2009 Omlet cube and run for sale

[urbanhen]

Hi everyone! I've had my 3 girls (Penny-Rhode Island Red, Gertie-Buff Sussex and Jem-Light Sussex) since October when they were 16-17 weeks old! We weren't expecting any eggs actually until closer to springtime however Gertie laid her first on 30th December and has laid everyday since! The first egg was laid outside in the run and therefore we bought the plastic eggs to set into the nestboxes ( 3 fake eggs, one for each nest box). She has since laid in the nestbox with the odd 1 or 2 in the house! The other 2 girls aren't laying yet and I'm just wondering when I should remove the plastic eggs? When I've collected the eggs these past 2 days I've notice that one of the plastic eggs has been moved into the middle nest box along with the other plastic one and she has laid her egg alongside them (I hope that makes sense).

 

Thanks, Laura

[Lewis]

Welcome to the forums

 

As she's started laying in the nest boxes I'd take the plastic eggs out now, the others should copy her and lay in there. There will probably be real eggs in there when they start laying too!

[Sue]

Hi - I like to leave one dummy egg in pretty well all the time. I think it encourages them, but I do collect my eggs regularly throughout the day.

 

If there are a few eggs in the nest it encourages broodiness, so if don't want them broody don't leave too many eggs to accumulate throughout the day

 

All the best

Sue

[urbanhen]

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll take the plastic eggs out now. Since my last post Penny has started laying so am only waiting on Jem now and as you say she should follow suit with the others! I'm new to all this and its great that there's people out there with the same passion as me who I can get great advice from!