The chicken stampede wonders: “Do you have anything to eat, perchance?”

I’m sure this has partially to do with the breeds I have in my flock. I don’t tend to choose breeds known for flightiness; I want a calm flock. I have Welsummers, Speckled Sussex, Favaucanas, Faverolles, Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, Brahmas, Rhode Island Reds and more. They all tend to be friendly. But I really didn’t think it would be that easy to have a tame flock. Little did I realize!

What boggles my mind about the chicken stampede even more is that they really don’t seem to be dissuaded by anything, even the lawnmower. My cats are deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner. But my chickens aren’t chicken at all. In fact, if I try to run the shop vac outside, it can be a challenge to clear a space to use it. I’m afraid I’m going to accidentally suck up feathers, because they give me no space.

Shop vac, air pump, car, tractor, mower: nothing really phases them. In fact, when I’m mowing the lawn, they’re more likely than not to chicken stampede the mower, looking for stunned bugs. At times, while I’m mowing, it looks as if I’m the lead vehicle in a chicken parade: they follow in an unruly group line behind me. I should deck the John Deere out as a float, and follow up with a marching band; we’d totally be set!

I’m just curious: are your chickens brave or fearful? Are they afraid of your mower, or do you—like me—get a chicken stampede every time?

Poor John. He didn’t take his “chicken sitter” duties lightly, and we’re glad of that! But he did spend a few restless nights because I neglected to warn him about something.

Do we look like we need a lot of attention from a chicken sitter?

Adult chickens just don’t need a lot of supervision. A chicken sitter is a luxury, really. You can leave them for a few days, provided they have plenty of food and water, and access to the outdoors so they don’t get bored (or overheated in a closed coop!).

Even so, when we’re gone, we like to have someone who will check on them just to make sure they don’t knock over their waterers, for example. We just want to make sure someone is around in case we should have an injury; just for emergencies, really. However, we live far enough out in the country that we don’t have neighbors close enough to just pop over and take a look… and we also live far enough out in the country that it’s something of a vacation for our in-town friends to spend a weekend out here with a big porch, many porch swings, and nothing but a view of the West Virginia mountains around them. We like to have a chicken sitter.

(Interestingly, when we spend time away from the cottage, we tend to visit West Virginia state parks, so we simply have a view of different mountains, and the occasional waterfall or gorge. There’s something to be said for spending a weekend at a mountain resort, riding a steam locomotive to the top of a mountain, visiting a beautiful riverside mill, watching the Greenbrier Classic from the PGA tour, or taking a lovely ski vacation… but I digress.)

While we’re off enjoying our beautiful state parks, I leave detailed instructions for my chicken sitters so they will know what to expect.

First we share  things about the house, like you would for a regular house sitter:

1. Yes, we get great cell reception out here, and wireless internet… but no TV. Bring DVDs or use our netflix account. Or use the Xbox 360.
2. The hiking path is mowed and ready
3. We don’t have potable water way out here, so no drinking from the tap! Use the water in the fridge. Since our water supply is extremely limited, please conserve water.
4. You’re welcome to any food in the house
5. Our vintage oven must be lit by match; they are beside the stove. Turn on the gas, open the door, and hold a lit math by the hole where it says “Light here.” You will hear it catch.
6. Dishwasher tablets are on the counter
7. Coffee beans are in the corner cabinet, along with the hand grinder.
8. There is enough firewood for a bonfire, if you’ve a mind. Follow all fire safety regulations. Marshmallow roasting forks are beside the door, and chocolate and graham crackers are in the cabinet beside the stove.
9. Beer is in the fridge; liquor is in the buffet; cocktail glasses are on the top shelf with the shaker; citrus fruit, olives and maraschino cherries are in the fridge; mint is in the garden.
10. Have people out for a party, if you want. Just clean up afterwards. Cleaning supplies are under the sink, if needed.

All in all, we feel like our sitters can have a pretty fun time.

We imagine our chicken sitter on the porch swing, enjoying the flowers and the chickens

I’m always careful to share specific chicken instructions for our chicken sitter, too. Not that there’s much to it, but a lot of people don’t know the first thing about chickens and they worry about the “taking care of the chickens” part. I tell them

1. The extra chicken feed is in the coop, in case the feeders should need refilled. They shouldn’t need refilled unless they are knocked over, and that is unlikely.
2. Check the water, in case the waterers should need refilled. They shouldn’t need refilled unless they are knocked over, and that is unlikely.
3. Treats are in a blue bin by the front door, so you can have the fun of tossing out scratch or sunflower seeds for the flock
4. Empty egg cartons for the eggs you gather are on the counter by the French press.
5. Gather eggs at least once a day. You can  keep any eggs you gather.
6. If a chicken should get injured in some way, even if it’s not bad, separate her out into the hospital area in the coop. It’s all ready with food and water, just in case it’s needed.
7. If the injury is bad, call My Pet Chicken’s toll free number for advice: 888-460-1529, or email info@mypetchicken.com. If you prefer, here is the number of our veterinarian. You can reach us by leaving a message at the state park lodge.

But here’s what I forgot to explain to one of our chicken sitters, John. John the long-suffering, let’s call him. I forgot to mention broodiness. There’s always something you overlook, right?

When we got back from our trip, we found he hadn’t enjoyed the porch or the cocktails or the bonfire pit or the hiking trail or any of those things. The whole time we were gone, he’d been worried to death about our silkie, Sylvia, who had apparently gone broody the day after we left. She hid in the corner and whined, he said. She kept puffing up her feathers and screeching like she was in pain. Everytime he tried to get her to go outside, she’d just go back in the coop and huddle in the corner.

“She must be deathly ill,” he finished miserably.

Silkies go broody a lot; it means they want to hatch baby chicks!

I’m sorry, John. She’s fine. Don’t worry. You haven’t somehow killed all our chickens, or even one of them.

Broodiness is nothing to be worried about… if you know what “broody” is. But if you don’t, I can understand how it would be terrifying! You have a hen who spends her time in the nest box or corner, unmoving, screeching at anyone who comes to close, not eating or drinking much, and generally acting like a chicken lunatic. Poor John spent the weekend worrying and trying to get her to free range like the rest of our birds. She wasn’t interested. He looked her over for injuries repeatedly and found nothing. He was beside himself. I should have thought to mention that! But inexplicably, he didn’t call My Pet Chicken. Or our vet. Or us.

Anyone at My Pet Chicken answering the phone could have told him in a minute that he just had a broody hen on his hands–no worries!  The vet could have told him that. We could have told him that. Instead, he spent a shaky, worrisome weekend… and it’s something I could have avoided had I thought to warn him about the possibility of broodiness!

Take my advice: Don’t risk killing your chicken sitter by forgetting to tell him or her about broodiness. You might also warn them about sun bathing and dust bathing, which could also fool a person inexperienced with chickens into thinking that something is wrong.

What do you tell your chicken sitters? Have you ever forgotten something important? Have you added to your list after a bad experience? Please tell us in the comments, so we can help other nascent chicken sitters!

Roasted asparagus topped with my simple Hollandaise sauce

Each spring when the asparagus in the garden starts to emerge, and the chickens are laying eggs in abundance, I crave the from scratch version. With my handy food processor (or a blender) I’ve come to a better, quicker solution, a simple Hollandaise sauce. So, no more powdered packets for us!

It’s so easy, and tastes exactly like the classic sauce to a T. Here’s my recipe for Simple Hollandaise Sauce.

Simple Hollandaise Sauce

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 Tbsp lemon Juice
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Add your yolks, mustard, lemon juice and pepper right into the blender or food processor container. Pulse on high for 5-10 seconds.  Then with a slow steady stream, pour in the still-hot butter until completely combined. If your sauce is a little thick for your taste, whisk in a tablespoon of warm water to thin it out. That’s all there is to it!

Serve your simple Hollandaise sauce immediately or keep it warm in a double boiler until ready to serve.

According to Julia Child, “Sauces are the splendor and the glory of French cooking.” I agree! Do you have a favorite sauce you use your spring abundance of eggs to make? If not, what do you like to do with eggs when you’re overrun?

Because she wants to do it. You can see it in her eyes.

First I’ll share a couple of the traditional solutions to managing the damage chickens can cause to your gardens and landscaping, then I’ll tell you my secret way to keep your chickens from scattering the mulch in your beds.

Traditional: Use fences to exclude the chickens.

The chickens can’t get into my vegetable garden, surrounded by a tall fence!

A simple solution, especially for larger areas like a vegetable garden, is to use a fence and just keep them out. Make it high enough that they can’t fly over, low enough to the ground that they can’t push under, and with small enough holes that they can’t squeeze through. In some circumstances you might be able to use fencing for selected smaller beds. If your plants aren’t edible or easily disturbed like vegetables and flowers, a low fence will probably suffice.

You can occasionally use fencing in other areas, too. But is it the best solution?

A little chicken wire fencing sometimes works in smaller beds, if you’re just protecting shrubbery… but it’s something of an eye sore, and it doesn’t always keep your chickens from scattering the mulch, either. Still, I keep this area in front of my house protected with wire because the deer like to eat the shrubs, too. (Durn deer. Sometimes I think I spend more to feed the deer than I do to feed the chickens!)

Traditional: Choose your plants carefully.

My oregano always fares well against my chickens.

There are certain plants that your chickens will leave alone, once the plants are established (deer, too). In particular, I find that perennial herbs like oregano, thyme, lavender, mint, lemon balm, marjoram, chamomile and the like do very well. Sweet woodruff also makes the cut in my yard. The flock may peck at the leaves occasionally, looking for hidden bugs, but for the most part they just don’t seem interested in eating herbs in large quantities.  The perennial herbs I use are strongly rooted, once established, and become tough to scratch out. The herbs spread and even seem to make the areas around them less attractive for dust bathing, since the ground isn’t soft enough to wallow out with the root system established.

In my area—it is so green and beautiful here in WV—there are plenty of other things for the chickens to eat, so they rarely bother regular annuals like nasturtiums, impatiens, alyssum, petunias, marigolds and so on. Deer are not nearly as easy to manage, so I tend to stick with herbs! Please note that if you live in a dry or desert area with little green, or if your chickens have a small, bare run, they will certainly be tempted to eat your plants, even if those plants normally wouldn’t be first (or third, or tenth) choice. Choosing herbs or other “unappetizing” plants will be especially important in those situations.

These traditional methods do work, but they have their limitations.

The problems:

1. Not everything can be fenced. Our cottage has border beds around the porches and against the house. While I can stand having a little bed near the house fenced unobtrusively with chicken wire, I don’t want to set up a fence all the way around to protect the border beds. There are also other small beds in the yard, maybe four-foot-square each,  that won’t be attractive if I fence set up a fence around them. The fencing would stand out like a sore thumb. Instead, it would be like a series of cages set up around the yard… and that “prison yard” look just isn’t what I’m going for.

2. You can’t get your plants established in the first place if your chickens keep digging up your seedlings. It’s one thing to know that the chickens won’t bother your established herbs, but it won’t do you any good at all if you can’t actually establish them because the chickens keep scratching out the seedlings before they get a chance to grow!

3. Even with established, carefully chosen plants, your chickens will destroy your mulch. They’ll scatter it looking for insects, spiders, and other bugs.  Even in the fenced area of shrubs above, I occasionally have a chicken sneak in and dig around in the mulch. And without mulch, everything can look unfinished and even dilapidated.  Using stone or lava rock rather than wood mulch may last longer, but it’s not a permanent solution. While the flock may not dust bathe in lava rock, they will still scratch it out looking for grubs. (Plus, the rock absorbs and radiates heat in the summer–not what we need in my area!)

So, a couple of years ago, I came up with a solution to keep the mulch down and undiggable around smaller plants and open beds. It seemed so simple once I’d thought of it, but it has worked magically for two years now. It’s been tested! That means I’m ready to share it with you

How to keep your chickens from scattering the mulch.

Secure your mulch with deer netting.

That’s all. Secure your mulch with deer netting on top.

The deer netting serves to keep your chickens from scattering the mulch. Look how nicely it dresses up this old garden bed; the netting isn’t distracting to me at all. (Now, I just have to replace the lattice!)

Did you expect something long and complicated? Something expensive? It’s not; it’s so easy! Using netting on top of your beds will keep your chickens from scattering your mulch. How did I not think of this before?  I use an “invisible” black deer netting with relatively small holes; if you have a netting with larger holes, you may want a double layer. The netting I use currently sells for about $20 for 100 feet x 7 feet.

I often use water permeable landscape fabric under the mulch in permanent beds—this part is up to you, though!  I don’t use the fabric in a bed where I want to be able to change the landscaping a lot year to year, and I don’t use it with quickly spreading perennials where it might inhibit growth.  I usually use fabric under shrubs or in areas with permanent plantings.

Just lay the mulch on top of the fabric (or the ground as you prefer). Then lay the netting on top of the mulch. Once your mulch is covered by the netting, just secure it with fabric staples or edging.

Keep your chickens from scattering your mulch with deer netting

How easy is that?

To plant in the bed, you can cut through the netting, push back the mulch and then cut through fabric, as necessary. With larger plants like shrubs where a lot of earth must be moved, I usually find it easier to plant first, then lay the fabric, mulch and netting over top, cutting X holes where needed. Be sure to have the netting relatively tight against the mulch so your hens can’t get a toe stuck in!

I hope this idea will help chicken-proof your gardening this year. Please let me know if you’re going to try this method to keep your chickens from scattering the mulch–and let me know how it goes. Do you have any other suggestions for chicken-proof or chicken-resistant gardening? Please share in the comments!

Spring Garden Beds – When you garden for your chickens, you can start early! We’re already growing greens to share with the chickens.

Of course, you can’t let the birds wonder freely in the gardening. It’s a wonderful notion to think your chickens are out in the garden eating bugs and fertilizing as they go. The reality is they’re going taste test something off of every plant leaving you with ripped lettuce leaves and holey tomatoes. Your feathered gardening assistants will dust bathe anywhere they want, even if that means uprooting a few peppers or eggplants in the process. From my past experiences with predators, it’s just not the best option here to let my girls out to roam freely for their safety as well. When gardening for your chickens, letting them have free reign of the garden isn’t the best direction.

With all that in mind, I still want them to have free produce and greens to graze on. Even if you have limited space it is possible to grow some healthy treats for your chickens and I want to share some options with you.

Gardening for your chickens doesn’t mean letting them have free reign. Those beans sure look delicious, but the birds will have to settle for the weeds and bugs under their feet.

There is always the option to use a tractor coop so they can be contained within the garden, and spare your plants. A tractor coop allows you move the flock to the locations you feel are best for your lawn and garden, and still keep your girls protected. If you find a tractor coop isn’t big enough for your flock, or you already have a stationary coop, maybe a a nice outing run like this Day Care for Chickens could work. At the end of the day, everyone can move back into their coop for the night and only use it for the hours you want them out in the garden.

When you are gardening for your chickens, you can choose from a variety of great fresh vegetables, as well as produce you can dry and store as treats for over the winter months. I want to share a short list of my favorites, but there are really many more possibilities then these!

• Sweet corn
• Dent Corn (to dry and store)
• Wheat or Rye
• Spinach
• Kale
• Mustard Greens
• Strawberries
• Sunflowers (to dry and store the seed heads)
• Sweet Potato Vine
• Sorghum (Store the seed heads for the chickens)
• Grapes
• Tomatoes
• Carrots (they really love the green tops)

…and much more!

Drying sun flower heads to give to the chickens come winter.

Not all things are safe for your chickens to eat, so research poisonous or harmful plants you shouldn’t make available to them.

If you really would like to have to do less gardening work for your chickens to have access to fresh greens, and the tractor coop just isn’t an option perhaps you can try to grow directly in your chickens’ run. Of course pretty much anything that tries to live in your coop is unlikely to survive. There is the option of a Chicken Run Raised Bed, which will protect the greens that are growing there for being slaughtered. It will allow your girls to enjoy the fresh tender tops of what you plant, while protecting the roots from being ripped out of the ground. I find that the Chicken Salad Seed Mix works really well for this application.

One way of gardening for your chickens is to plant directly in the chickens’ run so they can enjoy fresh greens, without damaging plants.

Do your girls have a favorite veggie you grow specifically for them?

He’s named his vintage trailer coop “Ham-N-Eggs,” referring to the “canned ham” shape of the old trailers.

It’s even a Shasta.

The truth is that I hear tales about people converting old (real) trailers into vintage trailer coops, and that’s not usually the best idea. If it’s in such bad condition that you wouldn’t camp in it, it’s probably not the best thing for your chickens, either. And while it’s true that converting an existing structure can be an inexpensive way to get your coop, when it comes to vintage trailers–and vintage trailer coops–you’d be better off selling your trailer for parts and building a new homage, like this one. Did you know that the Shasta wings typically sell for more than this whole coop cost? According to the “Flying Ham,” the builder, who has graciously allowed me to feature his coop here, he has only about $250 in the coop.

I love the design of his coop, too.

Nests, feed door and access door in the front…

… a ventilation door up top in the back…

… and the “floor” of the coop is wire for additional ventilation. That wouldn’t work in my area–it gets too cold here in WV!–but it’s a great idea for hot weather states. Chickens can have problems if they’re permanently housed on wire floors, but that’s not the case here in this tractor-style coop, where the birds will spend most of the day on the ground foraging grass.

It looks as if the chickens get plenty of time outside the coop, too.

I love seeing neat coop designs–there are just so many out there! My own coop is a big converted building, an old cellar house. It’s way bigger than we’ll ever need… and yet I see something like this and can’t help but want a vintage camper coop (or a gypsy caravan coop, or…)

Be sure to check out the build photos of this coop over on the Vintage Shasta Forum!

Tell me, what’s the coolest home-designed coop you’ve seen recently? Are you like me–do they make you feel like you need another coop even when you don’t really need one?

Checking out the egg case can be an overwhelming experience. There are so many egg labels slapped onto egg cartons these days, and many are not what they seem! Here we demystify those egg labels:

Conventional – Conventional eggs are those that are not labeled Cage-free, Free-Range or Organic. These hens are raised in extremely tight wire cages, allocated 1.3 square feet per bird, and their feed has been treated with pesticides. Contrary to popular belief, laying hens are never fed hormones or steroids—but they are routinely fed antibiotics. (A recent study found traces of a class of antibiotics banned by the USDA in 8 of 12 samples across multiple states—yikes!) According to a report from United Egg Producers, 95% of all hens are raised in the “conventional” manner.

Cage-free – These eggs come from hens that are raised on the floor, usually in an open barn. The hens have bedding material such as pine shavings on the floor, and have perches and nest boxes to lay their eggs. They, too, only required to have only 1.3 square feet of space per bird. Cage-free eggs are a big step up from conventional eggs, however. The Humane Society cites 16 studies since 2006 finding lower Salmonella rates in cage-free systems vs. conventional, caged systems.

Free-range – These eggs come from hens that should be free to go in and out of a barn or protected area, roaming in an outdoor pen for part of the day. However, the size of the space or the level of access to that outdoor space is not regulated. The outside area may be as small as 10 feet by 10 feet for 20,000 hens, is not required to have any dirt or grass, and is usually restricted by a small door, resulting in no meaningful outdoor access for the vast majority of hens raised in this manner.

Pasture-raised – These eggs come from hens that are raised on real pasture and able to roam and eat grasses and bugs. This method offers humane treatment of hens, and a style of feeding that most closely mimics their natural behaviors. Hens raised on this system will still be offered supplemental feed, and many will be confined in large pens to protect them from predators. There are no national egg brands offering pasture-raised options, but there are many smaller, local producers, which can be found on the Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Egg Scorecard.

Certified Organic – These eggs come from hens that are raised according to the USDA National Organic Program. Like the cage-free label, organically raised hens are raised in open floor systems and allotted a minimum of 1.3 square feet of space per bird. They are given organic feed and they are not given vaccines or antibiotics.

Vegetarian-Fed – These eggs come from hens that are fed a vegetarian diet. Chickens are naturally omnivores, though, and will eat meat if given the chance – especially insects and small rodents – so this is not necessarily a health benefit to you or the hens.

Omega 3 – These eggs come from hens whose diet has been supplemented to increase Omega-3 levels, usually with such things as fish oil, flax and canola seeds, seaweed, or alfalfa meal. (Pasture-raised hens will have naturally high Omega-3 levels and do not need supplementation.)

We highly recommend you check out the Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Egg Scorecard. It details the type of diet and animal treatment you can eggs-pect from all the country’s major egg producers. You might be surprised to know only ONE national egg producer grants meaningful outdoor space to their hens, for instance! The Scorecard also grades local, smaller-scale egg producers, so you can find one in your area that produces the type of eggs you’re looking for.

Of course, you might also consider growing your own! Backyard chickens have become incredibly popular all around the nation for their fun, quirky personalities and gentle nature. Chickens can lay eggs in a rainbow of colors, and they’re bug eaters extraordinaire. If you’re considering keeping a flock of your own, enjoy My Pet Chicken’s free “how-to” chicken care guide.

Sources
WebMD. Are Some Eggs Safer Than Others? (Accessed 01/13)

Mother Earth News: Free-Range vs. Pastured Chickens

Mother Earth News: How to Decode Egg Cartons

Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Egg Scorecard

United Egg Production Report: Impacts of Banning Cage Egg Production in the United States

United Egg Producers website, with FAQ.

Humane Society and 16 studies showing higher Salmonella rates in cage-free systems

Banned antibiotics given to poultry

Jesse the Hot Tomato does battle with an aggressive rooster

She’s definitely got the girl power and the force of personality to back her up. Plus, her story was so charming that I just had to share it with you.

The Hot Tomato Vs. the Aggressive Rooster

The kids and I went to feed the chickens that morning and saw, for the first time ever, that  Condor the rooster was not his usual charming self! He had gotten out of his pen that morning, but we were assured that he was “real tame” and “wouldn’t bother us” when we went to feed the chickens. Little did we realize!

The driveway is about 250 ft long and Condor was crowing his head off the whole time we were walking toward the house. At first we thought, “Oh, how sweet! Condor is happy that we are coming to see him.

Ha!

Have you ever seen a mad rooster? He was at the mouth of the driveway, all puffed up and dancing around in full war dress, making a huge demonstration for such a little guy. He was hissing and spitting and crowing and running back and forth—really letting us have it! So I told the girls that the rooster was not himself, and that maybe it would be best if they went back up to the road and waited for me there. They quickly complied.

So now it’s just ME and the ROOSTER. (Picture in your mind if you will, the quick draw saloon shootout scene  in a westerns, where the protagonists stand there staring at each other as a cloud of dust stirs in the air and the horses neigh in the background. Hands on six-shooters, they squint at each other and wait. Are you there? Can you picture it?) So it’s just me and Condor in the showdown… and he is NOT moving! Lucky for me I could make myself look bigger, too, since I had on my layered skirts. I took the sides in my hands and made like I was going to take flight; I flapped it up and down and ran in place, slow-motion-like.

Condor looked a little worried, but he was determined to stand his ground. He decided he’d fly up land on top a the Jeep—higher ground is always better for a fight, right?—but since he didn’t take his eyes off of me when he was trying to do this, he missed and landed on his feathery rooster butt! This provided me with an opportunity to pass him and head for the hens, who had been begging for breakfast and were not happy being shut in the coop.

We’re not sure if Condor the aggressive rooster ever had a chance against this Hot Tomato

But as I passed Condor, he started to run after me; I realized THE CHASE WAS ON! Around the chicken pen, past the garden, behind the outhouse and back beside the coop. I was on one side and Condor on the other. Unfortunately HE was on the side with the door and the feed, so we did this little dance where we would peek around the corner at each other and run around to the other side and peek around that corner. Peek, run, peek.

Still, ROOSTERS ARE SMART and I saw that I was NOT going to win at this game. So I gathered my wits and took a wild run at him with my skirt flapping in the wind and I crowed my loudest crow, I hissed and jutted my head in and out like a chicken, Condor backing up all the time, until I had enough room to get to the chicken feed.

I quickly scooped up a couple cans of feed and tossed it toward the hens; as it rained down on them they briefly scattered. This gave me an idea. I drew up a big can of feed for Condor, closed up the can. I looked around to see where he was—back over by the driveway, aha. Perfect.

I took the can and approached him slowly. When he started getting all riled up again I threw the feed on top of him which startled him enough that it gave me time to run for the road! I had done it! I had fed then hens despite an aggressive rooster, and was no worse for wear. In fact, I was cool as a cucumber when I got to the girls.

When they asked ” How were the chickens, Mama?”  I said, ” Oh, they were just chickens, not much to tell!”

Not much to tell? We’re glad she shared her story with us!

——

Roosters are wonderful to have around; chances are Condor thought he was protecting “his” hens. My guess would be that this was a young rooster who had just reached the age where he was feeling the instinct to protect the flock. Sometimes that protective instinct is misdirected at people. An aggressive rooster is rarely a bad rooster! While we can’t recommend Jesse’s flapping skirt technique for dealing with an aggressive rooster long term—you can read our advice for dealing with an aggressive rooster right here on our website—her tale does a good job of illustrating why so many people are worried about having a rooster in the flock! You can also read some advice here about how to keep multiple roosters in the flock in an earlier blog post.

Do you have any good rooster tales? Please share in the comments!

With the egg door down protecting the egg from my bad chicken.

I looked at a number of designs and worked out a plan for a DIY roll-away nest box using the materials I had in the garage to work with: plastic cat litter buckets. Isa was still in her temporary coop in our garage, and the nesting box she had been using is a modified bucket that we access from the front. I wanted to make sure the new DIY roll-away nest would be something she’d recognize as a nest box.

My plan was to make the nesting box so that it tilted forward, with a compartment in the front to catch the egg. I lined it with plastic door mat material so the egg would roll, but it would still be cushioned from breakage. Into the coop went the new nest box for testing.

The next morning Isa’s egg was in the compartment waiting for me: success! And that success continued. The only morning I found a broken egg was when one of the zip ties broke—it had been holding the egg door. I fixed that problem, washed the egg yolk out of the doormat, and the next morning it worked perfectly again. Feeling that we had fixed the problem, I was ready to move her out to the real coop with her sisters.

The egg door on my DIY roll-away nest box came undone and slid to the side, resulting in a broken egg. Once secured better, this design was a success!

When it came time to do that, we ran into a problem. The nesting box she was using in her temporary coop wouldn’t fit in the regular coop in a way we could retrieve the eggs! In other words, I had to alter my design so it would fit in my coop and I could retrieve the eggs from the rear of the box.

In the meantime, I still wanted to move her; I really didn’t want to wait the additional time it would take to redesign and construct the DIY roll-away box! I decided I would move her and try one of the reader-suggested tips in the meantime, which would give me time to get a new box designed.

The first advice received from the blog post comments was to give her raw milk! Raw milk can be hard to come by, and in my state it’s illegal to sell raw milk. However, you can get raw milk here legally if you own a cow or cow share and pay boarding fees to the farmer, which is actually what we do. As it turned out, this was a suggestion that would be simple for me to try out. Even though my family drinks raw milk, I’d never heard this suggestion for egg eaters and hadn’t even considered using raw milk with chickens. Because chickens aren’t mammals they can’t digest milk sugars so it can cause diarrhea. Still, I was willing to try it.

Isa tries the raw milk

I poured some raw milk in a dish for the chickens and sat it in the coop. Isa went right to it and sipped away. The other two drank some, too, and seemed to like it. I left it in the coop and by evening the dish was empty. I didn’t want to give them too much for fear of giving her diarrhea, so I waited until the next day to offer more.

On the second day, I gave her a dish of milk first thing in the morning, and she drank it up. When I went to the coop  in the afternoon to get the dish, it was empty… and there was also a broken egg in the nesting box.

Dang, I’d really been hoping this would be an overnight fix! Still, I continued the milk for three days. In that time, I did get one egg from her, but only because she had just laid it and I was in the coop immediately. Since she was in the process of pecking at it as I retrieved it, I consider the raw milk solution a fail—certainly less successful than the DIY roll-away nest.

We still believe raw milk is better for our family’s consumption, but it didn’t help modify the misbehavior of our hen. I was ready to go back to my DIY roll-away nest box that had worked the week before, but my design needed to be modified so it would work in our coop.

The new DIY roll-away nest design tilted towards the back so I could retrieve the egg from the rear of the nesting box. The plan was slightly different, but still used the same materials, so it would still look like the box she was used to in her temporary coop.

The next morning I checked and found no egg—but someone had slept in the box and filled it with poop! I cleaned that out told them, “This is where you lay eggs;  it’s not for sleeping!” (I’m sure they understood everything I told them!)

Well, I did find eggs a couple days that week, but on the days I didn’t get an egg, I worried that she was laying somewhere else, not in the DIY roll-away nest box, and eating them. I couldn’t find evidence of that, but what else could it be? When we went four days with no egg, I was beginning to think this design was another fail… but then I noticed all the fallen feathers in the coop: Isa was molting! We were approaching the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year), so it made sense that she would stop laying. Chickens need light to lay and we have not been adding artificial light to force them to lay year round.

I don’t have a solution—not yet! But this new design is promising. I’ll just have to wait and see if my latest DIY roll-away nest box works, when the sun comes back and Isa starts laying again. If it does work, I’ll share a how-to blog post with lots of photos and instructions so you can build one yourself. In the meantime, tell me what you think–I need some encouraging words! Do you think this new design will solve the problem?

When she learned to come out of the coop, though, we worried, because unlike the other hens, she couldn’t see to forage… and she never did learn to go back in the coop on her own. That meant that when she came outside, she went without food, because she couldn’t go back inside to get to the feeders she was familiar with. And she just didn’t understand that food was all around her.

“You’re soaking in it!”

You’ll remember from my last story that with a lot of work and effort we were able to teach our blind hen to eat treats from our hands—but it didn’t solve the problem, which which was that if she was outside, she couldn’t forage to eat when she got hungry. Instead, she had to wait for us to come outside and feed her. It just wasn’t ideal, and we needed a solution.

Teaching our blind hen to eat from our hands was a matter of holding our hands up high enough so that she felt the food on her beak and recognized the feeling. She got that hang of it after that, and we didn’t have to hold the food so high. So, to teach her to forage grass, we tried lowering our hands so she got used to pecking closer and closer to the ground. This was complicated by the fact that if we held our hands too low, the silly thing wanted to step up on them and roost: it was her way of asking for affection. She especially loved to be held facing the sun–it was her favorite way to sun bathe, being held by mom or dad.

One thing that really helped in our endeavor to teach her how to forage was the fact that she had poor aim. Her right eye was completely missing, so whatever vision she still had in her left eye gave her, on top of everything else, terrible depth perception with the little vision she retained. She often missed what she was pecking at! So, she would peck at our hands low to the ground, and she’d miss and hit the yard instead. Many repetitions of this exercise meant that occasionally she would come back with a little piece of grass in her beak, by accident. And in her enthusiasm for the hand fed treats, she would occasionally swallow the grass.

YUM!

What is this deliciousness I have just discovered? Did you know about this, Mom?

From this trial and error learning, our blind hen Hildy eventually developed the ability and desire to forage. Naturally, she never learned to chase down moths or other bugs, and there were some things she still missed out on, like foraging wild blackberries when they were still on the bushes. But she could forage grass, which was always abundant, and her yolks finally started getting dark and tasty like the other girls’ yolks. Her plumage got glossy and her color improved. And it didn’t have to be JUST grass. She also could forage things on the ground, like fallen peaches or mulberries. She also loved spent grains from our beer brewing.

A different speckled sussex hen, Gloria, here feasts on warm spent grains on a cold day.

One of the cutest things about her foraging was that she did it, well, backwards. If you watch sighted hens forage, they’ll peck around on the ground, take a few steps forward and peck a little more. They might turn and go in another direction, but they go in a forward motion. Hildy, by contrast, didn’t walk forward to forage. She went backward. Peck, step back, get bearings. Peck, step back, get bearings. She always pecked at a spot far back between her legs, and then stepped backwards, as if to make it easier to get at that spot. Then she seemed surprised at where she ended up. But when she pecked again, it was always far back between her legs… and she always followed it with a step backward.

In this photo our blind hen Hildy is getting ready to aim her peck at the ground between her legs.

We used to be able to look outside and determine whether she was foraging or not by making note of whether she was moving backwards or forwards. What a cutie. We were never very sure why she did it backwards, but we loved to see it just the same.

Do any of your hens have unusual habits or mannerisms? Do they knock at the door or like to lay eggs in your lap? (Hildy occasionally did both of those things!). Please share in the comments.