A perfect score of 5!

Well, as you know The Bunkies started laying eggs a few weeks ago.  Always a major milestone in a hen's life.  I figured the last major milestone was the first time they all laid an egg on the same day.

And it happened yesterday!

Photo Credit to Sandy

Photo Credit to Sandy

I have a plastic Easter Egg in each nest so don't let those bright pink, purple and yellow eggs fool you.

I read that if you put a fake egg, golf ball or basically anything egg shaped in a nest, it will encourage hens to lay there.  The thought being that a hen will look and think, "Hmmm, someone laid and egg here and wasn't eaten, so it must be a safe place to lay an egg."

I never removed the fake eggs.  Sometimes, I'll have two hens fight over the same nest.  And lots of hens will share a nest just fine.  I'm sure mine would too if there was room.  But my Jersey Giant Coco fills up an entire nest and then some.  So if I catch someone pining for Coco's nest, I'll put her fake egg into another nest and suddenly, THAT nest with the 2 fake eggs becomes highly desirable.  You'd think that it would make it more uncomfortable to sit there with two lumps under you, wouldn't you?

Yes, one set of nests has sand.  I like sand for the floor of my hen house as it makes it super easy to quickly scoop up dropping each morning.  And then I have pine shavings in my nests.  I did the same set up in The Bunk house about a month ago.  But the hens were eating the pine shavings.  And really going to town on them.  I don't know why.  And only in The Bunk House.  I catch them eating a pine flake here and there out of The Spice Cabinet.  But I've never seen any significant quantity disappear.  But with in a few days of setting up The Bunk House, I was looking at bare floor in the nests.

So I replaced the shavings with sand in The Bunk House.  But obviously, the hens prefer the pine shavings because two of The Bunkies lay in the big girls house aka, The Spice Cabinet.  I don't really care where they lay.  Provided, they are A. Not fighting and B. Laying in a nest.  And it appears we have success on both fronts.