I have a depressed chicken! Can you believe that?? Last week the hubby and I were gone for a few days and my "adult" children were in charge of taking care of my animals. Well, the eggs did not get collected from the nesting box and by the time daughter #2 came over to do her part, there were 7 eggs in the box. She collected them all and when I came home, I found a chicken who was not herself. Being that I am still new to this whole chicken raising bit, I sent a message of help to the Permaculture group. I was told that I have a broody hen. Red wants to be a mama after sitting on all those eggs. Sheesh. I was told to wait it out and she should get better.
Well, waiting is easier said than done. I don't like seeing my chicken depressed and I'm pretty sure that I cannot purchase chicken antidepressants anywhere. So, I did a little google research and found that if you take them out of the coop and make them sit in the sunshine for awhile, this may help. I decided to give it a go today.
Here is Red in her cage today. She sat in it while I dug and planted flowers near her.
It was NOT EASY getting her in this cage. Since she has become broody, she is mean! She used to come up to me and want me to pet her and she always climbed her ladder in the morning to say hello to me face to face. NOT ANYMORE! She doesn't want me anywhere near her and she tries to peck me if I pet her. It makes me sad :-(
This whole broodiness has Delta upset too. She doesn't like that Red sits in the nesting box all day, so she squawks, and squawks, and SQUAWKS!!! Lordy, it's getting on my nerves. Here's Delta in the coop by herself.
Well, after keeping Red in the cage ALL DAY, she seemed better.....so I thought. I opened up the cage and she ran back in to the coop and right back into the nesting box to pout!
Is this ridiculous or what???
We are going to try the cage again tomorrow. If anyone has any other ideas, PLEASE let me know. I will be getting some baby chicks soon and I'm hoping that will help too. This will be tricky though, as most adult hens will kill baby chicks that don't belong to them. Oye. :-/ Maybe I should place a fabulous mosaic in that corner for her to look at?? LOL!
Here is one of my animals that doesn't seem to be having any problems...
Oh Hey Emma, Comfy??
She cracks me up! She looked at those chickens this morning like Whatever! I need to find a couch.
Speaking of digging and planting today, I've started another garden blog. I know I was terrible at keeping up with the last one, but I'm going to try again. Find it here
Okay, that's all for now.
See ya soon!
Michelle