Fake eggs, what are they for?

[Pixel]

I mean the china and plastic ones. Are they supposed to encourage hens to lay or are they for broody hens?

To encourage hens to lay in the right place.

Yeah, I've only ever seen rubber ones. Boy they take some boiling!

Mmm okay...

I did realise the broody hen bit made no sense as soon as I'd typed it but was hoping I could somehow remind my girls what an egg actually looks like and get them earning their keep the lazy gits!

My Mum uses these with her girls. They are all rescue chickens (from caged environments) and aren't too sure at first where they can lay, nor do they know that pecking the egg to smithereens after laying is unhelpful. Somehow the fake eggs can help teach them. I'm not sure how though!

Do you know why your hens aren't laying, Pixel? Are you getting fewer eggs or none at all?

No eggs at all for months . The girls are only two years old and look ridiculously healthy (one of them had sourcrop a couple of months back but is fine now). The only possible reason they have for not laying is that they have been moulting but surely they should be ok again by now? We had one egg a couple of weeks ago and I thought 'hurrah, they are laying again' but there's been nothing since.

Are your chucks going through the change?

Well maybe, but I was told they would lay until they were about 3 so I did expect to get eggs for a little longer.

I would think it'll be the moulting then, they don't lay during the moult as they need to put all their energy into new feathers. If you're not giving them too many treats and they're worm and mite free I'd be pretty sure that's what it is.

What do you feed them?

They will probably lay for a lot longer than three years, the number of eggs will reduce the older they get.

They have layers pellets in a hopper in their run, and oyster grit in another. They have fresh greens every day and then in the afternoon/evening they'll have a few leftovers (spaghetti etc), OR veg peelings cooked and mashed with layers mash, OR if I haven't got those they'll have some mixed corn. If I'm around they'll sometimes come out into the garden for a dig around and have worms/snails/woodlice.

There is no sign of mites (we had them last summer so I know what to look for) and I use a ground sanitiser that is supposed to kill worms. I also gave them some wormer a couple of months ago but I'm not sure how much I actually got down them so I might try and do that again. Since one of them had to have antibiotics twice a day for the sourcrop I've got better at administering such things!

They did stop laying all of a sudden rather than petering out so that must be a good sign right?

Hmm, could well be - maybe it means there's something causing it other than old age, which I would have doubted anyway. What wormer are you using?