Thanks Bob, for sharing this information. Having grown up in the suburbs I  
would never have even guessed at that function!

On Fri, 07 Aug 2015 15:18:35 -0400, Bob Skiles <[log in to unmask]>  
wrote:

> Keith,
>
> I dunno about these being used so-much for stimulating hens to lay more  
> eggs ... nor when exactly they began to be made for commerce ... but my  
> grand-parents used them for snake-control  (and their parents before  
> them, certainly before the 1880, I'd opine) ... specifically controlling  
> the rat-snake (called chicken snakes in east-Texas). One of these big  
> snakes could seem to find its way into the tightest chicken-coops (I've  
> personally witnessed them wriggling through the tiniest knot holes in  
> pine planks), and greedily gobble-up a whole clutch (or two) of eggs in  
> a single meal. They easily constrict and crush the shells of the  
> (natural) eggs and make-away with a protein-rich meal, thru the same  
> narrow opening with which they made ingress, but if they make the fatal  
> mistake of swallowing one of the trick glass eggs, then its curtains for  
> Mr. Snake! the next time grand-mother arrives to gather eggs. His  
> front-half is dangling through the hole or crack where he made ingress,  
> wildly wriggling trying to getaway (or hanging limply having already  
> exhausted himself from hours of futilely struggling beforehand),  
> prevented from it by the huge undesolvable and unbreakable bulge in his  
> body, and with one deft swipe of her hoe, grand-mother slices-him-in-two.
>
> I've seen this little drama repeated on several occasions occasions,  
> being tasked with retrieval (and cleaning) of the glass-egg from the  
> bisected snake's innards, and return of it to the nest nearest the end  
> where it was felt the next snake might gain entrance ... for there was  
> ALWAYS a next snake... and one did not have to await long for him to  
> show-up.
>
> Regards,
> Bob Skiles
>
> On 8/7/2015 1:08 PM, Keith Doms wrote:
>> Hello,
>>                  We recently discovered a blown milk glass egg.   It  
>> appears to be a dummy egg that was used it encourage chickens to lay.   
>> My informants tell me that door knobs and darning eggs were also used.   
>> It comes from a midden that dates between 1880 and 1910.  The little  
>> research I have been able to do has not answered the following  
>> questions.  1. When did they start making blown eggs?  2. How far did  
>> the practice of artificial eggs to induce laying go back? 3.  Does  
>> anyone know of an advertisement for these things.
>>
>> Keith R. Doms
>> Newlin Grist Mill
>> Site Manager
>> 219 S. Cheyney Rd.
>> Glen Mills, PA  19342
>> (610) 459-2359
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>


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