Fake eggs will help protect laid eggs from laying hens

They will discourage chickens from pecking and hatching eggs

A patent for an original way of preserving chicken eggs was recently received by specialists from the Voronezh State Agrarian University named after Peter I. Artificial eggs with certain characteristics will help protect the laid eggs from aggressive and overly caring laying hens.

As MK found out, one of the urgent problems of modern industrial and household poultry farming today is the so-called pecking of eggs by laying hens. It all starts small: some laid eggs have too thin a shell that breaks easily. If a chicken pecks at the contents of such eggs, then over time it becomes a need for her. As a result, acquiring a bad habit, chickens begin to peck and eat even normal eggs. The most common way to deal with this scourge is to reduce the contact time of the chicken with the egg. For this, different types of nests for laying hens have been developed, from which laid eggs roll into a place inaccessible to chickens. But if a hen lays an egg not in the nest, it remains defenseless against aggressive birds.

Scientists from Voronezh guessed to lay out dummies of eggs in the poultry house, containing an electronic system that automatically generates an acoustic signal upon impact (when the chicken pecks at it). This, according to the observations of the researchers, leads to the formation of a conditioned reflex in birds and prevents further attempts to peck the eggs.

Another problem is the persistent attempts of hens to hatch eggs. This process is quite natural, but for those farms that are aimed at producing eggs, not chickens, there are only losses from incubation: a full-fledged embryo is formed under the shell, and the egg, accordingly, loses its commercial value. Here artificial eggs also come to the rescue, however, with other properties. When a hen mistakenly tries to incubate a fake egg rather than a normal egg, it is heated to a temperature 7-9% higher than the temperature of the laying hen. It is harmless to the bird, but unpleasant. Over time, she, to paraphrase the proverb, “having burned herself on a dummy, does not sit on her eggs,” overcomes her incubation instinct.