So anyway, I use nest "placeholders", a.k.a. fake eggs, to encourage hens to lay in a specific spot, to encourage them to KEEP laying in a specific spot (I've found if I empty a nest, completely, the hens will look for ever more creative spots to hide eggs), and to encourage broodiness. I've used golf balls and plastic Easter eggs but had no success with those personally. Both just get punted out of nests and used as footballs.
There was a brief time I used marked, hard-boiled eggs with great success (swapped out frequently of course), but at some point, somehen figured out my ruse and ate them. Since that time, they all have a nose for cooked eggs, and even if a hen is very broody, they don't last long, so scrapped that idea too.
So, for the past five or six years, I've been using fake 'ceramic' eggs from Incubator Warehouse. Reasonably sized, reasonably weighted, dishwasher safe and virtually indestructible. Trust me, I tried. Only thing NOT reasonable to my mind, is the price of them...about 2.50 each for a 'medium' sized egg, and almost $4 for a turkey/small goose-sized egg.
Yes, they are infinitely reusable, but when a dozen hens go broody at once, or your animals wander like mine do,
happens. Geese like to bury eggs, turkeys are expert at hiding or camouflaging, chickens tend to be picky about how many eggs are in a nest before they set, and pigs and dogs seem to think that those fake eggs make awesome chew toys. I've lost at least two dozen each of both sizes, one way or another, and a thousand years from now, some archaeologist will excavate stone eggs from my fields and be very, very confused. My property will be called "Egg Henge", and will be a huge tourist attraction for people following Neo Fertility Religions or somesuch. But anyway, after researching alternative fake eggs (read, cheaper) such as wooden ones (not cheaper), I had the fabulous idea of making my own out of plaster of Paris, which I would seal when cured. So, then, I need a mold. I could use real eggs as a mold, but they are at a premium right now. Every egg I get is spoken for.
Surely, egg-shaped candles or soaps is a "thing"! I would buy that thing, so egg-shaped things must be popular. Appropriate molds will abound on internet shops! :D
Not really. I found one mold that will make "eggs" 2 1/4" long. One at a time. I found lots of clamshell chocolate molds that make half an egg at a time and the maker must then find a way to melt the two together... wouldn't work with plaster, or my very limited skill level.
I told DH Richard what I wanted, and by serendipity, he found THIS at a thrift store for 50 cents:
It's a Jell-O mold, to make 6 eggs at a time, each egg almost 3 inches long..
Fifty cents! Scooooorrrreeee! It's plastic, but I figure spraying with Pam before I fill with plaster should work. If not, if I have to destroy the mold to get the eggs out, well, it was fifty cents. Now just to find some cheap plaster of Paris and test my theory. In the meantime, if you fine people come across these molds anywhere, hang onto the suckers, because apparently they're worth $20 used. Or send them to me, whatever
Pet quality wheaten/blue wheaten ameraucanas, welsummers, barred rocks, light brown leghorns; Projects on the go: rhodebars, welbars
