Chickens Doing the Flying 'Popcorn' Thing, What Are They Doing, lol??

[baltimoreharps]

Hey all,
This is the first time that I've raised chickens, especially from hatching, so everything they do is fascinating to me.

From the start, one chick would pop up into the air, flying up and as soon as the first chick would do it, the rest would do the same thing.It's honestly like watching popcorn pop and it's hysterical!!

When they were fuzzybutts, it was funny enough, but now when we let them out to free range before bedtime, the now 7 weeks olds still do it, but now, one of the older hens joins in and what was hysterical has now turned into not being able to breathe from laughing so hard!!

Does anyone know WHY they do this? Is it just high spirits from getting out of the tractor, teenage hijinks, what? It's just SO stinking funny to watch,and every time it happens, the kids yell, "Popcorn's popping!"

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Mine do that too. It cracks me up. I always took it for happy enthusiasm when they were babies. It almost always happened as I took them from the smaller indoor brooder out to the playpen. It was like they realized they had all this room all of a sudden and they had to stretch their little wings. Lots of flapping and fluttering.
I find it most often with my big girls when one of them spooks about something. They all have to explode up in the air and squawk a bit. They all seem faintly embarrassed when I catch them at it and laugh at them.

 

[baltimoreharps]

Quote:
It's SO funny to see the grown-up's doing it!

I caught Hannah Banana doing it, started laughing REALLY loudly, and she looked at me like, "What? I didn't do anything!!!" and walked/waddled off in her stately way.

In the meantime, I'm still

and she's giving me the stinkeye.

Who needs TV??

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Isn't that the truth! I spend entirely too much time out in the coops just sitting and watching and laughing! They are too funny!
Mine give me the stink eye too. Cracks me up everytime.

 

[baltimoreharps]

Quote:
They are my therapy!!

So, is it just getting out of the tractor/pen, that does it? If so, I'm going to be lettign them out more often, it's So entertaining!!!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

They're playfighting. It's very healthy, and is a more 'docile' way of helping to establish the pecking order. If you think it's funny when your chickens do it, try watching a bunch of young Polish juveniles doing it.

Now that popcorn goes EVERYWHERE!