At my wits end - noisy hen

[Emma9876]

Maybe finding another way of dealing with the poo would be easier? After all, wasn't that the cause of confinement and all that has followed from it?

How do you mean deal with the poo?

 

[Emma9876]

Certainly the run space is adequate if the chickens have the possibility to free range a few hours each day. The change to be confined the whole day pissed them of for sure. Nagging to get out is not a strange at all.

I have a combination of free ranging and confinement. I started to give the chickens some scratch in the evening around the time they went to roost. For me it was important that they returned bc a few preferred to sleep in a tree or the hedge.

Shortly after I noticed it was way easier to lock them up during the day too. If I walk to the coop with the mixed grains (and mealworms) , scatter some in the run, and cluck to call them, the chickens arrive quickly. Only if I let them out and want to close them in before they are done with their free range walk around it’s difficult to lure them. They are happy to go inside again after 2 hours outside.

I don’t have any tree sleepers anymore and giving treats is a guaranteed success for an easy lock up. As a real treat I give mealworms, boiled rice, spaghetti, left over cooked veggies, old bread, chopped cheese crust (without the coating), almost empty yoghurt carton, etc. Never very much.

I recommend to try a few weeks on a row to see if it works out.

Brilliant, thank you. Ill give this a go!

 

[Perris]

How do you mean deal with the poo?

If the problem is them pooing where it annoys you, then there are alternatives to solving it e.g. instead of keeping them confined to a run, maybe you could just exclude them from those places, or wash it away daily? Keeping them confined on ground where a lot, if not all, of their poo falls is less good for their health than letting them range and the poo get distributed more widely, so by changing your keeping arrangements to solve one problem, you may be storing up health problems, not just noise/ behavioural ones, for the future.

 

[dearmeghann]

Our Bella (maran) is the head hen and the loudest hen. Thankfully, she only yells at us when she hears us outside or knows we're heading to the coop to let them out to free-range after work.

We have two pallets to act as grazing boards inside the one run. That helps keep them entertained for a bit.