Breakaway Hens
December 7th, 2015 · No Comments · Posted in farming
I moved our mobile chicken coop from the orchard to an area next to the main paddock to be closer to water and electricity for the winter. Our Rhode Island Red laying hens made themselves right at home–except for two, who seem to prefer the confines of the neighboring paddock.
Chickens might range, but normally they return to the coop each night to roost. Not these two. They seem determined to make a new home for themselves in an area normally reserved for sheep and cows.
What are they eating? I’m not sure. I fill the feeder for the other hens each morning. The two renegades just watch from the other side of the paddock fence. I see them stretching their necks to drink from the big plastic tub I keep filled for the other livestock.The two spend their days scratching around the paddock, so I guess they are finding enough food to sustain them.
The best part of this arrangement from my point of view are the eggs. The Reds have developed a bad habit of eating the eggs that get left in the laying boxes. I have to check hourly to collect them before they’re cannibalized, with only moderate success. Meanwhile, the hens in the paddock (sometimes they’re joined by a third) make they’re own nests in the hay bales inside the walk-in shelter and lay eggs unmolested.
Currently they’re jumping the gate into our Jersey cow’s milking parlor and nesting there.
Can this arrangement possibly last through the winter? I don’t see how these breakaway hens can survive unless I set up a separate feeder for them.
What goes on in the mind of a chicken is a mystery.
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