Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Friday, 3 April 2009

Stopping a very broody hen!

As I previously mentioned , Violet Dorking had gome madly broody...dunking her bum in icy water didn't help, and she was severely disrupting the other Dorking girls in their life and egg laying...so she had a 2 day spell in the "anti hormonal hen" pen....aka a double insulated plastic rabbit hutch, with no bedding, but lots of water and food...

She REALLY did NOT like this and screetched like a mad hen non stop for a few hours, then settled down to a low key grumble for another few hours...and then stopped being broody.

I let her out after 24 hours and she is back to normal, laying and free ranging and being her usual delightful self.

So...as Sweetiepie is also mad broody hen, guess who is in the "anti hormonal hen pen" now?

Quiet reigns in the orchard, at last ;-)
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10 comments:

  1. The Three Little Bears4 April 2009 at 01:42

    lol - your original blog intrigued me so much I told everyone that would listen "do you know I might have to dunk my hen's bums in ice water?"

    They all think I've gone stark-raving mad. lol.

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  2. A Green and Rosie Life4 April 2009 at 13:47

    If only you could send them over here - I want a broody so I can try and get some chicks - the boys will love that but in nearly a year of chicken keeping we have had just one broody - in December!

    Rosie x

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  3. Margaret's Ramblings4 April 2009 at 21:13

    You do lead the most interesting life, LOL. I can't wait to meet all these girls in person. But no dunking in ice cold water please.

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  4. Compostwoman5 April 2009 at 19:12

    Tee hee these comments have made me laugh !

    Lol :-)

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  5. Antoinette7 April 2009 at 00:06

    Goodness me. I remember this kind of thing when we had chooks when I was a child. One of ours would go completely AWOL and was an incredibly cunning escapee.

    Love the sound of the 'anti-hormonal hen pen' - sounds like a 'sin bin'. heh.

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  6. Compostwoman7 April 2009 at 00:23

    It has worked, too...both are resopred to "normality" whatever that is for my chooks!

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  7. Bel12 April 2009 at 09:21

    Great! We happened to do this same thing to a too-long broody girl this past week. It worked a treat. :)

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  8. Hen28 April 2009 at 16:08

    I have to say, this made me a bit jealous! I'd love one of our girls to go broody, but maybe we just need to have a bit more patience :)

    Hen

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  9. Compostwoman28 April 2009 at 23:40

    Hen , if you want a broody Dorking and a cockerel, just come and get them!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hen29 April 2009 at 07:58

    seriously? that would be amazing!!!

    I'll email you if that's ok?

    Hen

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Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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