Chickens afraid of red cabbage- roosting outside!

[chezpoulet]

This is the silliest thing I have seen- we have a freak winter storm coming in over the next few days, and temps are going to fall into the teens and twenties, so being a good chicken mom I went and got them a red cabbage to play with in the coop in case weather is inclement and they don't want to go out into the partially roofed run.

This evening I went to close the pop door and what do I see but all 5 of them clustered on a branch in the covered run, roosting! The only thing that was different was that one head of cabbage lying in a corner of their coop- they have been going into the coop to roost without fail until today.

I just don't get chicken cognition- maybe the cabbage is going to rear up and devour them!

I had to pick them off their branch with lots of squawking and place them in the coop! Thought I'd post this as this is too funny.

I will have to check in on them later to see if they managed to get themsleves onto their roost without freaking out further!

Silly chickens!

 

[Cass]

Is the cabbage slightly oval shaped? Maybe they thought it was an egg and there was a chicken in the coop big enough to lay something that big. That would scare the heck outta me, that's for sure.

 

[Judy]

They are so funny about anything new. All I have to do is close a door or move a garbage can.

 

[NewToFarming]

LOL! That is funny! Mine reacted the same way when I thought I was doing something nice and brought home a flock block since it was so cold and they were stuck inside for so long. I was all proud of myself, put it in the coop and they literally screamed to warn all the others to stay away from the evil flock block. It is now out of the coop and has never been touched once and that was well over a month ago!

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

My birds were not quite so extreme with their rejection. They eventually got over it.

 

[wsdareme]

Mine are totally used to our Rottie and Aussie playing around their run. The other day my friend brought her Aussie to play with mine, and when she got close to the pen the chickens totally freaked out! We can hammer and bang and saw and that doesn't bother them. What a funny lot!

 

[Baymule]

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[chezpoulet]

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Ha ha! Maybe they thought a pterodactal has mysteriously laid the BIG egg- hmm I am still waiting for the first egg (in Spring I hope) so maybe they will try to one up that and lay me a nice BIG first egg!

I just hope they will stop freaking and spend time in the coop the next few days instead of freezing in the cold out in the run! Maybe I should get rid of the offending "red egg"!

 

[NYRIR]

They are weary of anything new....mine do seem to get the idea quickly when it's food though!

 

[drumstick diva]

Chez Poulet if you put a red cabbage in my house I would stay outside too - vegetables are just plain scarey. My son lives in Redmond and said it took 40 minutes to make the2 mile trip home from work - an SUV overturned in a ditch. He was born and raised in the Chicagoland area - funny how fast they lose their cold hardiness.