How to waterboard a chicken

Life is never dull at Brown Wren Acres.

This past week we've have a chicken go "broody" on us.

Broody?

Yup, she wants to sit on eggs and hatch them. She wants to nest more than eating and drinking.

Problem: we have no rooster. In order to have baby chicks you've got to have a rooster.

Poor Suzie

She only wants to sit in her nesting box with her tail feathers sticking out.

We tried every solution we could read about, on the web, from other crazy chicken people.

We put ice cubes in the nesting box, separated her from the nesting box, and left the nesting box open to a cool breeze. All things that were supposed to keep her from brooding. She only wanted to nest.

The last solution was . . . chicken water boarding.

Hubs had to gently grab her, keeping her feathers held in tightly.

We filled the wheelbarrow up with water and he slowly dunked her in and rotated her so all feathers (except from the neck up) got wet. See how dirty the water is? That is dirt from her feathers because she was digging holes all around our yard to make a nest in.

Poor Suzie.

Well, now that her tail feathers are cooled off, she's happily browsing for grubs and worms again. Well, not happily. She squawked and snorted at us to let us know she did not appreciate her tail feathers being cooled off.

Really, Suzie, I know how you feel. I love to nest. Sometimes I like to nest more than I like to eat or drink. And if someone grabbed me and stuck my tail feathers into cold water, I would be a bit upset too. Go ahead and squawk, girl. I've got your back.

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