Broody Cinnamon

Cinnamon is usually a good egg layer. She lays every other day and occasionally two days in a row. Every now and then she would have a broody moment. It only ever took one to two days of shutting her out of the nest box and chicken shed and she was over it. She then resumed laying after two weeks from when she had stopped.

This has been so different. She has now been broody for three weeks even though she is shut out all day, every day. I have wondered if the hot weather had something to do with it. I closed the nest box on the patio as none of the girls were using it anyway. The three bigger girls like the high nest box and Dandelion likes the shed or will lay her egg in the wooden shelter.

I have kept the shed closed until just before the girls like to go in at bedtime which is between half past seven and eight o’clock.

Every morning when I go out to the girls they are all out in the run except for Cinnamon. I lift her down from her perch and put her in the run with some corn.

Cinnamon is like no other broody. What she wants to do is to sit on her perch in the chicken shed all the time with her wings spread wide and her tail up. She doesn’t sit in a suitable place to sit on an egg like your normal broody. You may remember that when she first came into lay she would lay her eggs from the perch. It took her a while to get used to the nest box.

Cinnamon is also an angry broody and will peck me if I pick her up. She chases Flame and Ebony and will sometimes grab their feathers and get pulled along by them as they run from her. I have even seen her jump up and grab Flame’s feathers on the back of her neck. Cinnamon has no concept of her tiny size compared to these much bigger girls.

Occasionally I have let Dandelion in the shed to lay and Cinnamon has run in too. She seems to have a sixth sense for when I open the shed. I tried to get her out but she would peck me. I resorted to using the broom to edge her out and she spread her wings as wide as possible and puffed her self up. I have never seen such an angry bird and that includes Topaz ( my past angry broody) which is really saying something.

The reason I have been trying to break her out of this is because I knew we were going to be away overnight last Monday and again this Saturday. I didn’t want her to spend two days in the chicken shed, in the heat that we have been having, while we were away. Also she eats only the bare minimal amount and for three weeks there has been no poop underneath her roost spot at night.

I thought there would have been plenty of time to break her of this but it seems not and we had to go away and just leave her to it. There was nothing more I could do.

When we got at back at one o’clock on Tuesday aftrnoon Cinnamon was in the chicken shed. I am sure she had been there most of the time we were away but she looked fine. I started the regime again of shutting her out in the faint hope that I might change her behaviour before Saturday when we are away again.

I rather doubt that is going to happen though and think that I will probably just have to accept that she will once again spend most of the time we are away in the chicken shed. At least the forecast is for cooler temperatures this time.

While Cinnamon is shut out of the shed she spends most of time on the high branch perch. She will have a quick dust bath and will also spend some time sitting on the run floor but she is always on high alert if I go near the chicken shed and every time I go in the run she hovers around the shed just in case she can get in.

At bedtime when I open the, Chicken shed, pop hole again Cinnamon can’t get in there quick enough. Dandelion has moved from perching with the chicks to perching back with Cinnamon over the last few nights. I took some photos of last night’s bedtime positions.

Broody Cinnamon

This is how Cinnamon looks all the time. How can a girl be so broody when on a perch! It makes no sense.

The chicks make their way in about half an hour later

The bigger girls

The bigger girls perch here until I come and move them at dusk. They slept out on Monday night as I could tell by the huge amount of poop under this spot. They will no doubt sleep out again on Saturday night too but after that the usual routine will be resumed.

I have never come across a girl quite like Cinnamon and while her behaviour frustrates me I can’t help admiring her at the same time. She is as determined as they come and is afraid of neither me or the bigger girls. She is definitely one of a kind and is very much her own special character.