They are now both locked in the coop screeching. *sigh*
Mhari: You couldn't be expected to know. She was very beautiful, laid lovely blue eggs but was a very, very determined broody.
Crazy roosting time. LOL. Sounds exhausting.Dusk. My broody Hepzibah is roosting in the little coop. I'm collecting feed tubs when Morrigu & Aoife both make a break for it & manage to slide under the bare gap @ the gate. I have horrible visions of Campines roosting up trees. Aoife is just circling the run but Morrigu is doing her mad woman impersonation.I manage to nab her when she hops in the hay bin & put her back where she belongs. Aoife does not want to be caught but suddenly realises it's getting a little dark for comfort but now the coop gate is closed & goes ballistic. I try squeezing the gate open for her & Morrigu shoots out. I crowd her against the little coop nab her & shove her in there. Everybody else has gone to roost so I open the gate right up & Aoife shoots in like lightening & straight up the stairs. I fish Morrigu out & put her back in the big coop to find Wrold is in a nesting box so nab her & put her in with Hepzibah. Morrigu stops screaming, gets in a nesting box, starts tossing bits around & making the oddest noises I've ever heard. I fished 2 eggs out of the hay bin & am pretty certain one of them was hers because that's her preferred laying place. I will be flabbergasted if that hen goes broody on me because she's completely & utterly feral! I was only gone one night & tonight was complete bedlam! It was like managing a lunatic asylum where the lunatics have got loose.
I've left them to it.
Oh, goodness, I did know. I’m sorry; I forgot.
I can't think what got into them except perhaps a protest @ my absence the night before. Roosting time is usually very sedate & calm round here. There's rarely any squabbling & only some frantic pacing if Lavender forgets she needs to roost early if she wants a top spot.
Hmmm. I hadn’t thought about it that way. I think they were a flock but now you ask I am not so sure.
I think almost all of us know the pain of predation.
Your chickens are obviously better trained than mine ByBob.I do not have this problem. When I enter the run they back away until I am seated (if I am staying). When I leave Phyllis will rush to walk out with me. Otherwise they do not tangle around me feet. I have not ever stepped on one or been tripped by one. They walk with me when I'm outside but never right next to me (except Phyllis). I do have to watch her sometimes. Maybe I smell bad?
I’m glad you joined us RC. Sorry it was under such traumatic circumstances. I think this sort of crisis brings a lot of people here. I came looking for what I could have done for Zen who died from egg binding/fly strike. I never even knew it was a thing until it happened.
