Bird Brain

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Our chicken Lydia is a strange creature.  She doesn't seem to live in the same universe, or play by the same rules as our other birds.  Even when she was a baby, she was an odd little thing.

Recently, Robb rebuilt the nesting boxes, because Lydia had decided that sleeping on the box-edges was preferable to sleeping on a perch.  I don't have particularly strong feelings about where our hens should sleep, except that hens are night-time poop factories, and I don't want them crapping on their eggs.

After some experimentation, Robb attached military surplus webbing to the fronts of the nest boxes.  This keeps the nesting material in place, which cushions the eggs.  It is also just flimsy enough to dissuade hens from perching.

We thought we'd resolved Lydia's confusion about nest boxes. 




Until we noticed the gigantic hole that she'd dug in the chicken litter.  Lydia's winter egg-laying hiatus had ended.

It would seem that Lydia kicked up quite a fuss in the process of laying this first egg of the season.  We keep a "dummy" egg in the nest boxes, to help our simpleminded hens remember where to lay their eggs.

Lydia had knocked that reminder egg all the way across the hen house.

Yeah, she's a strange one, our Lydia.




Want to see what's up in other gardens?  Mosey on over to Daphne's place.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Quirky animals make it interesting. Sounds like she is showing you how she thinks things should go!
Bee Girl said…
Lol...yep, hens can be strange, for sure! Ours will go in waves of not laying in the nesting boxes an, instead, lay in the farthest corner of the coop. Once one of them does it, the rest follow! I think they just like messing with us! ;-)
Unknown said…
I removed our nesting box as neither of our hens will use it. Fortunately, they lay at one end of the coop and roost at the other.
LOL But glad she has started laying again. Thanks for saying hi on our blog, I've just brought a spinning wheel to learn to spin wool off Tex the ram and knit a jumper for Brent. Tex is a texel pedigree ram.
Love Leanne
Norma Chang said…
Lydia is quite a character must be fun to observe her. How does she interact with the other hens?
Liz said…
I love the idea of hens having such strong personalities - makes for a fun chicken shed.

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