how does one small hen move over 20 pounds of rock every day?

[rebecca10782]

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I know! I'm sure she's working on a project. Poor thing, well I am sure she's in good shape

 

[rebecca10782]

You should let her build whatever she's building and send us a picture. I am really curious now!

 

[horsejody]

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I think she is bug hunting. In the fall, all of the box elder bugs come off that tree and move to the house. In the past, they have been a real pain in the butt. This year they never made it to the house because the chicks hatched last spring hang around the tree. My old chickens prefer other areas of the yard. I think she is addicted to box elder bugs and is looking for the few that may be left under the rocks. I have even tried luring her away from the tree with cracked corn. I guess the bugs are better. Unfortunately, I think the bugs are all gone.

 

[wegotchickens]

If she's eating box elder bugs then I would let her be!
I HATE box elder bugs! They're more destructive than people realize, and ate part of my old house. They're supposed to be too bitter for birds to like eating them, so maybe she's developed a taste for them.

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

Bigger rocks might help.

 

[crtrlovr]

I'm fully convinced that on every archaeological dig, they should take at LEAST one chicken. A chicken can unearth things that have been buried for centuries... I have been over my chicken run countless times with a bow rake, then a leaf rake, then a very fine tooth rake until I am certain there couldn't POSSIBLY be anything else not good for them hiding in there. I come out the next morning and there will be a bright shining piece of BROKEN GLASS from only the Good Lord knows where, a piece of tin or metal, a weirdly shaped piece of a plastic thingamajig or whatchamacallit, etc. etc. etc. Yep. Chickens as archaeologists -- their true calling.

 

[dacjohns]

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I agree.

 

[dancingbear]

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I was gonna say "with a shovel".

Seriously, if she's ridding the place of box elder bugs, I'd let her. When your convinced the bugs are gone, you could put a layer of chicken wire over the gravel, and camouflage/pin down the edges somehow. Or just build a little brick containment wall that she can't fling the rocks over. That would stop her scratching it out. Maybe give her a little hen size gravel box to play in. Under another tree, where bugs and caterpillars will fall into the rocks.

 

[12 Acres]

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This is the absolute truth! I can't believe how much glass my chickens have dug up behind the barn! I even saw one of them EAT a piece of glass once! And that dumb bird survived!

 

[WriterofWords]

I could hire mine out to excavate anything you want. Luckily they dig and scratch in the tree holes, I just have reallllllly deep tree holes!

I think the ducks might have hired them,,,, to dig a new pond!