Are your chickens this chicken?

[shortstaque]

Its getting pretty cold and windy in this area, so I decided to add a windbreak to one side of the portable run attached to the chicken tractor today. I used an old panel of corrogated translucent fiberglass that I stole from a defunct shed on our property. When I slowly approached the outside of the run with it my birds became so startled and frenzied that they rushed the chicken wire fencing on the opposite side of the run. In their panic, a handful of them knicked their combs on the wire. After inspecting the damage and determining that there was no real harm done other than a few damaged egos

, I screwed the panel to the outside of the run.

That was midday. An hour or so later I noticed that they were all remaining huddled in a corner under the tractor and not venturing out into the run so I spread scratch in the run and picked some cherry tomatoes for them to chow down on. Still, none of them were brave enough go into the run. They were all chicken. Their food and water is in the run mind you. They appeared to prefer to go without than to brave the awful, terrible, scary run with a strange windblock in it. The rest of the day, they never went into the run. I finally put some water and feed under the tractor for them so they wouldn't become famished. By late afternoon they still had not worked up the courage to go into the run. They did seem to act pretty normally when I let them out into the yard to free range.

I'm hoping they forget about the experience by tomorrow morning and their curiosity gets the better of them and they just go into the run like usual. I was just trying to make life more pleasant for them, not scare their pants off.

What makes your chickens chicken?

 

[Desert Rooster]

Mine do the same thing, i put up a blue tarp on top of there temp coop while i finish there permenant coop, as soon as they saw me with it, thery were running and flapping there wings like if i was going to hurt them or something

 

[shortstaque]

I use a tarp for shade in the summer too and they would freak for a second until it stopped flapping in the wind, but they got over it immediately. This seemed to traumatize them most of the day.

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

I brought a feed sack full of straw up to the door of the coop, and one of my ladies flew at my head (and thus out the door). It was only a catch worthy of Jerry Rice that prevented her escape out into the dark forest outside!
Scared the daylights out of all 7 of us (me and all 6 chooks!)
Yeah, my chickens are chicken. They were scared of red foods for the first 3 months. They are obviously terrified of feed sacks and are deeply fearful of straw and other bedding they currently walk over day in and day out.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I rolled a wheelbarrow into my older girls' run for some firewood and they panicked. Whenever I move my tarps around, they panic.

They are like little babies....

And I love them tremendously!

 

[hallerlake]

I stapled heavy plastic on a couple of sides of the run on our chicken tractor on Friday. They were not happy about it. I let them out to free range a bit today, and they didn't want to go back in afterward. I guess I'm not going to let them out for a week, and give them more time to get used to it.

 

[RollingForkMeadows]

Poor freaked out things...
I sent my husband out the other day to shake out the hallway runner. About 16 feet of red rug flapping violently outside, and the poor hens, roos and guinea spazzed and fled to the hills. Hours later at dusk, they still wouldn't come out for treats. I had to climb into the heavy brush up a hill and coax them back inch by inch.

 

[Tala]

Compared to yalls, mine seem pretty bombproof!

They may get startled from time to time, but I've never known them to cower in fear for any length of time.

 

[shortstaque]

Update on the chicken chickens. This morning they did not race out of the gates, so to speak, like they usually do. They just stood there kind of dumbfounded and silent. Eventually one girl decided she would take a peek. She stood on the ramp a minute making sure there were no goblins. She trepiditiously peeked into the chicken wire chute that leads to their mobile run. A few others decided to join her. Finally one of the roosters worked up the courage to act as protectors to the girls and ventured out into the front portion of the run. After 15 minutes maybe half of them were out. Usually they are all out within seconds. Maybe tomorrow they will be less chicken.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Yeah, no matter how slow and careful I am changing the tarps on the chicken tractors always causes pandemonium within.