...and that's ok...
Let me tell you a story about my chickens.....
My husband bought us 7 adorable chicks to raise. This is my first batch of chickens...
But there are certain universal behaviors that one can expect from chickens.
1) Chickens put themselves to bed at dusk.
2) Chickens nest to lay eggs...
We moved the chickens into the coop when it came time, and they happily and readily accepted it as their home. They put themselves to bed each night....
Nevermind that it was THE SAME BED......
I tried to make an appealing bed in the nest boxes by adding straw....
However, ALL the straw ended up on the floor.... Chickens insisted: NO straw in the nestboxes!!
The hens began to lay, and I continually found their eggs NOT in the nestboxes!!
Change is hard.....
I had to accept that my hens preferred to lay their eggs in the "upstairs" landing of the coop. The change to anywhere else was just too hard!
So, I put straw in the "upstairs... and in the nestboxes...
Do you want to guess where it ended up??
 |
| NO straw! WHY is there STRAW in my nestbox?? |
NOT in either of those places!
I was getting concerned about the hens staying warm as the temperatures dropped. I though, maybe NOW is the time for straw!
I Wanted to work with that nesting instinct. I had seen them nest the grass... So, this time, instead of putting loose straw in, I put it in as a flake!!
I put one flake "upstairs", and 2 flakes in the nestboxes.
...and I waited....
It took them a whole week, this time (as opposed to 2 days previously) to kick ALL of the straw in the nestboxes out on the floor.....
For a week, they sat NEXT to the upstairs flake, and continued to lay on the bare wood.
I'm told chickens aren't that smart...
Finally, one day, the flake began to look different!!
One hen had created a hollow and started laying in the straw!!
Another week, and ALL the hens were laying in the straw!
No more worry about eggs rolling off!
 |
| SUCCESS!! |
One of these things was just too big for my hens to change. I don't know why, but it just is.
The other, I was able to use her current habit to HELP establish the new behavior, rather than work AGAINST the current habit!
If we can find a way to make the steps small enough that they work WITH our current habits, we can make change just a little bit easier....
Change is hard.
And it's ok that change is hard.
However, change is still POSSIBLE!
In order for the change to be more successful, make it small. Make it work with your current habits. Make that teeny tiny shift it's own new habit... Then, build from there!
Are you ready?
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