The hens get their way

 I have given up trying to train this flock of chickens. Instead, I am letting them train me. They like the molded plastic nest boxes that we put in Coop 2 during the summer. The built-in nest boxes in Coop 1 are somehow less desirable to the hens. They are more desirable to me because the eggs roll out of the boxes and into the storage area, which enables me to get the eggs without getting poop on my shoes. Way back when, we put the exit ramp in the boxes because one of the hens was eating eggs. It’s a difficult habit to break, and the best solution was to get the eggs out of the coop before she could peck at it.

When we move the hens to Coop 1 in the fall, there is always an adjustment period. Some of the hens laid in the nest boxes right away. At least one of the hens made a nest in the wood chip in one corner of the coop. Once there’s one egg in the corner, it triggers other hens to lay there. In previous years, I have tried putting bricks or pieces of wood where the inappropriate laying occurred. This year, we just gave up and put the plastic nest boxes in Coop 1. 

The plastic nest boxes

All the hens started laying in the plastic nest boxes, solving the problem of laying on the floor. 

Frankie in a nest box

The next problem was that Lucky refused to roost on the perch for the night. I could hardly blame her. I’ve been bullied by mean girls too. Lucky roosted instead in the built-in nest boxes. The trouble was that all hens poop during the night, and Lucky was making a mess in the nest box. For a time, I went out after dark to pull Lucky out of the nest box and put her on the perch. After several nights, she roosted on the perch by herself! Happy day! Except in only lasted one night, and she was back in the nest box. This week, I put screens over the built-in nest boxes. No one was using them to lay eggs anyway; we don’t have any egg-eaters at the moment, and I was fed up with moving Lucky every night. Lucky has been on the perch ever since. 

A screen over the built-in nest boxes

We are still in a drought, but we’ve had cloudy days and piddly rains now and then. I’ve kept the dust bath covered so it doesn’t get wet. Yesterday, I noticed Dottie trying (I thought) to dig a hole under the fence and make a break for it. 

Dottie tunneling under the fence

I saw other hens in that corner also. It occurred to me that maybe that maybe that was a spot that wasn’t as damp as the rest of the run, and they were trying to dust bathe. I opened the dust bath up, and Dottie was in there in an instant. By the time I got my camera, Luella had booted Dottie out and was throwing sand all over the place. 

Luella in the dust bath, Dottie looks on with envy

Silvia hung around also, eating gravel.

Silvia pecks at the gravel while waiting her turn

While I was doing the chicken chores, Terry told me to look at the sand pile near Nursery 1. It was full of pock marks, which Terry thought might be signs of birds pecking for gravel.

Pock-marked sand pile

It was a logical hypothesis, but the holes were too big for pecking and too small for dust bathing. There were no wing marks in the sand. The holes were the size a squirrel would make while caching food. I dug into one of them to see if there was a nut buried at the bottom. There was not. I examined the holes more carefully. By golly, they were deer prints. 

Classic heart-shaped deer print

I have no hypothesis for why deer would be having a dance party on a pile of sand. There were also two raccoon prints. 

Two faint raccoon prints

I’m sure there must have been more because the prints were high up on the sand pile, and raccoons don’t fly. The trail had been obliterated by the deer prints. The raccoon was looking for food, likely unsuccessfully on a sand pile. The deer? That’s a mystery. I wish I could see them dance.