Here's how to play:
1- Acquire a peculiar strain of chicken (like a 6 toed Silkie chicken!) That happens to have its brooding instinct intact. What is a "brooding instinct" you ask?? Well it is a bird's biological clock that switches on and tells her "time to sit on those damn eggs!" Almost all domestic chickens have had this instinct bred out of them, but not Silkie hens!! So you get to enjoy all the fun of playing "psycho chicken"-- aka: Broody Chicken Go!
2- You will know that your chicken has gone broody when it gets into the nest and never, ever comes out. You can remove the eggs--nothing changes--back in nest. You can also tell your chicken is "broody" because A) they become nasty B) they are "hot". Not sexy hot--just hot to the touch!! Nature's true incubators...their body temperature actually goes up to feverish!
3- Finding the broody chicken is not the hard part--making her "GO" is. Like "get off the nest and go outside--you ain't having any imaginary babies." The fun part is that the chicken will not listen to you. So you try and remove the hot-to-the-touch chicken and they will peck you, if not you--then they will peck the other chickens and blame them for everything wrong with their world. (One chicken blogger refers to this stage as "chicken PMS").
4- One way to distract your hormone crazed broody chicken is to keep scattering treats in the yard. The logic here is, that the more they run around in the fresh air, they will actually cool down and reverse the bizarre cycle...But this requires more "go" from me, as I throw cracked corn, grapes and seeds into the enclosure on a frequent schedule.
5- Lastly, be sure to avoid obstacles. Just today, as I was scattering treats in proper urban farmer attire (bohemian skirt and dangly ethnic earrings) I completely entangled myself in the deer netting above the chicken run. My earring was hopelessly caught and twisted in the netting, trapping me in said chicken yard. In the meantime, a contractor was scheduled to arrive at any moment to install a new bedroom door. As I pondered how to explain, "sorry I can't come to the door right now-- I am trapped in deer netting"...I managed to sacrifice the jewelry piece in order to escape the hormone crazed broody chicken about to attack my shins...Now that's a real "GO" game!!!
