Hi guys,
I started my backyard flock with two young cochins. They started laying when they were about nine months old, and we were getting three eggs a day sometimes.
And then one of them went broody a month and a half ago. I have tried all the kind advice on this website. I pick her up and set her out in the yard (and she goes to grazing or what not until she remembers she's brooding and goes back). I lock her out of the coop. I lock her out of the run. She just makes a nest somewhere else. She's gotten kind of jerky to the other chicken, and now the other chicken - this part is AWESOME - has started crowing in the morning unless I come visit her and either feed her or let her out.
The five am wake up call and the broody chicken is killing me. My neighbors have to be dying. I just bought a blackout curtain to throw over the coop (the vent lets too much light in) to see how that goes, but between both problems, I am starting to think this isn't for me. And that sucks. I LOVE my chickens. I'm the one obnoxiously posting photos of them on Facebook. When I'm stresses, I go out and pet them. They come over to me when I'm sitting in the yard. I even lock my dogs out of the yard most of the day for the chicken's pleasure (they mess with them).
Any advice you can give would be wonderful. For the crowing, ideally it's an automatic solution - I have to be gone some mornings before sunrise and manually opening coops and stuff isn't going to work. For the brooding . . . sigh. What's the point of having them if they won't lay or even come out?
I don't really want to switch them out for new chickens. They're my pets. But I also don't want to add vitriol to the neighborhood. Plus, I could use some sleep.
Thank you.
I started my backyard flock with two young cochins. They started laying when they were about nine months old, and we were getting three eggs a day sometimes.
And then one of them went broody a month and a half ago. I have tried all the kind advice on this website. I pick her up and set her out in the yard (and she goes to grazing or what not until she remembers she's brooding and goes back). I lock her out of the coop. I lock her out of the run. She just makes a nest somewhere else. She's gotten kind of jerky to the other chicken, and now the other chicken - this part is AWESOME - has started crowing in the morning unless I come visit her and either feed her or let her out.
The five am wake up call and the broody chicken is killing me. My neighbors have to be dying. I just bought a blackout curtain to throw over the coop (the vent lets too much light in) to see how that goes, but between both problems, I am starting to think this isn't for me. And that sucks. I LOVE my chickens. I'm the one obnoxiously posting photos of them on Facebook. When I'm stresses, I go out and pet them. They come over to me when I'm sitting in the yard. I even lock my dogs out of the yard most of the day for the chicken's pleasure (they mess with them).
Any advice you can give would be wonderful. For the crowing, ideally it's an automatic solution - I have to be gone some mornings before sunrise and manually opening coops and stuff isn't going to work. For the brooding . . . sigh. What's the point of having them if they won't lay or even come out?
I don't really want to switch them out for new chickens. They're my pets. But I also don't want to add vitriol to the neighborhood. Plus, I could use some sleep.
Thank you.
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