I'm trying a crazy experiment with the hens this week. Many of the Learning Farm hens have become "broody" -- this means they are spending a lot of time sitting on their eggs hoping to make them hatch. Although that seems to be the hen's plan, it does not align with the Learning Farm's plan to package their eggs for sale!
We do have a few roosters in the flock, but we collect eggs twice a day and refrigerate them, which stops any fertilized eggs from developing into chicks. This is easy to explain to you, but challenging to communicate to the hens!
Based on my quick research, broodiness is not desirable in a laying flock for several reasons. First, they sometimes peck the volunteer Hen House Helpers -- it's not painful, but it's surprising! Also, broody hens may neglect their own health by not eating or drinking as often as they should, and their egg production may diminish.
Ready for the crazy experiment? I read that broodiness can be curbed by lowering the body temperature of the hen's underside. I read about some labor-intensive ideas for doing this, but came up with an easier, though crazier idea instead. We are going to try to reduce broody behavior by placing plastic eggs containing plastic ice cubes underneath the hens who exhibit the most "pecky" behaviors.
It's so crazy, it just might work! Even if it doesn't it can't hurt to try, and it's been fun learning more about chickens. I never anticipated using my undergraduate psychology degree on chickens . . . .
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My college research methodology professor would not be proud of me -- we didn't keep good records of our "experiment" or measure our results. Each Hen House Helper volunteer dutifully put frozen eggs under the "peckiest" hens, which I'm sure they appreciated regardless of the result because it was HOT at the farm in July. Who knows if our crazy experiment worked, BUT there have been many fewer hens pecking our volunteers when they come to gather eggs. I can't say it was because of our crazy experiment, but in the end we got the desired results. Methodology = F, Results = A. Happy hens, happy volunteers!
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