Remember when we had all the bantam chickens and we gave them all away and the night our friend was here getting them all, one flew out in the woods and escaped the transfer and then several days later, she showed up again and we still have her but she’s the meanest little hen ever. I don’t even know why I keep her. She aggravates the heck out of me. First, she lays her eggs in the food container. Why? All those nesting boxes and she flies up to the top of the container, perches herself right there and lays her egg. Vince sometimes takes food out and he forgets to look and fills the container with food and then a week later, the food has been eaten down and there’s an egg and I’m not sure if it’s old or new so I toss it.
Bantam Hen
Worse is when she’s sitting on eggs (like now). She can stretch her neck about three boxes down and grab my hand. Almost every day she draws blood. Last night, I went to see how many eggs were under her because if I don’t watch her, she’ll end up with 20 or more eggs and I do not need 20 or more baby chicks! Last night, I thought I had her distracted with my right hand and I was reaching under her with the left hand but she outsmarted me and turned and grabbed my left hand. I yanked it back, causing her to tear the skin because she had already latched on but in the process, I hit the top of the door with my hand and it was already turning blue by the time I got back to the house. None of my other hens are mean like that. I figure that I should keep her . . she tried so hard to stay here when we were loading up all the other chickens, but she really needs to be nicer. Who thinks that’s going to happen?
Sunday, she was sitting on 7 eggs in nest #6. Monday, she had moved. She was sitting on 7 eggs in nest #4 so I marked the eggs in nest #4 and threw out/wasted the 7 eggs that had been in nest #6. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s added more eggs because I should be getting about a dozen eggs per day and I got ONE yesterday and I see eggs poking out from under her .. too many eggs for one little chicken.
Next time I go out there, if she’s changed nests . . I’m taking all the eggs and not letting her have babies!!
chanzy01 says
Just a thought but maybe if you let her have three or four babies to worry about she will get over being so mean. They might just distract her enough to stop trying to peck you and being a mom might make her nicer. If it doesn’t you can always give them away. Good luck. Rina
Bon says
Maybe she just needs to be Sunday dinner.
Dar in MO says
I was going to say the same thing. GIve her a number of marked eggs, and take away the rest. You might even give her some wooden eggs (lol). I would use an oven mitt when taking any eggs. I;m not fond of having my hand bit and bleeding. She does look like a pretty chicken though.
Roberta says
I’m late to this but didn’t you have a time out pen where you put injured birds to heal??? why not put her there with eggs you really want chickens from and just feed and water her. Would she stay that way???