This isn"t meant to be a solution or anything, just a story of one crazy barred rock hen that I think is amusing. I have now 14 hens and one rooster, four of the hens are barred rock. I call one Stubby, because she has one short toe and has had since she came from the farm store. My coup has three nice nesting boxes and all the other 13 use them always, but not Stubby. Late last Summer a month or so after she started laying, she figured out how to get out of the back yard. There is a six foot fence around 2 acres, and they almost never leave it, and once in a great while when one does, I usually find it lonely, by the gate, wanting let back in. Except for Stubby, she got to where she got out every day, not for long though. There is a large red wood deck out my back door, the railings of which are a little taller than the fence, about 7' from the ground. The stairs down from the end of the deck don't lead into the back yard, but are by the side yard and a sidewalk around to the front. They go down near the gate to the back. You oversee the back yard from the deck, or toss treats off it, but with the rails, the chickens don"t come up there. Except for stubby. Right out from the dining room table window is an all weather counter top and right in front of that window is a big brass planter that had a big geranium in it. One morning I"m eating breakfast at the table inside, and Stubby shows up on that counter on the deck watching me eat through the window. Then she jumped on the planter and nestled in under the geranium and left me an egg. Then from the end of the counter, she jumped to the deck rail, paced it a bit, and flew down to the flock. From then on I got an egg nearly every day in that flower pot for a long time. Finally, one day, I discovered how she got out. I saw her the first time. There was an old mountain bike behind the garage. She'd get on the seat, then the handle bars, then the pipe at the top of the chain link fence. She'd fly down, and march straight around the other side of the yard, across the front yard, up the stairs, up on the counter, into the flower pot, and back in with the flock, all in a short time, without messing around on the way. I moved the bike, but she found another way. The other 13 still use the nesting boxes in their coup.
Then one day she quit the flower pot. Don't know why, she's just goofy I guess. It was like in November or so when she quit and was getting colder, I don"t know if that had something to do with it, maybe. It was about then that I started letting my dog sleep inside. It's the season when he transforms from a Coon Hound to a couch hound. I never know of the 14 hens for sure to expect 10 eggs, 12, or 14. They all lay good, nearly an egg a day, but seldom exactly an egg a day. I don"t know why, but one cold Winter day, I happened to look in the dog house, and saw eggs -- all Barred Rock (the lightest brown I get), all had been frozen and split open, what a mess! All Stubby's, there were 44 eggs in there. At least it was one of those plastic dog houses that clean easy, but for the dog bed, but Scrappy was due for a new bed anyway. I put a plywood over the door and then the snow got deep, and Stubby started using the nesting boxes like a normal chicken.
Within the last 3 or 4 weeks, it's been warming up nicely, few flurries, but sun the next day. There's a new bed in the dog house, the plywood is off, and a dog is in there 4 or 5 nights a week, soon to be 7. But a few days ago, while eating breakfast, Stubby's back in the brass flower pot, and has been every day since -- no geranium yet -- I think I'll just put some straw in it this year, and go with the flow.
thanks everyone for the ideas!!! I also like the idea of having to retrain them by keeping them in there a few days if necessary. That will have to happen if this doesn't continue to work!!!
