Breaking The Mood

 

While I was building I had the radio on listening to Christian speeches and songs. Vince Gill came on singing "High On That Mountain" not sure that is the title. Anyhoo these girls settled right down.... Thank you VG!

Let me start by saying I truly love my chickens. When something isn't right in the little flock it shows right away. About a week and half or so ago my girls were trying to tell me that something wasn't right in their coop. I paid attention but couldn't figure it out! I freshened everything up meaning I dusted (bug killer) and cleaned their coop. I put a new larger feed pan in the coop. Opened it up for some freshness. And still was having issues! Each time I noticed a hen who was a bit stand offish. Crabby. Told me that she wasn't wanting me to mess with her. At first I gently lifted her and stole the eggs from under her. Then I noticed she wasn't leaving that nest and I had fewer eggs everyday. She had got in the "mood" to sit on the eggs. Broody! As the days passed she got worse and the girls who were just trying to lay an egg were fighting with her over that one box even though there are 11 more boxes to choose from.

These two ended up fighting for space

Well as I said a week and half later I started to really pay attention. I would go out 2-3 times a day to pick her up to get her out of the nest. This turned into something not pleasant for either of us. 

I decided I needed to look up a solution. We do not have a rooster so her sitting on eggs was pointless. The other girls were definitely upset!

Lot of bickering going on right here

I googled broodiness to see the official meaning (something I do a lot) then noticed that The Chicken Chick had a blog on Caring for a Broody Hen .

I popped over to read her blog and of course found all kinds of great info. Then something caught my eye The Brood Breaker .
I did not realize that this was possible! Then again I have never had a flock without a rooster before. This was great for us right at this moment. She took a rabbit hutch and turned it into something to hold her broody hens to change their overall mood. The whole meaning was to make them uncomfortable not miserable. Changing their atmosphere got them out of the mood. My solution!

Do you remember the goat crate Mtn Man made for our trip to pick up the buck. Well I took that and added some wire to the top then turned it upside down. Added wire all around the sides cuz it was mostly slates and didn't want the chance a critter could get to my girl.

On a farm you do a lot of creating if you have supplies for it. Nails, screws, wire and a few boards. Tools I used was a cordless drill, wire cutters, hammer and a cordless rotary skill saw. I added a roosting bar, couple of corner boards and some smooth wire to weave in the cracks were the wire mesh met or overlapped.

Little side note....Shorty got a haircut on Saturday and there is a lot of hair left over from that. So in my brain I thought well maybe if I throw some under the crate it would deter the critters from trying to get my girl too! Never know!
Ok so the one thing I see I left out was I lifted this crate off the ground set it on a couple of logs. 
Now I had to make a door for this box. I had to think on this a bit but I came up with a solution. I am not a handy craftsman just want it to be useful and practical. It doesn't have to be purdy! I took 4 slabs of wood , some wire, a few screws and nails.

Added a few more boards to keep in place and we had a Brood Breaker of our very own!! 
I added our Broody Hen and she made some noise now!

I had to close the front door of the chicken house and open up the back so the girls wouldn't be to upset. About half hour later she settled down 

The other girls were so happy! They gave me 7 eggs yesterday! Wahoo!

Happy Coop Makes For A Happy Mama! Love My Girls!




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