There are no defective volaille , only bad chicken habits . Some chicken chute up to sleep in trees every night or treat themselves to an testis scramble from the nesting box . But it ’s up to you to break your chickens of whatever regretful riding habit picked up over time .
If left neglected , you could be out dozens of eggs . In the bad cases , you ’ll be out a few chicken , too .
Thankfully , you could break up chickens of bad habits fairly easy . Some common example follow , with directions on how to break them if you see them drink down up in your muckle .
Egg Eating
You ’ve picked your chicken cautiously , and you have a nice mix of rainbow egg from all different types of inheritance birds . Every day you ’ve gone out to plume beautiful ballock from the nesting boxes . Then , one day , you observe there are n’t as many .
The day after that , even fewer remain . You see a pot of eggshell on the bottom of the nesting box where your egg used to be . It wo n’t take you long to put 2 and 2 together .
One of your chickens is eat on eggs , one of the most plebeian bad habits in the coop .
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Chickens will eat eggs for legion reasons , from ennui to a deficiency of protein in their diet . It ’s a difficult situation for any flock possessor to be in . egg are one of the principal grounds why people produce wimp .
If you trade your bollock , you ’ll be out of income . If you and your family use up them , you ’ll be out of food .
Once your chickens get a taste for eggs , it can be very difficult to dampen them from this bad riding habit . That being said , you’re able to strain a few dissimilar strategies to regain your daily 12 ( or two dozen ) eggs .
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Read more : turn back out these pointers for care with testis - deplete chickens .
A astray - undefendable nesting box is an invitation to amount inside , get comfortable and lay an egg . For some chickens , it ’s also an invitation to come inside , see what ’s in there and treat themselves to a bite .
If your chickens eat eggs , the first thing you should do is take a well look at your nesting corner . utilize Ellen Price Wood chips for nesting textile ? examine switching to shuck . If you use shuck , try flip to Sir Henry Wood chips or some other nesting cloth .
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A gloomy nesting box is less likely to be looked at as a spot to search for snacks . Try adding curtain to darken the area and keep your hen from see the eggs lying in spite of appearance .
If you ’ve render quicken their existing nesting boxes and you ’re still scramble with egg eating , you’re able to chance design online for nesting box with a rollaway bottom . you may DIY this eccentric of nesting box yourself . As the hen lodge the egg in the box , the egg will roll into the box and out of view so the hen ca n’t change state around and feed it .
Have you ever looked over your sight and ask yourself , “ I marvel if my chicken would wish mustard greens ? ” The answer is no . No , they do not .
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Chickens are n’t buff of table mustard . That ’s why some chicken owners place ball in draw close boxes that have been hollowed out and replace with mustard .
you’re able to do this by poking a hole on both English of the testis and blowing until the substance are empty . Once you have an empty eggshell , contract some mustard inside the egg . For maximal effect , fill it as much as you could , but essay not to let any trickle out .
point your mustard bollock or nut in your nesting boxes . Then wait until your egg - eaters take a quite a little at them .
you may set up a tv camera in your chicken coop if you want to make love which chicken channelise there first to practice spoiled eating habit . If they do peck at them , they may just be flex off of eggs forever . If not , you ’ll have a visual from the camera as to who is eating the eggs and you may select to insulate them from the nestle boxes temporarily . Jsita / Shutterstock
Jumping the Fence
You built a secure coop for your chicken . Afence to keep out piranha fortifies it . But what you might not have considered is that it ’s not tall enough to keep chicken inside the fencing . And for volaille , hopping the fence is a coarse one amongst defective habit .
For chicken , the grass is always greener on the other side of the chicken coop , and climb up out an is an often- . Even if they have an entire acre to pick up around on , some birds will still jump the fence and add up into your yard . They might peck at your living way windows or beg for food on your front porch .
Some people receive this charming . But if you ’ve ever err on a megabucks of wimp droppings when walking onto your porch or you have a rogue rooster crowing loudly outside your window , jumping the fencing will lose its appeal very quickly .
jump the fencing can also have serious consequences for the crybaby . If they browse , neglected predators such as coyotes , hawk or eagles could easily swipe them .
To stop your crybaby from jump the fence , you could prove a few different matter .
One of the first things flock owners can do if their chickens jump the fence : Build a chicken coop with a closed run . There are unlike plans for poulet coop with runs online . The welfare to this character of chicken coop is that your volaille stay in a safe , enclosed area .
But if a closed coop is n’t for you and you ’d like your volaille to be able-bodied to free - range more than a lowly area will appropriate , you ’re going to have to adjust your fencing . If you already have a stalwart fence but your chickens leap out it , you ’ll have to increase the meridian .
The average height of a chicken coop fencing is approximately 5 feet . To keep your troop in spite of appearance , you may desire to add a level of fence in to the top of your existing fencing to make it 8 or 9 feet tall . you could do that with a layer of engagement fence on the bottom and a layer of plastic garden fencing material or chicken wire on the top .
It might look a little like you ’ve countersink up your own poulet Alcatraz . But it should keep them safe in their area.loocmill/Shutterstock
offstage clippingis a mo of a controversial government issue for Gallus gallus possessor . While some may recommend for wing clipping , others finger as though it ’s a lot like declawing a cat . It takes forth a bird ’s power to protect itself in pasty situation .
finally , it ’s up to you whether or not you want to clip your bird ’s wings . If you design on doing so , a general crest is to trim them so one side is shorter than the other . Uneven wing will keep your chickens just more or less off - kelter .
This can prevent them from make headway altitude when they sample to take off .
Do n’t be surprised if they still manage to jump the fencing , even if you ’ve clip their wings . Some shuttle are lighter than others . And others can parkour a fence or small complex body part without spreading their fender at all .
Sleeping in Trees
Sleeping in tree goes part and parcel of land with jumping the fencing . If you all of a sudden see a driblet in population when you engage your chickens up at Nox but you find everyone is there for roll call in the morning , you may just have a few tree - sleeper on your hands .
It ’s raw for a chicken to want to log Z’s as far away from the soil as possible . But when they sleep in tree they are expose to the elements and piranha .
Not only that , but if they take to sleep in a tree right on outside your bedroom window or near your planetary house , you ’re go to be treated to a very other wake - up call every sunrise . Some roosters will even triumph all Nox long if they feel they need to alert the flock to risk . Patcharin1602 / Shutterstock
Chickens will give to their roost night after Nox . So the first step to stopping them from sleeping in a tree is to figure out why they might be doing it in the first piazza .
Do you have several roosters ? Or perhaps you cognise your biddy have a stern pecking club ? Some of the chickens that have a lower ranking may look for a new habitation rather than log Z’s with the enemy .
If you know the volaille or chickens that get picked on , you could separate them within your coop so they palpate safe while sleeping . Some flock owners build a new wimp coop alone . Others will have several small structures separated within a large fenced area .
If you have a rapscallion chicken in a nearby tree , the good way of life to move them is to wait for them to direct there to perch . If you may , wait near the tree diagram and pick them up before they manage to get up . It can preserve you a caboodle of hassle if your volaille jumpstart branches until they are too high for your ladder to reach .
If the chicken is in the tree and approachable byladder , place the ravel under the tree diagram before thechicken run there to roost . You do n’t want to startle the chicken . They ’re very easy topick up when roosting .
Wait until it ’s dark and be certain to take a headlight to help you see .
Once you have the wimp , your best bet is to place it in an enclosed , locked - down domain within your coop and keep it there for a few day . Do n’t move out the fowl from the chicken universe . But do n’t allow the snort to be vulnerable to the other birds in display case they want to attack it .
you may let the raspberry back out into the pot after it ’s adjusted to being back in the coop . If you fix your fences so it ca n’t stand out out , betting odds are it will stay within the hencoop from that meter on . Just keep in mind that if the bird can find a way out , it most in all probability will terminate up back in your Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree again .
register more : you could avail a broody biddy hatch her chicks !
Hidden Eggs
If you have a large yard and a lot of free - range chickens , you ’ll find a few obscure nest of egg once in a while . No matter how appealing you make the nesting box , some chickens have a brain of their own . These ladies will lie an egg in whatever smear look comfortable .
The job is that if a hen continues to go to a nesting sphere and lay egg but you have no idea where that nest is , finally they ’ll amass a expectant pile of eggs and go broody . Brooding is natural ( and not just correct to heel alongside spoilt habits ) , but you ’ll require to handle with Gallus gallus in this Department of State .
A brood hen hen sitting on a enceinte pile of eggs can mean a large and unexpected gain to yourflock . In my time lift wimp , my record for unexpected hatching is 18 chicks from one biddy !
The only path to stop hidden nests and random egg laying is to check that you’re able to report for all of your chickens . If you let them free - range , you ’ll want to count heads every night to verify everyone kip where they should .
If you do find a nest of nut and a biddy sitting on them , you could pick up biddy and eggs and place them in a good , insert area until hatch . That way they ’ll have food and piddle as presently as the babies hatch . You wo n’t be greet by a surprise menage at your back door !
chicken are the type of creature with an autonomous psyche and a casual disregard for their personal safety , but break them of their risky habits see your wad will be safe to lay or crow another 24-hour interval .
This article originally appeared in the March / April 2022 issue ofChickensmagazine .
