Broody Hens

Broody hens can be helpful if you're trying to hatch more chicks, or harmful if you're trying to get all your hens to lay eggs for the table.Either way, if a hen goes broody at the wrong time of year for hatching new chicks, you've got to either wait it out or take steps to shorten the broody period.

One of our broodiest hens decided that February 15th is a good day to begin brooding. It's too early to begin hatching here and I prefer to use an electric incubator anyway, so I decided to remove the eggs and move the hen off the layer box. Sometimes, if the season isn't right the brooding instinct will be a bit lessened and it can be easier to break them. I should know if that's the case in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, here's a more complete guide that I wrote about broody hens.

Chicken-napper Thwarted by Stout Coop



Foot prints on the side of the chicken coop this morning tell of a
failed overnight attempt at entry.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

 When you're trying to be as self-sufficient as practical, a single mis-step can set you back. This is particularly true when it comes to farm animals like the chickens that we keep. We have three chicken coops that are all built like bunkers. It was more expensive and it took more effort to build them so strongly, but there's a good reason for it.

Our yard is surrounded by forest, miles and miles of forest depending upon which direction you go. Lots of things live in the forest, including a bull moose that wandered through our yard last week. Other local residents include bears, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and weasels, just to name a few. When it comes to these wild predators, chickens make a pretty tempting meal.

Two of my chicken coops survived a prolonged and concerted effort at entry by a large black bear. The third, unfortunately, had a weak point and the bear after a week of failed attempts, was able to rip and access door to shreds and pull out two chickens. last year. After that, I added a stronger door and checked all the coops for weaknesses. Since then, nothing has been able to get at the chickens locked up in the coops at night.

This morning, however, when I went out to feed and water the birds, I saw some interesting marks on the side of the largest of the three coops. Muddy claw marks that appear to be canine in nature (or possibly vulpine) showed a recent attempt at entry. The prints reach about four feet high on the side of the coop. It could be a dog, a coyote, or a fox. There are, according to all wildlife and forestry service folks that I know, no wolf populations left in New Hampshire, certainly not in southern New Hampshire.

Believe it or not, the worst of the three, should it gain access to the chickens, would be a domestic dog. Dogs enjoy chasing and catching chickens and will often kill an entire flock before they get bored and wander off home. Foxes and coyotes are a big more pragmatic. They'll take a couple of chickens and may also kill any overly aggressive roosters out of necessity, but having learned how to get a good chicken dinner, they'll come back on a regular basis until they decide that they can't get at the chickens or that the risk is too high.

Paying a little extra attention to chicken coop security can save your flock.

On a side note: As the days are getting longer, this morning we found four times the number of eggs that we've been getting for the last couple of months (due to the short winter days). That will come in handy as we are expecting to add two more members to our household this spring when my wife's parents move in with us. We should be all set for chicken and eggs, but we'll definitely need to think about expanding the gardens.

Chickens, forage vs. purchased chicken feed

This morning, I had to run out and pick up chicken feed for the chickens we have. There are roughly 38 chickens running around our still mostly snow-covered yard. It is just not possible to let chickens here live solely off of natural forage.

The snowy and freezing cold New England winters ensure that there are between four and six months in which chickens would be unable to find any food, much less enough nutrition to keep them healthy. Furthermore, with 38 chickens and three turkeys, at present, we don't have enough land to provide them with adequate forage.

We keep them in three small coops, locked up at night for protection against the plentiful predators that hunt the forests around our house. The coops are fenced in, but the chickens consider the five foot high fence to be more of a suggestion than an actual rule. They fly over it at will and can be found throghout the cleared area of our property at any given time during the day. They avoid the forested part for the most part, except for the small portion of the penned-in area which is forested.

keeping 38 chickens full time is too many for our needs and our space. We'd like to keep about a dozen adults or so for the most part, but I didn't butcher enough of them before winter set in and had no appetite to pluck and clean chickens in temperatures so cold that you can barely feel your fingers.

Now, I've got to go repair the hinges on the door of one of the coops before it gets warm enough for predators to start hunting in earnest again. last year, the coop that needs repairing survived several attempts by a black bear to rip it apart and get the chickens from inside during the night. With the shape the hinges are in now, however, I don't think it would keep the bear out. So, it's off to fix them.