# Chickens getting stressed over fake eggs?



## BlackRose (Jul 8, 2007)

I was peeling a boiled egg today and I wondered if chickens get stressed when they lay unfertilised eggs. They must do. I mean, people get these fake eggs to make chickens lay and to replace the real ones with. But when the chickens are sitting on these eggs and they never hatch over and over how does it not stop them laying?
Don't they notice that the fake eggs are taken away at some point? Most chickens don't even have fake eggs and have their own eggs just taken under their noses. Some are kept in horrible conditions.
Completely random and a bit pointless but I was just pondering. I take a long time peeling eggs lol


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

Their brains are marginally bigger than their eyeballs. They simply do not have the processing power to contemplate 'loss'. They lay, if the egg goes away, or doesn't hatch, they lay again. That's it.


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## BlackRose (Jul 8, 2007)

That makes sense but I don't see how we can know for sure how a chicken brain works. I don't even know if it's been studied. 
I mean there have always been many animals with tiny brains that are very smart.
Most dinosaurs had brains that were way too small for their body and apparently they were smart and chickens are one of the closest living relatives we have to them.


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

BlackRose said:


> That makes sense but I don't see how we can know for sure how a chicken brain works. I don't even know if it's been studied.
> 
> *it has. Alot. :2thumb:*
> 
> ...


 

Birds are immensely well evolved and have incredible cognitive skills. In fact they are much better than humans in many skills.

(interesting reading on the subject here)

The jury is very much out however if they can 'grieve'. Also, you have to take into account that the original 'wild chicken' (Red Jungle Fowl) laid (lays) eggs once a year in breeding season just like most other normal birds.

Laying hens however have been selectively bred to the extreme and some commercial layers can manage 300+ eggs a year, all year around. I'd be pretty confident that the fact that all these eggs are removed (and presumably 'broodiness' is also 'bred out') means very little to them...

...though you could argue that breeding such an extremely highly evolved creature into a mindless zombie egg machine has its own issues :whistling2:


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

i have been told by somone that lives near me that has chickens that they are like some other birds when laying eggs and they like to wait till they have a set number before they settle to incubate, so they keep laying until they have the amount they want, 
he says they dont really notice that the eggs go


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## lonelyone (Aug 26, 2011)

I have over 100 chickens and believe you me, the hens have no idea... i am pretty sure they can't count to two, never mind 10.
They do have an instinct to go broody, some breeds don't but most do. Hens go broody because of the weather conditions and the amount of eggs they have laid in the season, no matter how many are in the nest.
I had broody hens sit on one egg....
If they waited until they had a certain amount of eggs they would never go broody as I take the eggs each day.


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

lonelyone said:


> I have over 100 chickens and believe you me, the hens have no idea... i am pretty sure they can't count to two, never mind 10.
> They do have an instinct to go broody, some breeds don't but most do. Hens go broody because of the weather conditions and the amount of eggs they have laid in the season, no matter how many are in the nest.
> I had broody hens sit on one egg....
> If they waited until they had a certain amount of eggs they would never go broody as I take the eggs each day.


oh ok lol,


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

My chickens don't appear to give a diddly squat about their unfertilised eggs being taken away. They lay them and then wander off as if it were a poo and then so no agression or defensive tallent when i come to collect.

I'm aware that birds often lay one egg a day for a period of sometimes up to a week and don't actually sit to incubate until they are all laid even this being the case you would expect to have to fight them off to gain access to the "nest" but they do not.

However, i recently introduced a fertile egg to a chicken that had gone broody and she showed a remarkable change in behaviour towards this egg....even though it wasnt even hers nor did it belong to that breed of chicken nor either one of her sisters. She splayed her wings and became very upset with me even looking at her on the nest.


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

yes they know that the eggs they lay are infertile 
amazing she knew the fertile egg you gave her was worth protecting though


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## lonelyone (Aug 26, 2011)

123dragon said:


> yes they know that the eggs they lay are infertile
> amazing she knew the fertile egg you gave her was worth protecting though


No they don't. Keep hens without a cockerel all eggs will be infertile but they will still go broody, protect the eggs and sit on them for ages. Some try for 6 weeks or longer !
:gasp:


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## gnipper (Feb 13, 2007)

:gasp::lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2:


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