My chickens have been a pain in my ass lately.
For a while they've been flying out of the run we built for them. Not a big deal, as they stayed mostly in my backyard or the neighboring farm field/woods (which belongs to my dad). But earlier this week we saw them right in the middle of the main road in front of our house! Not only does this put them in danger of being hit by a car (as well as endanger a driver who might swerve to miss them), but it also puts them only a few feet away from my neighbor's flower bed. And the last thing I want is a pissed off neighbor with chicken-chewed flowers.
In addition, I KNOW that four of my five hens should be laying, but I've only been averaging one or two eggs per day. I thought they might be laying their eggs in the field, but Hubby and I did regular recons and saw no hidden nests. Until yesterday.
Yesterday we found remnants of broken egg shell. And I realized: I've got an egg eater among my hens.
Well, this sealed their fate. We closed up the top of the run so that they're forced to stay in. (Once I've broken the egg eating habit, I'll let them out to free range for a few hours before dusk.) I've been running out every hour to check for eggs so I can remove them before they get eaten. I also put a few wooden eggs in the coop to "trick" them into thinking that eggs aren't edible.
Total pain. Hubby was tempted to throw them all in the crockpot, but I convinced him to let me try to get a handle on their behavior.
Hell... they're worse than kids.
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1 comments:
We used to clip our chickens' wings when I was a kid. They could still "lift off" but couldn't fly near as far, which kept them in the yard at least. But their feathers grow fast so you have to stay on top of it.
I've never had an egg-eating chicken before. Maybe you can figure out which one is the culprit and have that one for dinner.
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