Does anyone else...

[quiltnchik]

have a hard time getting anything done due to sitting outside watching the chooks? We put our babies (now 3 weeks old) in their coop Saturday evening and let them spend their first full day in their run Sunday. Since this was a holiday weekend, DH was outside doing yard work and other misc. stuff, so I sat a bench outside the run - near where DH was working - and just sat and watched the chicks while "keeping him company!"

I also walk around back to check on them at least 2-3x per night after they're "tucked in" safely in their coop. Does everyone do this or is it just me?!?

 

[newbie coops]

I don't understand why some people call their chickens "chooks"...can someone explain this to me? It seems pretentious, but I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time, that's for sure!

Any assistance with this would be very much appreciated.

 

[newbie coops]

And no, it's not only you who "wastes" time watching your chickens enjoying the sunshine and reveling in dirt. They are immesurably amusing. Mine sit, enjoying the breeze under the lilacs, wasting time.

They are quite something, chickens.

 

[firedove]

I spend way too much time with my chickens most of the time. Right now I have a cast on my foot and can't get around much so I hardly get to see much of them. The coop is just too dangerous to try to get to on crutches. It's going to be a long 4 weeks. But yesterday my DH brought my favorite chicken, our blind one "Moon Tides," up to the house so I could say hi to her and pet her soft feathers while I talked to her and checked on how she was doing. I miss my chickens so much. The last 2 days I did get to watch them from the window as they played out in the yard. I'm not in complete withdrawal though because I still have 3 chicks up here in the garage that I can play with, and my other 6 will be coming back home this week and I will have the 9 of them at least until June 6. Unfortunately these chicks I have now must sell. No room in the coop for any more chickens!

newbie coops, why would it be pretentious to call chickens chooks? I always thought it was just a word. Some people call them chooks or chookies, others call them chicks, chickies, and chickens. It's all the same to me and I've actually found myself using any one of those words at different times. Is there something I don't know about the term chooks?

 

[newbie coops]

I don't know, firedove..that's why I'm asking. What's up with that word, "chooks"...I don't get it. If someone could explain it to me, I'd be immeasurably thankful.

What's a "chook" and where did that word come from???

That's all I want to know.

 

[firedove]

I googled it and it is "Aussie Slang for chicken" says one site and here is another with a much more long winded answer http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cho2.htm

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Quote:
I guess I always thought it was an accent thing... I know that doesnt make sense, but it always did to me....

 

[newbie coops]

Quote:
Thank you!!!! That explains it, and affirms my thought that it is, indeed, a pretentious affirmation. Americans never referred to their chickens as "chooks" and those who do are rather pretentious, don't you think? Gee whiz, I have chickens and I refer to them as "chickens" not "chooks" If I were Australian, then sure, "chooks" would be appropriate..but I'm American, and so "chickens" is the word.

Just my two cents. I'm sure to be rebuked very soon, here.

 

[firedove]

To each their own. I think chooks is like any vernacular though, some people hear it and like it so they use it. Nothing pretentious about that.

I just noticed you are in NH, what part?

 

[Calebs Acre]

Yep...I'll rebuke you! LOL. My mom was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania Dutch Country and she considered it an affectionate term for her chickens...she called them Chookies. She would talk about them in baby talk "little chookies"...or even, "do you want chookie for dinner."

I have no idea why it would sound pretentious, that's such a judgmental word.....from the way my mom used the word, that usage couldn't be further from the truth. But, that usage is now almost 100 years old!