Barred Rock DRAMA QUEEN

[dogdollar]

One of my barred rock hens seems to be convinced that she has to tell EVERYBODY each and every time she lays an egg. First, she waits until it's free range time...then she starts singing the egg-laying song at the top of her voice and running around like her house is on fire...she runs back to the coop I am cleaning and looks at me as if I have denied her; then goes to the outside nesting boxes I built and goes through each one, ultimately deciding that NONE of them are worthy...runs in the bushes and then back out again...back to the outside nesting boxes and sings so woefully that her sisters all jump up there with her and lay their necks across her back trying to soother her, then jumps out and runs up next to my rooster, as if he's going to do something magical...then back in the coop, back to the nesting box...and then after all of that, she just squats in the yard and lays a ping-pong ball sized egg.
Well....thanks for the big payoff, Queen Elizabeth...clearly; feeding, housing, and herding you for the last five months has been worth my while.
Vent over.
DD

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Barred Rocks really have a personality, mine crack me up. Every time I go into the run, they come running to me and talking up a storm. They'll peck at my shoes, until I pick them up one by one and talk to them. They're really neat.

 

[white01]

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hehe thats funny I love my barred rocks

 

[white01]

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Mine do the same thing, and i think though its because i am the treat lady hehe

 

[Happy Chooks]

I get chewed out when I clean out the coop too. Sometimes they'll even fly up on the nesting box lid to look at me and chew me out. Once I had to take a break and let them lay, so I could finish in peace.

 

[Dogfish]

I have a RIR that does that.

 

[tabetta]

oh y gosh, thanks dogdollar, i laughed so hard i spilled my coffee. i have a cuckoo marans that insists on singing for the welsummer when she is laying, a full 45 minutes of egg song, my neighbors thought it was hysterical once i explained what was going on,,

 

[gryeyes]

My BR Betsy is so full of personality she is allowed to push in close at treat time NEXT to the four highest ranking 'original' flock ladies. None of the other, young laying pullets - and certainly none of the not yet laying pullets! - are allowed to stand next to the Ladies In Charge when I or the rooster have something special for them. They get chased to wait further back. Betsy dust bathes with the LIC, ranges with 'em, yet still retains a girlish excitement at coming over to tell me everything that has gone on in the flock all day long. She's such a gossip!

The two other pullets her age (Welsummer Shirley and Rhoda the RIR) can hang out with HER, but not with the LIC. So Betsy spends some time with them, then some time with the LIC, some "special time" with Carl the rooster, a very small amount of solo time, and then some minutes with me. She's quite a social butterfly. Unlike the LIC, she doesn't peck at the even younger chickens, but occasionally checks out what they're doing, even though they will scatter when ANY older chicken approaches them.

And Betsy is talkative. She chatters about everything, not very loud, but pretty constant.