The main thins is to tame them. Our hens are so tame that when ever you go into the coop they will fly up on your shoulder like a parrott and will ballance themselves there as long as you let them. My 9 year old son has taught one to balance on his palm and we pick them up and pet them everytime we go into the coop, while we are doing this we are checking wings /legs and bottoms and checking for mites and parasites ect.....we also give them all kinds of goodies from corn on the cob to weeds pulled up from the garden/they love cucmbers/tomatoes/swiss chard/pumpkin and their very favorite is a Japanese Beetle soup that hubby gives them after a sucsessfull hour of grabing Japanese Beetles off the fruit trees and plants in the garden. He drowns the beetles in a 2 liter bottle filled with water then just pours the drowned beetles into a aluminum pie pan and they go nuts.........lots of luck...with Polly....Josette

it has been four days, we had a bit of excitement the second nite when one did fly out. but now they are going to bed with the others just fine. the second nite we had the chickens, one flew over the fence and I ran into the woods after it. there me and the dog, Dot, are running this little road runner around the woods. I got caught in a briar bush and lost site of them. and i'm thinking I am 37 years old and I am stuck in the woods at nite in a briar bush. LOL but I was really haveing fun whadda ya think is wrong with me. anyway I hollered out to my hubbie who wasn't doing anything but standing at the edge of the woods, he has a bit more sense then I do I reckon. I hollered out "I can't see them and I'm stuck." He said dot's got it cornered and god bless her she did. she didn't put a tooth on it, she just cornered it under some brush. I am sure she could have gotten a hold of it if she had wanted to. and she certainly was excited about the whole event. I was able to just reach down and pick it up and it of course was screaming its head off. S dot ran along beside us so excited, I still am not sure why she didn't grab that bird. If It hadn't been for her I NEVER would have caught it. She sure is a good dog, she actually listens better then my girls LOL. We had clipped the wings, but obviously they were still able to fly some, so hubbie started to clip it a little more then we nicked her and it started bleeding. We felt just awful. but she seems fine, and they haven't tried to fly out since. I wonder if the ordeal of being chased through the woods by a dog not much bigger then her and a crazy women scared her outta her naturel instincts. LOL chicken ingenue

Congrats on your chickens! And yes, having chicks IS more exciting than eggs. :) I've got a chicken info site here that can answer a lot of your questions: http://jackshenhouse.com/ But as for broody hens, they are easy to spot: They will sit on a nest (eggs or not) for hours on end, seemingly in a trance. They will come off the nest once or twice a day to eat, drink, poop (huge, stinky!) and maybe dust bathe, then go back. They will be fluffed up and emit rapid fire 'cluck-cluck-cluck' sounds, growling/shrieking at anyone or anything that approaches them, and generally be grumpy. :) What you can do to ease your hens' worries about taking her eggs is to take a moment and praise her for it. After all, it IS a big deal. :) I do it for my girls when they are especially proud of the eggs they've laid. Sounds silly, but they do understand it and it seems to calm them. You can crack any egg into a dish and tell if it is fertile, just look for the white spot on the yolk. If it is big and has rough, undefined edges, it is called the 'blastodisc' and is NOT fertile. Fertile eggs will have a more defined, round, doughnut-like germinal disc that is now called the 'blastoderm'. Pictures and more info here, read the section called 'Fresh Egg Breakout': http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b1166-w.html I've done it with mine (refrigerated or fresh didn't matter), it worked even without letting the egg sit as brendan said. I just cracked mine into a small dish. Also as brendan said, breed differences don't matter--if your roo can make the climb, love will find a way. :) Velvet ~:>

Got a little bit more time, tonight to respond to the nice comments and the time some of you took, like 'idiothe'! You're SO RIGHT, I know, about the work that is ahead for me, in the not-so-distant future, but I just love the closeness of a sea of hosta! I'd rather have the instant gratification and then have to figure out what to do later, I guess. I can't wait till I'm begging people to take some divisions! I have several who have asked me "do you ever divide your hosta?" and I feel really *small* saying, "not yet"!! Not that I haven't shared, but some of my hosta are relatively new to my area, since I've only been about gathering them the past 5 summers, and I love the huge clumps they can eventually be! Phil--now that you've kidded me about 'showing off' I kinda feel like it probably does look like I am. And, I suppose I am, because I am so pleased at what all the work I've done has turned out to be, in a relatively short time!! I thought it would take me many more years to have it come together as it has, and I want you all, who are just starting out, to know you will be so thrilled with the outcome in less than 3-5 years, in my experience!!! So keep up the hard work and just know it WILL be worth it!!!! Paul--look into my eyes----you want more and more and more hosta, along with a wonderful variety of companion plantings!!! Is it working? hahaha Alexis--thank you again for your generous praise---and be careful of what you ask for! I'm easy!!! 'Threedogsmom', the only amending I do is on the surface with compost that is mixed with aged cow manure, and sometimes some alfalfa pellets sprinkled around the plants. And, I try to water them at least once a week, but don't always, especially if it rains, of course! Rain is always better for plants, over ground water and I love it when by the time I've made the rounds, the first hosta watered are already standing much taller! I have to also tell, you '3dogs' that every year that I use that composted stuff the soil is so much more improved!! I've always ground up my Fall leaves and put them on the beds, and the clay areas I've done that are nice and very black, with the clay seeming to recede down about 6" or more. With the composted stuff now being applied--just one year made a huge difference in an area out front that last year I could not get a shovel to take a bite, with me jumping on it! This year, it is now very workable!!! Amazing stuff!!! Going for more of it this week! Oh, and Dan--(one of my 'inspirational gardeners'), my pots usually do fine over the winter, but in '07 with the weird pre-mature Spring we had, I lost over 35 hosta, and many of those were in the whiskey barrels, too! Most of the others were in pots I hadn't planted yet, but I did have them tipped, to no avail that year!!! What I do, do, is plant them in pine-bark mulch that I've sent through our wood-chipper, since I can't buy pine fines or 'soil conditioner' in my area. I do add about 1/3 compost to the mix and usually I have no problems with them--AND, (a big 'AND') I've discovered that any barrel or pot will have a better chance of hosta-survival if it is in direct contact with the ground, not sitting on anything to level them or support them. In fact, I have 'planted' all my large pots, and barrels at least 2" deep (in-ground), and more deeply with the pots--up to 1/3 of the pot deep!! I think they stay more consistent a temp that way!!! I use to have my barrels on a triangle we made of treated lumber to prevent them from deteriating but find that probably is why I lost what I did in '07! Oh, and make sure to drill 1/4" (at least) holes around the sides of the barrels, every 8" or more about 6" from the bottoms and make sure there's drainage in the bottoms!I now cover the big hole in the bottom with 1/4" screening to deter voles!!! Again--thank you, all I've not addressed, so far--Lisa, Melissa, msjo, Mary, ptilda, sassy, Queenie, Starina, Carol, (Oh, I know I'm going to leave someone out--I'm sorry if I do!)--thank you ALL, for your enthusiastic comments, making me feel really good about my efforts!!! Okay--this time, I'm done!!