I wonder what triggers them, at this time of year.one of my pennies has gone broody...she screams blue murder at roost time when I hoik her out of the flower bed and push her in a coop, with at least 2 roos dashing out and strutting about shouting 'yes, what?', but it all calmed down a lot quicker tonight (this is day 3 of this new routine) and I'm hopeful she'll break quickly like Merle.
. Do you leave her eggs ?
this one went into molt early and came out early, resuming laying in December (which was very nice - fresh eggs for Christmas!I wonder what triggers them, at this time of year.
I think for Merle it may have been the hormones changes with beginning to lay ? What's strange is that whenever she is in the nest, she still acts broody !
Also, maybe it's because they have not seen many broodies, but both my roosters act like the broodies are not the hens they know ? They seem very cautious about them, almost as surprised as me.
I also hope yours stops without having to take harsher steps. It's more difficult to block access to a flower bed than to a hole in a wood stack, but I suppose it could be done if necessary
), and blocking won't work here - she'd just choose another hidden spot, and there are many. So broody cage is how I break those I have to break, which is fine in late spring/summer but would be totally inappropriate in sub zero temps, as now, I think.
I removed that too of course, and there were none today. I don't want others to follow her example of laying in the border, so I am deliberately loud when I go to check her nest and remove eggs or her from it 
KNow that. Was only teasing.
I was exaggerating of of course. But about 30 km to the west, 18 km to the east, 20 km up north and 10 km to the south it did snow.I can't believe your garden is the only place it didn't snow in the whole country. Who did you bribe ?
This doesn’t work out as you describe. What are your plans with Theo before it gets worse?******
It was -6 /21 this morning and it almost felt warm. However this soon changed when the weather turned very cloudy and windy- it was quite unpleasant.
First blood drawn today between Théo and Gaston. I was gone running for an hour at the end of the morning and when I came back my partner told me Théo and Gaston had some squabble. Since it happens several times daily I didn't pay any special attention. …
I confine my hens to the coop for 4-5 days if one (or more) of them is laying in the garden.this one went into molt early and came out early, resuming laying in December (which was very nice - fresh eggs for Christmas!
No I didn't leave her eggs (she's been laying there since she resumed in Dec) and now she's stopped laying, but yesterday one of Venka's pullets laid there in her stead!
no can do here - no run! I could shut her in one of the coops, but then she'd occupy one of the nest boxes, so I don't think that would act as a break.
I missed this tread of yours ManueB!I've been posting a lot of information about my chickens in the various threads I follow. Some of that was retrospectively useful to me, and reading my posts back, I also unfortunately realized I had forgotten some health details that could have made a difference.
So I'm starting my own thread as a diary welcoming everyone along. But be aware that although I will post pictures there will be a lot of daily mentions like the number of eggs and the quality of poops which may not hold the same interest for other readers than it does for me
I have an article in my profile describing my flock and settings here : https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-chickens-des-sauches.77857/
(I may even do individual chickens presentation posts on rainy afternoons).
Théo is my nearly adult rooster. He is probably around one by now. He was given to us by a friend / farmer in my village at the end of November 2021.
Recently he has begun acting up on us- chasing our calves when we bring food to his hens, especially in the morning. Two days ago he flew for the first time at the water pot I was bringing them after opening the coop.
I made the following changes :
- I set all feeders and waterers in place before opening the coop directly outside
- I'm not having them stay for thirty minutes in the run first thing in the morning. I was doing this to try to make the four younger chickens, hatched 5 June so almost 16 weeks, get used to being with the adults. It wasn't working as they just stayedd on their roosts until I opened the run and meant I had to get the feeder from the run, which inevitably seemed to get Little Théo's hormones riled up.
It seems to help as our interactions have been more civilized although he is still being wary of me and me of him.
(He's a tiny thing, cross bantam I think).
View attachment 3267043
Merle, a black pullet from the June hatch, probably a bantam. Chipie the broody was quite feral and didn't let the chicks come out for 36 hours. We know there was one bantam egg and since the first chick we got a glimpse of, born 12 hours before the rest was black, we suppose it was the bantam.
View attachment 3267040
Léa and Piou-piou. Piou-piou has worried us a bit as she was and is a runt chick - very tiny and a month behind. Her behaviour has always been completely normal and she has finally grown a tail as of yesterday.
View attachment 3267041
Gastounet (real name Gaston) the huge funny goofy cockerel.
View attachment 3267046
Got a lot of catching up to do one of these days.
If she starts to see a laying nest as the best place to lay her eggs /hatch eggs , you are halfway there. And it doesn’t trigger the others to lay in the flower beds. (My opinion).
well, yes and no. Currently she is the only one of 6 now laying who does prefer the border, and she was laying there all last year too, so I think they all think she's nuts (except Uppsala who's trying out different nests, official and unofficial, so I won't worry about her till she settles on one or another
) and she presumably thinks they are too. And because she uses the same spot in the same border, it's easy to find and collect her eggs.
