The Tiny Homestead
Songster
When I built my coop, I made 1 nestbox, because "of course" I would never have more than 3 or 4 hens. That is, until I laid eyes on the baby chicks this spring. I got so much pleasure raising the Australorps last year that I couldn't resist. I thought no hen could be as pretty as the Australorps, but I was smitten by the Buff Orpingtons, so I got 2 of them and an Auracana.
Mazie, one of the buffs was first to start laying 2 weeks ago. I had pretty much finished a second nest box but hadn't yet installed it until last week. The birds didn't seem to have any interest in it, and continued using the original box, even if 2 or occasionally 3 all crowded in.
Yesterday Mazie and one of the older hens were both in the original box together. A while later I came back outside, and Mazie came out of the coop and her head was bloodied. I scooped her up and got her into the house. She is so easy to handle, I can just carry her all over the place under my arm, or set her on my lap, and she'll stay there with no resistance.
She had a cut on her comb and there was some blood on the back of her neck from the comb. I washed everything with soap and water, dried her off, and applied some blue kote. She looked like she got a punk rock feather doo. I held her for about an hour, then kept her in for another.
I brought her back out and stayed right by her to observe how the other hens reacted.Everything seemed fine.
My sweetie suggested putting an egg in the new nest box to encourage one of the hens to maybe use it.
Well, it worked. When I checked the boxes an hour or saw ago, Mazie had laid in the old nest box, and one of the older hens laid in the new box.
Mazie, one of the buffs was first to start laying 2 weeks ago. I had pretty much finished a second nest box but hadn't yet installed it until last week. The birds didn't seem to have any interest in it, and continued using the original box, even if 2 or occasionally 3 all crowded in.
Yesterday Mazie and one of the older hens were both in the original box together. A while later I came back outside, and Mazie came out of the coop and her head was bloodied. I scooped her up and got her into the house. She is so easy to handle, I can just carry her all over the place under my arm, or set her on my lap, and she'll stay there with no resistance.
She had a cut on her comb and there was some blood on the back of her neck from the comb. I washed everything with soap and water, dried her off, and applied some blue kote. She looked like she got a punk rock feather doo. I held her for about an hour, then kept her in for another.
I brought her back out and stayed right by her to observe how the other hens reacted.Everything seemed fine.
My sweetie suggested putting an egg in the new nest box to encourage one of the hens to maybe use it.
Well, it worked. When I checked the boxes an hour or saw ago, Mazie had laid in the old nest box, and one of the older hens laid in the new box.
. Love them!
