It’s such a common speculation around here…
So a few days ago I spent a whole morning building a new nesting box for the coop in the Fortress of Attitude. The pullets were sleeping in the old ground-level box, shitting on the straw, trampling on the eggs…
And now here we are in our brave new world, where the pullets seem to find the new box more congenial than ever. The shitting and trampling have, if anything, increased. I’m out of clean straw.
My default answer to most misbehavior issues has come to be “move them in with Landlady’s chickens.” Which, upon sober reflection, seems to point toward a systemic problem. Landlady’s chickens don’t lay a lot of eggs, but they don’t seem to have the behavior problems mine do. And it’s not just because of the breed, either. Two former FoA alumni, my biggest violence-mongers, live with the Brahmas now in apparent peace and serenity. Seriously, it’s like an ashram over there. Bunch of feathered hippies.
Hm. When Obama has a problem for which he doesn’t know the solution, he just issues a bunch of random executive orders. That way, even if the problem gets worse as a result, at least he has “done something.” Trouble is I tried that, and they just wandered off. I’ve thought of sequestering the pullets, that would solve the egg problem, but it would create a whole new bunch of other problems.
I’m stuck.
I tell you, the nest boxes have to be configured so that the eggs roll immediately away from the center when the hen stands up, preferably to roll under a barrier so they could not be stepped on or pooped on. Has been done… can be done. 🙂
Make the nesting box enclosed on three sides and the top so that it is dark inside. The entrance should be just large enough to allow a hen to go in.
Chickens are even less teachable than humans.