Are our Chickens Still Not Laying Eggs?
If you are wondering if we have any eggs yet, the answer is no. No we have none. All of zero eggs in over 3 weeks. We have run out of our egg provisions and I am desperately trying to think of meals without eggs until we get past this disaster.
So the question is, what are chickens useful for when they aren’t laying eggs? Well, their bedding makes good compost and mulch so there is that. But what else can we do with them?
Are Chickens Useful For Anything Besides Eggs?
Well, after much research, it turns out that they are also great for caring for the garden! As long as they are in there before you plant any seeds, chickens can be great for bug control and tilling your garden beds. So we decided then and there that we were going to put them to work!
The only issue was, our chickens aren’t free range. Especially not in the spring with predators are coming out of their winter dens and are hungry and mean (I mean you would be hangry too if you spent the past several months not eating).
But this presented a problem with trying to get the chickens from their safe little fenced coop to the fenced garden.
How To Herd Chickens
Option 1: build a chicken tunnel (aka a “Chunnel”)
Basically, the idea is to make a tunnel out of chicken wire to lead the chickens from the coop to the garden.
We tried this option once. Because it sounded like a good idea. It kept the chickens safe and enclosed and got them into the garden all on their own..Only our gardens are quite a ways from our coop. we got about halfway, trying to make our chicken wire stretch as far as we could. And we ran out. And being cheap, we didn’t want to buy more for something we didn’t know would work or not.
Okay, What Else?
Option 2: Guide the chickens into the garden with treats.
This requires the chickens to work their way out of the coop and come into the garden on their own by you going into the garden and calling them in whatever treat call you might do.
I tried this to. The problem is. Chickens are very stupid animals. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. They figured out how to get out of the coop. Took quite awhile but they managed.
Eventually, they slowly made their way to the garden, stopping to get distracted by bugs and flowers along the way.
And that’s where all progress stopped. Those chickens could not figure out how to get into the garden. Not only could they not find the 4 foot wide, open gate, they couldn’t even figure out that the fence was only 3 feet high and then can jump right over it. What did they do? they started running back and forth, in a right panic because they simply couldn’t get to the treats until they just gave up.
So What's The Last Option?
So that left us with our final option.
Option 3: Chase those chickens down, grab them, and take them to the garden.
As brutal as this option seems, we figured it would all be okay because we would be taking them to a literal buffet of bugs and weeds to enjoy!
The Plan: Get them into the chicken run where there were less places to hide, corner them, grab them, put them in a box to transport to the garden.
Easy, right?
Heh.
Can You Herd Chickens
It turns out that yes, you can herd chickens in this way, sometimes. Really, it depends on the chicken. But it takes a lot of running around in circles in a chicken coop, looking far more ridiculous than the chickens.
It also turns out that chicken can fly quite well when they are in a desperate panic. And every time we would get close to a chicken, they would fly in our faces in a flurry of feathers and loud squawks.
As much as we tried to tell them we weren’t trying to hurt them, we just wanted to take them to a heavenly place of chicken dreams, these chickens were having none of it.
Did We Catch Any Chickens?
I am absolutely the worst chicken catcher. Likely do to my gentle nature holding me back from wanting to hurt the chickens in the process. I just didn’t have the quick skills to grab those chickens.
My husband, however, trained in many a video game, has those quick acting ninja skills needed to grab the chickens. He was even thrilled to find he could grab them in the air when they started flying, which, in chicken video game speak is probably somewhere around level 10.
In all, we caught 5 of the 8 chickens and called it good.
So Everything Worked Out, Right?
Well, on the bright side, the chickens seemed quite happy, even if they did run away from us for the next week or so.
On the not-so-bright side, those chickens found a lovely spot under the apple tree, nowhere close to the actual gardens to reside. They dug and ate to their hearts content. But never once touched the actual gardens.
Which is why, chickens will always be problematic.