Moody Broody

I have just taken into protective custody a neighbours broody hen and her last remaining chick from a brood of eight, the remainder being picked off, one by one, by an unknown chick thief to sadly be gobbled up. Now the broody and her adorable week old chick were in dire need of help, but you try explaining that to a chicken.

Having trained my own chickens to 'come here', 'go there', 'not that way', 'stand still and let me pick you up so I can cuddle you' I had forgotten just how difficult a wilful chicken can be.

Firstly it, in order to deploy the vital trick of waiting until they'd gone to bed to catch them, I had to hang around the chicken coop for an hour before dusk to make sure the chick thief didn't get there before I did. Once the pop hole was closed I had to climb into a very small and smelly coop and close the door behind me and whilst sitting cross legged on poop in a too small space, try to snatch up a small and astonishingly fast chick amidst the squawking and flapping of half a dozen chickens and a cockerel who were non too pleased to see me in their bedroom and an outraged broody.

Once the chick was installed in my pocket and the broody held firmly in my arms (squawking as though I was murdering her) I put them both in a broody coop with my girls and hoped that tomorrow she wouldn't be as difficult.

So just how hard is it to train your chicken ?