I think I made her mad..

[seminolewind]

Yup, get another chicken for her. Do you give her treats?

 

[goldeneggtees]

Quote:
I second that!!!!!!!! She needs company, that's the first thing I thought upon reading your post.

 

[msgenie516]

Hi,

Your neighbors are very lucky to have someone like you to tend to the chicken. I don't know what I would do if I were unable to take care of mine, especially since I have a lot of them. My next door neighbors are retired but the husband is in poor health and the wife has severe back problems, so I would hesitate to ask them for help. But they would be happy to help me if they could. Again, you are a great neighbor!

As for your problem, I think cleaning the nest was a good thing and she'll have to get used to it. Is her roost outdoors? If so, it would be a good idea to make some kind of indoor roost and put her on it every night. They usually get the idea that they should be indoors after a few nights of being put there.

As other posters have mentioned, it would be a good idea to have another chicken--they do not like being alone. But due to your situation, I don't know if that is possible. Maybe you could ask the owners if that would be okay. I don't have that problem as I have TOO MANY chickens as it is!

Good luck with your endeavors and I hope your neighbors realize how lucky they are to have someone like you to pitch in!

Genie

 

[Chicken Chaperone]

Quote:
LOL! Oh yeah! I knew I was hooked the day I took my camera over to her coop and figured out which side is her 'good side' for taking pictures! lol! I talk to her all the time and I'm sure the other neighbors think I've gone off my rocker! The picture I have as my avatar is Henrietta. She was grumpy with me for sticking the camera in her face all afternoon- she looked up, gave me the stink eye and I snapped the picture! In that picture she looks like the grumpiest hen in the world! lol!!

I think the neighbors who own her are....hmm... how should I put this.. kind of waiting for her to quietly pass away from old age so they can be done with chicken-ing. They love her but are not interested in increasing the flock at all so me adding a pal to keep her company isn't really an option, darn it. Their coop is built with one of the walls being our shared fence and I've thought many times how easy it would be just to swing the whole thing around and have it on our side of the fence or even build another coop on our side and cut a door in the fence and therefore double the coop size.

The coop they have is pretty snazzy, I think, thought I have limited coop experience. It's almost 6ft tall, about 9 or 10 feet long and 5+ feet across.

Henrietta is a peach of a hen though she can get cross with me if I don't dig in the garden fast enough and dig up enough worms. I dig for them, she scratches and munches them and makes happy chicken noises at me and gobbles them up.
I had no idea chickens eat snakes though! THAT was shocking the first few times it happened! lol! She's now caught 7 or 8 of the darn things and she'll eat them whole and still alive if I let her. They're just little garden snakes but can that really be good? The idea of her having a live snake in her tummy about rattles me to pieces! YUCK! Now when she finds them I grab the shovel, do the deed and at least they aren't still alive when she swallows them. Anybody else have that happen? Yeesh! The last few times she's found them, when she sees me grab for the shovel, she runs with the snake still in her mouth! ugh! I hate snakes! I'm sure it's pure comedy to watch- a chicken running, snake in mouth, me with snake-fear-shivers chasing the two of them all around the yard with shovel in hand telling her "Drop it! DROP IT!!" lol!

So, yeah, I'm hooked! lol! I'm so glad to have found y'all. When I relate these chicken escapades to my husband he just shakes his head. To find a whole group of people who understand and have a wealth of experience to share is just a Godsend! Thank you for being here!!

She likes corn bread (home made) but not cooked corn, tomatoes, celery, broccoli, dry cat food, meal worms, regular worms, snakes (shudder), and all kinds of things I never knew a chicken would or should eat. She'll eat styrofoam, if I let her, and those little pellets from pellet guns and I was glad to read here that neither of those things, in small doses, will hurt her but I try and steer her away from them whenever possible. Are there any food items she shouldn't have? Like dogs shouldn't have bananas or chocolate? Anything I need to be wary of?

a million thanks for your comments and understanding and thoughts and experience!

!

 

[chookchick]

I have a feeling that hen is going to end up being YOURS! lucky hen...If you look around this site you will find a ton of info--check the "learning pages" and there are lots of good articles. I'll try to find Buff Hooligans "treat page" that has good info on what they can and cannot eat. If they are really "burned out" on chicken raising, you could make an offer for the coop, then figure out a way to move it, there is always a way.

Here's the "treat chart":
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

Click on the "Learning center", then "how to pages" for some great info.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
LOL! Oh yeah! I knew I was hooked the day I took my camera over to her coop and figured out which side is her 'good side' for taking pictures! lol! I talk to her all the time and I'm sure the other neighbors think I've gone off my rocker! The picture I have as my avatar is Henrietta. She was grumpy with me for sticking the camera in her face all afternoon- she looked up, gave me the stink eye and I snapped the picture! In that picture she looks like the grumpiest hen in the world! lol!!

I think the neighbors who own her are....hmm... how should I put this.. kind of waiting for her to quietly pass away from old age so they can be done with chicken-ing. They love her but are not interested in increasing the flock at all so me adding a pal to keep her company isn't really an option, darn it. Their coop is built with one of the walls being our shared fence and I've thought many times how easy it would be just to swing the whole thing around and have it on our side of the fence or even build another coop on our side and cut a door in the fence and therefore double the coop size.

The coop they have is pretty snazzy, I think, thought I have limited coop experience. It's almost 6ft tall, about 9 or 10 feet long and 5+ feet across.

Henrietta is a peach of a hen though she can get cross with me if I don't dig in the garden fast enough and dig up enough worms. I dig for them, she scratches and munches them and makes happy chicken noises at me and gobbles them up.
I had no idea chickens eat snakes though! THAT was shocking the first few times it happened! lol! She's now caught 7 or 8 of the darn things and she'll eat them whole and still alive if I let her. They're just little garden snakes but can that really be good? The idea of her having a live snake in her tummy about rattles me to pieces! YUCK! Now when she finds them I grab the shovel, do the deed and at least they aren't still alive when she swallows them. Anybody else have that happen? Yeesh! The last few times she's found them, when she sees me grab for the shovel, she runs with the snake still in her mouth! ugh! I hate snakes! I'm sure it's pure comedy to watch- a chicken running, snake in mouth, me with snake-fear-shivers chasing the two of them all around the yard with shovel in hand telling her "Drop it! DROP IT!!" lol!

So, yeah, I'm hooked! lol! I'm so glad to have found y'all. When I relate these chicken escapades to my husband he just shakes his head. To find a whole group of people who understand and have a wealth of experience to share is just a Godsend! Thank you for being here!!

She likes corn bread (home made) but not cooked corn, tomatoes, celery, broccoli, dry cat food, meal worms, regular worms, snakes (shudder), and all kinds of things I never knew a chicken would or should eat. She'll eat styrofoam, if I let her, and those little pellets from pellet guns and I was glad to read here that neither of those things, in small doses, will hurt her but I try and steer her away from them whenever possible. Are there any food items she shouldn't have? Like dogs shouldn't have bananas or chocolate? Anything I need to be wary of?

a million thanks for your comments and understanding and thoughts and experience!

!

YOU THINK YOU'RE GIVING HER BACK??????????????

Seriously. Chances are good that you'll be keeping her. So you should go ahead and get her a friend. Worse comes to worse, you'll still have a chicken, then you just get one more. Chances are good that you'll have more than 3 by summer. Get hubby involved by asking him to build you a coop. Not a big one. If he builds a big one, chances are real good that you will fill it up. I don't think that anyone here will disagree with what I'm saying!

 

[feathersnuggles]

OH yeah, especially since they want their chicken-days to be done, I think you're gonna end up keeping her! Lucky Henrietta! I second the idea to make them an offer for the coop and swing it over to your yard.

We got our coop when our neighbor across the street moved away with her chickens. She said, sure. So, we sawed it in half and lifted that HEAVY thing over her 6' fence, across the street, and into our yard.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Oh, and LOL! There's no chance in H a chicken's gonna "Drop it"!!!

 

[Chicken Chaperone]

How right you all are in saying that she'll probably wind up living here or that we'll get our own small flock.
LOL! The first thing I did when I logged onto the computer this morning was come here and read and learn. I've been looking at coops and breeds and food and everything in the learning pages. What an awesome resource!
Y'all can just go ahead and reel me on in cause it's darn clear I'm hooked! lol!
I guess the next step is to start learning about the different breeds and their temperaments, what they require in food and housing, what breeds are hearty and best suited to first timers and then build a coop, yes? I've been looking on Craig's list at the chickens and coops, etc. that are listed and plan on heading over to the local feed store on Monday to see who's brain I can pick over there to get even more info. Would y'all recommend I wait until spring and warmer weather to get some girls? I figure if I take the next few months to learn as much as I can and build a coop, get the backyard ready and free of anything that might hurt them plant-wise and otherwise that maybe by March or April I'll be ready?

I've come to love Henrietta so much! If someone had told me 6 months ago that chickens can be so lovable and have such distinct personalities and how attached you can become to one I don't know if I would have believed them but I sure believe it now!

 

[CityClucks]

I can totally understand how you would fall in love with Henrietta! She's a Barred Rock, and they are some of the most friendly and curious breeds around, in my experience. She looks at you al part of her flock now, since you feed her, dig up worms for her, etc. Isn't it fun when they talk to you? I agree you should swing the coop into your yard and make her yours if your neighbors agree - and get more!

Welcome to BYC - it's fun here and you'll learn tons!