My Renovation Blog

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Chicken update

One of the hens (either buffy or buttercup) became broody lately, which means she was sitting on the eggs trying to hatch them.  Which is fine if you have fertilized eggs and need a broody hen, but is very bad if you don't because the hen won't leave the coop until the eggs hatch (and they will never hatch because they are not fertilized) and can stop eating/drinking, get mites, they don't lay eggs, etc.  So you have to break her by doing things like putting ice packs in the nesting boxes, physically removing her and locking her out of the nesting boxes.  She was determined!  I would lock her out of the coop/run, and she would just circle it over and over and over trying to get back in the nesting boxes.  Any time I left it open, she would go back and lay on the eggs.  But we got lucky because it only took about a day to break her for good!  I was worried at first because apparently, you can't break some hens, and you have to give them away to someone that needs a broody hen.

The hens have become so domesticated that they now will sit by the French doors and peck on the glass to be let inside!  Any time we leave the doors open they run inside.  It's pretty funny.

And they got a new sign for their coop/run! :)

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