10 Things I Hate About You (poultry version)

[Cheekychook12]

It's Thursday. We're all irritable. Let's vent.

1. What is your dreaded chicken chore? The one you sometimes (or consistently) put off until guilt eats away at you.
2. What's the worst aspect of chicken keeping. Social media makes it look like a stroll in the park. Let's give a dose of reality.
3. Least favorite chicken breed? They're fine until they're not fine. You couldn't pay me to add more to the flock.
4. Worst ailment. Worms? Mites? Reproductive issues? Fly strike?
5. What's the worst season? Summer, with the heat and humidity? Or winter, with the snow and frostbite? Maybe spring with it's... sogginess? Let those seasons have it! Surely there's someone who hates fall, right?
6. Most time consuming aspect. Are you fussing over your incubator? Changing out the medium in the run (again!)? Looking for parasites around a butt hole? Dusting your chicken coop?
7. Worst part of raising baby chicks? Those pasty butts? Waiting to see if they'll sink or swim? Running to the brooder when yo hear distress peeps, only for said chicks to disappear back under the hat plate (haha, joke's on you, human!)
8. Tell me the BYC question that grates your gills. It's okay, this is a safe thread. You know the one, like "How many chickens can I fit into this cooler I got used off Ebay because my neighbor raises game hens in a suitcase and he eats like a king!"
9. What is the most irritating chicken behavior? Yes, they're chickens. That doesn't mean they're not annoying as heck while you're trying to _____ (fill in the blanks).
10. Name something standardized in the chicken world that needs a remodel. Something that grates your gills. Something that you'd pay handsomely for the solution to.

Please ramble and answer as many (or as few) as you'd like. I will read all responses while nodding my head in acknowledgement. Chickens are great, for sure, but they're also a giant pain in the cervical spine. I'll go first (unless you beat me to it!).

1. Cleaning out the space under the roosts, it’s very stanky
2. When chickens get sick or die, especially young chicks, very heartbreaking
3. Probably Cornish cross, raising birds for eating isn’t for me
4. Any neurological issue, very distressing and difficult to know what’s wrong
5. Summer for sure, my birds are fluffy and I have to dip them in buckets to keep them cool
6. Trying to treat chickens for mites, mine are so fluffy I have to massage the stuff in everywhere on all 17 chickens, and if I miss a spot I might as will not have done it
7. Having sick baby chicks, just so hard to watch cute little fluffs doing poorly
8. People wanting to know the gender of chickens and getting the worst possible camera angle and lighting
9. Slightly annoying, they like to follow me around when I’m feeding them and they get under my feet, they are small and speedy so I have to shuffle walk to avoid stepping on them
10. The shredding of day old male chicks, just seems horrifying to me, one day I want to create (if I get into genetics) male eggs that will glow under UV when they are layed so you only hatch female eggs that don’t glow… tech already exists but I wish it were more widespread (it’s done by inserting jellyfish DNA into the male chick DNA)

 

[newchickychick]

This cracked me up

When they were smaller I had one chick from my most recent hatch who'd insist on wiggling into the tiny gap at the side of Brinsea ecoglow plates where the wire goes in. Every time I walked in the room:
View attachment 4147281
"I'm not stuck, I meant to do this! And I'll —ing do it again if you try to 'help' me "

That face SCREAMS “I’ll do it again”. So cute!

 

[thecatumbrella]

I'm just trying to gently interact! Or goodness forbid take care of your pasty butt!

I feel this one. We got cochin bantams because they're supposed to be "docile" and "easy to handle". Umm, they constantly act like they're in a horror movie. Glad I'm not the only one with little drama nuggets.

8. People wanting to know the gender of chickens and getting the worst possible camera angle and lighting

There's definitely a learning curve to photographing chickens (meaning, take 9,000 photos to get 2-3 good ones.) I also enjoy this question paired with a photo of two dozen birds in a single shot: "How many roosters did I get?"

I will say this though: Wattles, not waddles.

I literally have to think about whether to use T's or D's every time. Lay off me!