One hen is afraid of the wood chips

[horsejody]

I cleaned the coop out yesterday. I switched my bedding from straw to wood shavings. Last night 2 hens were freaking out because they were afraid to come in the coop. The Buff Cochen gave up the fight when I shoved her through the pop door into the coop. One of the Jersey Giants is being more difficult. She is usually pretty tame but acted like I throwing her into Colonel Sander' cooking pot when I put her in the coop. This morning when I turned on the light and opened the pop door she refused to get on the floor. She shimmied along the roost, then jumped onto the top of the nest boxes, then shimmied over to the feed barrels and then she flew to the pop door. You would think that her feet were going to catch fire if she touched those stupid shavings. She is going to have to get over it though because she has to walk through them to get to the food.

 

[insiderart]

Jody you big meany! Putting those scary shavings in the coop!

We have scary shavings here too! Buffy Bumpit is ignoring the whole right end of the brooder because of them! She's living on the little end where the food and water are because it's mostly pine pellets. Thank goodness her purple bear and stuffed cat had the good sense to stay off those scary shavings, so she didn't have to go rescue them.

Next time we need to read the bag more closely and get the "non-scary" shavings.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Oh gosh, that's funny. i had the same experience when i switched one coop from hay to shavings. i did it right before bedtime and when the girls started to walk in they froze, and let out that "beep, beep, beep, beep" warning sound. It was all i could do to horseshoe them in that night. Eventually . . . . they got used to it.

i think i want to switch out all the coops to shavings. i heard that the hay can harbor mites, and i've been having problems with those lately.