Maybe chickens just never like to do what you want them too? Not like I have any idea why this is happening!

My chickens also frequently crowd together on one end of their various roosts for no reason I can determine. One coop they will all be at the east end, the next coop in line, they're all pushing and shoving to roost to the west... ?

Maybe they want a nice window treatment? You have a very nice hen house. Mine like to croud onto the higher roosts.

I am reading this thread in total awe. Always wanted chickens but I live in the City limits and they won't allow it. Not being one to follow the rules, how loud can hens be?? What if I just had one?

More cities are allowing small numbers of backyard hens, check with your powers that be to see if there is anything in the works. If not, maybe rattle some cages.

Thought I may as well continue this thread with my newest chicken question. One of my hens (buff orpington) is setting on eggs, which is fine, I plan to let her go ahead and hatch them out. I've been reading up on after-care and it appears I don't have to do much, just let the hen take care of the chicks. Couple questions:

1) Do I need to worry about the little guys falling off the chicken ladder? The base of the chicken door is about 2' off the ground, with about a 6-8" wide closed ladder to the ground. I suppose I could put some chips below it to cushion them if they do fall off. Or will the mom prevent them from adventuring outside until they are feathered out?

2) It makes sense to me to provide a chick feeder and chick waterer, both low enough to the ground for the little buggers to get to them. My regular feeder and waterer are up off the ground a good 6" so the chicks wouldn't have any way to get to them until they got bigger. If I offer them chick feed rather than layer feed, will the adult hens mob that? Not sure if one is more palatable than the other?

3) Should I build a pen for the chicks that the mom could get in and out?

I'm not sure if anything will even come of this, but I'm willing to give it a shot. It's my understanding the hatching time is about 3 weeks or so and she's been setting for about a week. Not sure how many eggs she is sitting on, but guessing about 8 or so (my daily harvest before she went broody). I've provided an alternate nest box for the other hens, but they seem to just keep laying eggs in the same box with the brooder (it's a large double-seater nest box) or creating their own nests. Every day is an Easter egg hunt...

P.S. Yes, I still have my nasty rooster. My latest thought is if this chicken hatching experiment works, THEN he gets the boot. He's as mean as ever, but is too large now to fly out of the yard so he can't do much other than strut along the fence line and scowl at me.

Deb, i am by no means an expert or even very knowledgable but I'm pretty sure we isolated the new chicks with mom for awhile. I think nasty rooster is prone to attacking them. I could be wrong though.

You might have a problem if new eggs are being layed in the nest with the other ones. You might mark the original eggs with a pencil and just take out any new ones each day, leaving the marked eggs to hatch. I would separate them after they hatch or else mom will be working overtime trying to protect them. Good luck, they are fun. It takes 3 weeks for most of them, but some might take a day extra, and some might be hatched a day early.

I can't get underneath her to figure out how many she's setting on -- well, to be truthful I just don't like being pecked at so haven't given it much effort. I figured once she hatches some chicks, I'll just toss any eggs that might be left over. The eggs I am able to retrieve from the other hens are close to her but not underneath her, and are cool to the touch so I assume they are freshies. I check a couple times a day, and the nest box has a hinged roof so it is easy to sneak a peek without bothering her too much. The other hens are also starting to use my make-shift cardboard-box- on-its-side nest box.

Perhaps a side bonus -- I've had 3-4 birds regularly huddling up together inside the nest box at night since they were babies. I've noticed that there is considerably less droppings in there lately, so perhaps the broody hen is claiming it as her territory and chasing them away at night.

That's the problem with having other hens lay eggs in her nest. She might add the new egg and kick out one that was partly hatched. Sometimes they get too many eggs to keep them all warm, and you get a really poor hatch if any. Put on a glove if the picking is too harsh. Or put some chicken wire up to keep the others out, you can take it down in the evenings so she can get off the nest and eat and drink.

Tom, you hit that one right - the other hens keep laying along side her, and she is trying to hatch everything. I keep picking out those eggs that are not marked, but am now sometimes finding a marked egg out in the cold. I also don't feel it is good to keep bothering her by rummaging around underneath her to see what she's sitting on. I have a feeling this may just be a failure. No big deal, I don't need any more chickens, I was going for the experience more than anything. I should have somehow isolated her as you suggested. Live and learn. I'll let her keep setting for another week and hopefully she'll hatch out at least a couple little chicks. If not, I'll just keep the nest box free of eggs and let her unbroody (is there a correct term for this?). This particular hen went broody right after she started laying last summer and it took her a long time to get back into regular mode.

Question: is there any way to tell if an egg is fresh or has started developing? We've been cracking eggs into a cup before use or giving any questionable ones to the dog. I haven't yet run into anything too weird but figure my time will come.

You can candle them to see if they are developing. You don't need a fancy egg candler to do that, just cut an oval hole in a piece of cardboard, about half the size of the eggs. Put it over a light source and place the egg on the hole and look for a shadow of the chick. Toward the end hardly any light will come through at all. I ususally do this in a dark room. If nothing hatches, you can still set her in an isolated spot with a new bunch of eggs. I used to set two hens at once, then give all the chicks to one hen and re-start the other hen with more eggs. Don't worry about bothering her, she will be fine.

Hi everyone, thank God I found you. I am glad to see so many old faces here. Some of you know me from the Grumpy thread complaining about the neighbor's range chickens.

We had chickens for years here on the farm and got rid of them when they became too much to handle with the other animals and full time jobs. I do not remember some of the things I am going to ask. I do however remember the hens wanting to sit the eggs which we seldom allowed since we had plenty of chickens, but I also bred and raised exotic birds for 10 years and although poultry and exotic birds are different in some ways, they are still birds and some things are just basic.

@Bonehead, Hi, I love your story about your chickens and what a great looking rooster. Wow. If we wanted to hatch eggs we would candle them and remove them and put them in the incubator because it was so difficult keeping the eggs separated from the other hens if she gets off to eat another hen will lay for sure. You can mark the eggs but the hen will keep rolling them around (turning) because the eggs need to be moved to be sure the chicks develop properly. If she has too many eggs in the nest she can not keep turning them. In an incubator you can put an x on one side and a 0 on the other side so you can remember if you moved them or not. It is difficult to mark all eggs in a nest used by more than one hen.
It takes 21 days if I remember to hatch and then the chicks need to be taught how to eat. Forgive me for giving all this info if you have already gone over it. I read many of the posts but I could have missed one because I really came here to ask a question about Range chickens.

I have four 5 ft. boxes I fill with flowers and also some large containers for the barn yard. Last year the neighbor's chickens were just little and flew over the fence a few times using the one big container by the fence as a ladder to help them get up high enough to fly over the fence. They are not dumb. They picked at the plants but I do not think they ate them, at least not that I could tell. I need to know what flowers they DON'T eat. So far they have destroyed all our tulips and bluebells from scratching and picking. They do not bother the daffodils but I am talking violas, petunias, pansies or something like that is what I usually put into the boxes for color and they last almost all summer.

The hens have now made my yard their home and I hate tramping in that chicken poop when they are not my chickens. I am a bird person and I feed my backyard birds all summer to keep the cardinals and the finches breeding in my big arborvitaes beside the house...now the hens sleep and perch In them also and do not go home to the chicken house. One hen and the rooster are in the house at night....the other 8 are now MY chickens to deal with. City people who want to be farmers make me crazy. He thinks it is funny since he got those chickens for his son and son could care less about chickens and does not remember to feed or water them unless told. I am sorry for rambling. Just need to go buy plants for my boxes so when our company comes Mother's Day they look good. Have no clue what they do not eat. HELP PLEASE. I do love chickens but when they are controlled and fed properly.

Try marigolds, most animals don't like them. Often they will dig out plants while digging for worms and insects, or taking a dust bath.

I've also heard they will leave lavender and mint alone, although I have no first-hand knowledge if this is true or not.

I thought Perdue fed his chickens marigolds? If so, that would not work for sure.

Maybe only the blooms... Makes the egg yolks orange.

I just googled what plants don't chickens eat and considering I want to plant the boxes for color, I am very limited. Those suckers eat like goats.

Well, that means a good fence is in order. As the saying goes, good fences make good neighbors.