Chicken oddities: what’s something you wish your chicken/chickens didn’t do?

[BDutch]

. Stupid cockerels who start to crow loudly in the morning. If they wouldn’t start to crow till after 8 during the week and 9.30 in the weekend, at least one of them could stay and become a real rooster.

And some of the thing others have mentioned, like:
. Chickens pooping on the terrace while they have a whole garden to poop in.
. Scratching for food next to the water container and a ceramic bowl.

 

[Appalachickens]

It's only happened once, but it was a chick jumping onto my shoulder then into my hair where she got hopelessly tangled and was freaking out, flapping and squawking. I got her untangled, but I'd like for that not to happen again!

 

[kattabelly]

Pulling out all the clean, dry bedding I just put in the little shelter they like to use on especially wet and windy days, so they can go back to napping on damp soil and poo.

 

[Littlefoxhat]

I wish my Salmon Faverolles would stop letting the others pull out her feathers. She's got a Friar Tuck look going on... and she's never grown her beard in.

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

Okay for the most part, I love chicken behaviors and have found ways to thwart the ones that I don't (e.g. scratching bedding and waste into the water container, etc) but here's the top 5 things that mine do that leave me scratching my head.

- Constantly hanging out around the house to dig in my landscape mulch while ignoring the lush ACRES of pastureland that they could be using.

- Scared to go outside in snow. I've heard of chickens that don't mind it, but in all my years of chicken keeping, I've never had a chicken that was willing to even attempt it.

- Live together just fine for several years until one day, one decides to become a bully and starts pecking all the other ladies until they bleed. (I've only had this happen once, and I tried about everything to stop it but finally had to rehome her.)

- Digging around the edges of ANYTHING, ALL the time, like the run and coop foundations for goodness sake, but refusing to clean up around the edge of a fence line.

- Eating all the "good" plants that I'd like to keep around but ignoring the ones that I'd like gone.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

- Digging around the edges of ANYTHING, ALL the time, like the run and coop foundations for goodness sake, but refusing to clean up around the edge of a fence line.

It’s hard to find good help

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I wish my hens would stop their coordinated ambush tactics on younger birds. One will stand at the entrance to the grow out coop so nobody goes in or out, while another posts at the back corner of the coop, and the third hen (Ms Stormy- top hen extraordinaire) slyly meanders over then BAM! chase. I swear, she was a military commander of some great war in another life.

 

[kattabelly]

They don't show the slightest bit of fear or aggression towards rats but are absolutely terrified of the ferry horn they often hear up to three times a day. Even the birds I've hatched myself, that have grown up seeing me completely ignore the boat and shout and make a fuss and chase off rats. Even when there's an enormous rat eating spilled feed under the same feeder I just watched them chase a younger bird away from.

 

[Appalachickens]

They don't show the slightest bit of fear or aggression towards rats but are absolutely terrified of the ferry horn they often hear up to three times a day. Even the birds I've hatched myself, that have grown up seeing me completely ignore the boat and shout and make a fuss and chase off rats. Even when there's an enormous rat eating spilled feed under the same feeder I just watched them chase a younger bird away from.

Maybe they figure you're taking care of keeping the rats away but not doing a darn thing to protect them against the ferry.

 

[kattabelly]

Maybe they figure you're taking care of keeping the rats away but not doing a darn thing to protect them against the ferry.

I think some of them are actually friends with the rats They practically hang out together.