted so no one laid.) After the fake eggs were laid in the aviary, the younger hens figured it out within a day or two! At that moment, all three began to rush. Secondly, now that all my 5 chickens are laying I figured the fake eggs were unnecessary so I took them out of the coop and put them aside. But with 5 layers, sometimes only two birdhouses can get tight. One day I noticed a hen roaring up a storm and it seems this was because the 'preferred' aviary was occupied. Why doesn't she just use another birdhouse I thought! It's identical, and yet she's not going to go there and lay her damn egg! So I threw the wrong egg into the "other" empty bird house. That did it! She came in and laid an egg! So for some chickens, having an egg in a box is really important! Finally, I noticed that the hens go to great lengths to move the artificial eggs from one bird feeder to another. I put a fake egg in each bird feeder and the chicken spends 20 minutes moving the fake egg from one box to another. OK. So I tried just putting a fake egg in a less favored box. That day ALL 5 CHICKENS laid their eggs in the ONE aviary because they all wanted to lay their eggs where there were already eggs. The "preferred" box was empty, and while they ALWAYS prefer to lay eggs in that box, NO ONE put an egg in the preferred box because it was empty! It is obviously important to all my 5 hens: they all want to lay where there is already an egg. I'm learning from these fake egg experiments and will now work to make sure there's an egg in every box!