Last month I spent quite a bit of time off island waiting for my 2nd grandchild & 1st grand~daughter to arrive ~ which she finally did in due course, somewhat overdue.
The man is reasonably competent when left in charge of my menagerie. He can feed the cats, collect the eggs, throw grain in the pen, & be relied upon to get the cats inside @ night. However he is far less confident about herding chooks so if I'm away the girls stay penned. Usually that is not more than one night & I give them a run before I leave & as soon as I get home so they don't fare too badly but this time I was absent for several nights & all that kept my girls penned was they were as leery of the man as he was of them. They were desperate to get out.
By the time they spotted me there was a great flap~ a doodle~doo & much excitement but I quickly discovered I had a problem. In my absence one of my Rocks went broody & was fending off all comers to the nesting box.
Strange as it may seem I had never had to deal with a broody chook before & given it was my most placid & timid bird all fluffed out & pecking at anything that moved I was more than a little wary. A large wire cage I did not have. I spent a day tying to oust her from the nest but you've never met a determined animal until you have dealt with a broody chook. In the end, as she wasn't laying, I hoyed her out of the pen on her own & let the rest of the girls get on with their business. She was not a happy bird. She sat on the nesting box roof. She squatted by the pen door. She clucked & she huffed & she made a to~do but in the end she saw things my way.
I have bought some wire. I ran it from the verandah to the coop so my girls are now contained on the hill & when I go away in January, as I always do, the man should be able to manage the girls & let them out once he has the day's eggs. He is not sounding over~confident but chooks are creatures of habit. They'll come home each night for the food. He just has to remember the food bit.