I went to our local hardware store
recently and ended up in discussion with a fellow chicken farmer. We came to discuss winter habits of hens
especially how they could get “coop sour” when shut into the coop for too long
during a stretch of cold weather.
Eventually hens will discover that they can peck away at their own eggs and
then the fun and games will begin. I had
noticed that Janerella had begun the habit one morning and even though I had
plenty of oyster shell lying about the coop she was going at the egg like a
regular jack hammer.
The farmer’s eyes lit up and he said
with great enthusiasm “Cabbage”.
“Cabbage?” I repeated.
“Cabbage. Get yourself a bolt and a hook screw and
string the cabbage up. They will love
it.”
I now had a mission but a one liner
recommendation is not that easy in a small town. The local grocery store only had sour cabbage
at a hefty price and while I love my little Henriettas I was not going to pay
$7.00 for a cabbage. Eventually I made
my way to another grocery store and then laid out the bolts and string for John
to hook the contraption up.
Curious as always the hens squawked and
ranged around the doorway and even into the coop as we hauled a bench into the
space so John could screw in the bolt and tie up the cabbage. Then we pulled out, along with the
bench. We walked towards the back of the
chicken run and observed the hens who swarmed again up to the step and
HALTED.
“What?” they squawked. They looked, appalled at something round and
green swinging back and forth near the doorway.
“Are you going in?”
“Nope, I’m not going in. You go in.”
“Not me, not until that thing stops swinging.”
The girls were upset, they stood on the
step, all 26 of them, for more than an hour, finally they moved back into the
grass. They were not going to attempt a
plunge into the room. At bedtime I had
to shoo them in but nope, they were not going over the doorstep. It was just like when they got the curtain
across their little chute. I quickly
solved the problem by inserting the swinging cabbage into their feeder. Out of sight, out of mind. In they went.
The following morning I went to water
the chicks at 9:00, I noticed that one of the hens had obviously discovered the
cabbage was edible as there was a leaf on the floor. The others were watching her but had not decided
if they would take a nibble or not. Good,
I thought, they will get the hang of it.
There had been snow the night before so I was happy they would have a
toy to play with while they were cooped up.
Two hours later I went to check up on
the darlings. Hanging from the ceiling
was a bolt. The cabbage was gone, eaten
to the very core.
So much for amusing the chicks over a
cold spell! What can I come up with
next?
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