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  1. PtitePouleRouge

    my chickens poop in their nesting boxes

    I guess they work it out... take turns? They are kind of large boxes so sometimes I'll find two in a box together. I'm not saying 3 boxes for 16 hens is an ideal ratio, just perhaps the low end of the workable range. It isn't what I designed my coop to be, I began with 6 hens.... What got...
  2. PtitePouleRouge

    my chickens poop in their nesting boxes

    I'd add also that whenever you do catch them sleeping in the boxes, pull them out. It's a bad habit that you want to discourage. Especially when you have pullets not laying yet, they don't have any sense of the purpose for the boxes and will try to sleep there. If my whole flock is pullets I...
  3. PtitePouleRouge

    Need advice: is my foster mama accepting chicks? (see pic)

    That all sounds like very normal behavior to me. Buff orps make good mothers. I've had broodies hatch out their own eggs and also have had them foster hatchery chicks and I think your broody sounds like she is doing just fine! I've also observed the eye-pecking phenomenon with every clutch...
  4. PtitePouleRouge

    Broody Hen and incubating eggs

    Well, I don't have an incubator so when I did this the chicks had come through the mail and had to be a day or two old. But I don't think there would be anything to gain from waiting, a broody is nature's most ideal incubator after all!
  5. PtitePouleRouge

    Broody Hen and incubating eggs

    It should be fine to move her to a better location. I've used a dog crate before for this purpose as well. Just make sure she has food and water in there, though she won't be eating much until hatch. When you shape the new nest, make it a bit bigger than you'd think and cup-shaped so the eggs...
  6. PtitePouleRouge

    Broody Hen and incubating eggs

    That is what worked for me. In the dark though. It's possible the dark isn't necessary but I haven't tried this in daylight so couldn't guarantee what would happen. Just reach under and take all the "eggs" and then put the chicks in one by one. I actually just had to put them just next to...
  7. PtitePouleRouge

    What is your Chicken's Favourite Food? (List 3 only)

    Haha, that is not the first time I have heard of a snake getting fooled by a golf ball! I heard a story of a snake which went into a nest box, and ate a golf ball thinking it an egg. Then he took a shortcut through a knothole into the adjoining nest box to check for eggs there. Well once the...
  8. PtitePouleRouge

    Broody Hen and incubating eggs

    Second the idea of waiting a few days at least to test your broody's resolve. Don't worry about her food and water intake, as long as they are available. She knows what to do. A broody all but quits eating as far as I can tell while setting, after all, she is hardly moving. Any switching...
  9. PtitePouleRouge

    What is your Chicken's Favourite Food? (List 3 only)

    Quote: Gold Coaster, We do have an abundance of predators here. We have wolves, coyotes, bears and goshawks, any one of which could take a chicken, but the only one that has been a problem is raccoons. We are lucky in this I guess because it is legal here to shoot and trap them on one's own...
  10. PtitePouleRouge

    Hard-Boiled Problems

    The problem is indeed the freshness of your eggs, not the diet of your flock. What a great problem to have! I discovered the solution to this accidentally in Keys to Good Cooking by Harold McGee (wonderful book), where he says that to make the best hard-boiled eggs, you actually don't want to...
  11. PtitePouleRouge

    What is your Chicken's Favourite Food? (List 3 only)

    Thanks for the warm welcome, Gold Coaster! I think I've finally found my peeps! (teehee) I've never noticed a problem with weight gain, although you guessed right they are very much free range. They go for long journeys through the forest all day. Though my personal philosophy is that...
  12. PtitePouleRouge

    What is your Chicken's Favourite Food? (List 3 only)

    Chunks of unrendered pig, bear or deer fat (or any other kind I am sure, these are just the types I can get free). They love suet, especially in the cold of winter. Also I throw them the carcass left over from butchering a deer (spine and ribcage) and they go nuts picking the little bits of...
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