- Jan 16, 2014
- 5
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Hi! My name is Cathy. I have lived in Arkansas for almost six months with my husband, Brian, and our three children, Ross, Chase, and Catie. We have a 40 acre farm (quite the difference from our 1/2 acre plot of land in Florida!) and started raising chickens three months ago. Currently we have four phoenix hens and a rooster, and a mottled houdan. They are all exceptionally friendly birds with more personality than poundage.
The chickens are almost a year old and are currently not laying, although they averaged 3.5 eggs a day in the fall. I am looking forward to having an abundant supply of eggs soon! We free range our chickens, and they adore foraging. When I call them, they run as fast as their little legs can carry them to see what wonders I may be giving them to eat.
Question: can foraging chickens be taught to lay in their coop? I am still unsure if my hens are laying and I cannot locate the eggs, or if they have stopped. When it is below 10° during the day, I keep them cooped and usually come away with an egg a day. They generally hang out in a small wooded area when foraging, and I have searched every available nook and cranny looking for eggs, to no avail. When I first let them forage, they were great about returning to the coop to lay, but not so much now.
By the way, I love the sounds all my chickens make, but my houdan wins for sweetest voice. We named her Bob Marley because of her remarkable head feathers, but she has been acting like such the prissy little thing we may change her name to Lady Gaga. The other chickens are Fawkes (obviously) for the rooster, the two gold phoenixes are Hermione and Ginny, and the two silvers are Pigwidgeon and Hedwig.

Question: can foraging chickens be taught to lay in their coop? I am still unsure if my hens are laying and I cannot locate the eggs, or if they have stopped. When it is below 10° during the day, I keep them cooped and usually come away with an egg a day. They generally hang out in a small wooded area when foraging, and I have searched every available nook and cranny looking for eggs, to no avail. When I first let them forage, they were great about returning to the coop to lay, but not so much now.
By the way, I love the sounds all my chickens make, but my houdan wins for sweetest voice. We named her Bob Marley because of her remarkable head feathers, but she has been acting like such the prissy little thing we may change her name to Lady Gaga. The other chickens are Fawkes (obviously) for the rooster, the two gold phoenixes are Hermione and Ginny, and the two silvers are Pigwidgeon and Hedwig.