Saturday, June 11, 2016

Naughty hens

Sometimes I think my hens are going to all think their names are Naughty.  I don't yell at my chickens.  I don't even try to discipline them.  Anyone who has chickens gets why this is.  You really can't train them not to be naughty.  They are going to do what they want to do.  What cracks me up is nearly all of the video's I have of my girls, I'm telling one hen or another that they are naughty.

I went out to tuck everyone in and discovered that the babies had knocked down the cardboard divider I had put up to keep them from sleeping in a nest box.  And here they all were.  All 6 of them jammed into a 12" by 12" nest.  Naughty!

Coco is nearly 6 years old and doesn't get enough calcium to put a hard shell on her eggs.  So each afternoon, she gets 1/8 tsp of powdered bird calcium w/ vitamin D mixed into a tablespoon of mash.  She knows this and expects it and gets very excited when she hears me in the garage mixing it up.  The other day, she jumped up on the sink to get to if faster.  Naughty!

I let the babies out of their half of the run into the garden for a few hours each afternoon.  But what do these two decide to do?  Explore the big hens coop.  Naughty!

I grew some forage blend grass for the hens and put it in the babies run to see what they would do.  Of course, one hen has to stand right in the middle of the pot of grass instead of nibble at it from the sides.  Naughty!

And this has nothing to do with being naughty.  I had a few things I was no longer using for the hens and offered them up on our local chicken chat group.  This sweet lady from one town over took all of the items and gave me eggs to say thank you.  At first I thought it was strange to give eggs to someone who has hens.  But I have brown egg layers.  She has green, olive and chocolate egg layers.  I'm in love w/ the colors in this egg carton.

And while I've grown used to this image, it is also naughty.  The three big girls make their lap around the garden when I let them out.  Then they Trick or Treat at the back door.  Pecking at the threshold or wiping their beaks on the screen to get my attention to come give them raisins.  Notice how I've had to flip my rooster door mat over to the rubber side.  The hens are very naughty!