Naughty hen - help please!

[zanush]

Hi, I'm a newbie and just after a little advice please.

I have 8 chickens - 4 ex batts, 2 Silverline and 2 Bluebells. One of my ex batts is a nightmare chicken.

They are all allowed the run of the garden all day, well from about 7am to 7pm when they take themselves off to bed. When they want to lay, they go back into their houses, sit in the nesting boxes and off they go. Except for one ex batt, Houdini.

She spends a good 6 hours a day trying to escape the garden. I realised on Tuesday that she is doing it so she can get out the front to lay. Between the wall/fence of our house and next door (there is a hedge between us, our fence sides onto his garage wall) I found 11 eggs, so she has obviously been laying there for a while. I hadn't realised before that she was doing it because I have only just reclipped her wings and she was obviously jumping/flying back over the fence once she'd laid. Since she was clipped, she still manages to get over, but comes to the front door and squawks to be let back in.

Over the last couple of days, I have tried letting everyone but her out, but I swear she just does laps of her house and run and almost crosses her legs in an effort not to lay. And as soon as I do let her out, she runs so quickly up the garden, hops the fence.. and well, I've explained that bit.

How can I stop her doing this? She just doesn't listen and she is driving me mad. And you can be sure that whenever a neighbour knocks on the door to tell me I have an escaped chicken, it's her. She doesn't go near the road or anything, just heads to various people's front gardens and squawks at their doors to be let in. I think she thinks she's human.

The others are all good hens and get praise, but I seem to spend half my life telling her off.. I even introduced her to the oven this morning to tell her what would happen to her, but it makes no difference.

(She also drives me mad by coming in through the cat flap and settling herself in the cat litter tray in the conservatory and eating the cat's food)

Is there anything I can do? Or do I just have a very naughty chicken?

Thanks!

[di]

I think you have a very naughty...yet equally as amusing chook!
One of ours insists on laying her eggs in the compost heap.She hops over the fence,lays her egg,has a tiny bit of a walk about and then gets herself back in the run.
Like yours,if I prevent her from getting out you can almost see her crossing her legs to keep the egg in
Good Luck trying to get her to change,'fraid I can offer no ideas but will be watching this thread with interest.x

[Nicos]

Has she ever had chicks???

I'm only asking because Betty used to dao exactly the same thing...until I let her brood.
3 wks sitting followed by 6-8 weeks caring for her young seemed to break the habit.
Just a thought- it might be worth encouraging her to sit ( with 11 eggs already she must be almost ready!) and buy some fertile eggs esp for her.
Of course you'd have to be capable of sorting out any male chicks/cockerels when the time came

At least she comes home!!!( worry is stray dogs etc isn't it!!)

She's not being naughty at all- infact she's being an exceptionally wonderful mom- trying to stop you from nicking her eggs!

[its hilly]

Sorry cant help but laugh, a chicken that comes to the front door to be let back in, thats priceless. If you find an answer let me know, I've had the same problem with my goose. Except that she was flying (one wing clipped or not) over the fence out onto the building site next door, where she would rapidly have 'vanished' if the builders were there. (Got the geese to stop the builders coming around the buildings and borrowing tools and nicking my eggs from under the broody, it works too). Ive had to confine them to a big pen with extremely high fencing, which I'm not happy about, and which stopped her laying. Although it looks she is now building a nest in their house and has laid so she may now keep coming back to that..fingers crossed.