Chicken TV for Whitetails

[duckinnut]

This am I came downstairs from rousting my DW for work and took a peek out the window at the chickens to see what they were up to. Well right down by the fenced in area there stands 2 whitetailed does (fairly common in my yard until hunting season which ended Saturday). One of them walked right up to the fencing and was watching the chickens with the most curtuitous gaze. So here I am watching the deer watching the chickens, it just amazed me that the deer was so curious but the chickens could give a flying cowflap. They just did what chickens do. The deer was so close but how do the chickens know that they are not a threat and vice versa?

So my DW finally comes down and happens to walk over to the big kitchen window to where the deer made their way over to so close that you could pet them. She was startled and so were the deer which ran over to the edge of the woods. But I refrained from comment about scaring the deer.

Sometimes in life I guess the Lord grants us a little gift of nature that brings us back to our childhood amazement.

Sorry meant to put this in chicken behavior,its Monday!

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

No apology necessary in my book. One of life's little moments. I'm sure the deer were far more curious about the birds than they would have been about what wold have been an open patch of ground where their run is.

 

[Carolyn]

I love those amazing moments God grants us and even more so when it is out my own window.

 

[Nambroth]

I have been observing the deer in our yards/woods all year long and I have noticed a trend.

When I am in the yard but the chickens are cooped up, the deer will approach the yard but never linger. Their body language is nervous.
When I am in the yard with the chickens, the deer will not only approach the yard but they will linger, and even graze right out close to us. This year two button bucks, during the height of deer season, came quite close indeed for wild deer- about 10 yards away. I have never encouraged the deer in my yard, nor have I fed them as I feel it's more harmful than anything (moreover it is illegal in this state).

My theory is that the deer see the chickens as sort of a companion animal-- hold on, hear me out.

In the wild, deer are known to feed in the same area as wild turkeys, and it makes good sense. The turkeys have extremely keen eyesight and are very alert (everything wants to eat a turkey, much like everything wants to eat a chicken). If the turkeys are at ease, the deer are more relaxed because the chances that a predator making it past a flock of turkey's eyes, and a deer's nose and hearing, is pretty low. I have observed this behavior in the woods, at a distance, several times.

I think that the chickens put the deer at ease in a similar way.