Well, my ploy seems to have helped. I checked on them when I got back from running the dogs and she is scratching away in the area behind the ward brooder where the compost bin used to be. It's a favorite scratching spot and is the same place Kerrie spent a lot of time with her brood when they first left the ward. Everyone is alive and there was a minimum amount to chick flinging. Veronica does seem to be more fixated now on scratching than sitting. So... there's that.
I think this bird is OCD. Seriously! She is the one who went around plucking beards out. She got Fabio too, after Captain, and several of the EEs. I had my suspicions about her. I think the cheese has slipped a little off her cracker. I should have broken her instead of let her set.
Hopefully them being out of the ward works. We'll have to see how she does with getting them into the run where the food and water are. I left the floor fan off for fear that the chicks are so small they might have trouble with the blast from the fan. It rained enough to wet the ground under the chicken bush and some of the hens have dug holes at the back of the run to wallow in the cool damp ground so I think they'll be okay in the heat.
