It turned really warm up here yesterday. Must have because I'm wearing a summer skirt albeit with thermal vest and jersey on top. I spent an hour and a half outside doing chores and becoming increasingly wound up by the behaviour of one recalcitrant bantam hen. It is the little brown one who becomes madly broody every year, lays a clutch and then abandons them when the first chick hatches. Yeah that one. Since I moved here every day she has determinedly flown over the fence and begun laying eggs under the house where I can't reach them. Usually I can shoo her out the back gate and she won't come back in but yesterday I had to chase her out SIX times! Then she brought two of her little girlfriends in as well to participate in the new game of driving me crazy.
By late afternoon I knew what I was going to do. When I put them in the shed to feed them I grabbed the ringleader and clipped her wing. Now this doesn't hurt any more than cutting our fingernails does as you just cut the tips of the feathers on one wing which effectively makes her lop sided so she can't fly over the fence. Well that's the theory anyway. We shall see! Her little followers also got the same treatment. Hopefully now the garden will be a chicken free zone.
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2 comments:
wasnt it HOT!!!
Last night too
is there anyway to block up the hole she uses to get under the house???
hope clipping her wings does the trick
Hi Jen
The main hole is by the front steps and is under cover so maybe I could make a temporary barrier with cardboard. Thing is with this hen is she's so remarkably dense that she'd still keep coming in anyway. She's so funny as she flies over the fence and cackles and goes on to let me know she's in here. If she kept her beak shut I wouldn't know.
Jen
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