ChuSayBok
Songster
I have a hen (Maleficent; the appropriate name she came with) who eats frogs and mice. Actually all my chu will eat small larva sized mouselings (yes I know this is cruel and it breaks me too, but so do the mice. They've almost burned the house down a couple of times and they feed off the chu corn and multiply rapidly. I rescue the frogs, they eat other stuff that causes problems.) Sometimes I use sticky traps, which I know is extremely inhumane, so I bash the varmintses heads to end their misery and then feed them to the more bloodthirsty of the flock (there are several who won't eat grown mice.) I generally try to use the old traps that instantaneously crush their skulls or give them fatal cervical injuries, but sometimes they wise up and learn how to outsmart the traps. Mice are fearfully intelligent and great athletes. If anyone figures out how to make peace with them, clue me in, because I would much rather have them as allies. Sorry for the digression, back to the chicken pica..
Recently some styrofoam ended up in the yard, and a young cockerel bent on his own destruction was eating it like it was cake. I took what was left from him and threw it away, which he found very offensive.
I've seen them eat paper several times, but they figure out pretty quickly that it's not food. As I quickly figured out that chickens will take a plug out of your eye if you let them stare into it long enough (though I will never live it down.) It's rather humiliating to have to explain that to the eye doctor with random people, including other patients, feeling compelled to come check you out, b/c that's the stupidest thing they've ever heard in their life; of course everyone that works in the office has to see for themselves (so much for hipaa.) Hopefully I'm not listed on someone's fb page over that (sigh of disgust; mostly at self.)
They like to pick at anything on our skin that looks like it may bleed in hopes of encouraging it to do so; hairs, moles, etc. Sometimes the chicks may pick the gnats off the roo's comb, which is cute and sweet. They will pick at one another's wounds, which is not. I just recently posted pics of a chick I had that had the skin picked off it's neck by a hen for no good reason.
They also pick at shoe laces, loose thread on fabric (look like worms?), paint flakes (try not to have any of those around,) bb's, small pieces of plastic from toys broken up by the lawnmower that got left in the yard, and hair. That's all I can think of right now.
I've found rational discussions concerning food are lost on chickens, so I pretty much stick to conversing with them in humiliating multilingual infantile babble (which is where the word chu came from) or threatening them in a bad Scottish accent, a bad Southern accent, or in Spanish. Sometimes I try to speak Chu, and they start to think I'm catching on and attempt to reply, but then shake their heads and realize I'm just repeating the sounds I hear them making.
Recently some styrofoam ended up in the yard, and a young cockerel bent on his own destruction was eating it like it was cake. I took what was left from him and threw it away, which he found very offensive.
I've seen them eat paper several times, but they figure out pretty quickly that it's not food. As I quickly figured out that chickens will take a plug out of your eye if you let them stare into it long enough (though I will never live it down.) It's rather humiliating to have to explain that to the eye doctor with random people, including other patients, feeling compelled to come check you out, b/c that's the stupidest thing they've ever heard in their life; of course everyone that works in the office has to see for themselves (so much for hipaa.) Hopefully I'm not listed on someone's fb page over that (sigh of disgust; mostly at self.)
They like to pick at anything on our skin that looks like it may bleed in hopes of encouraging it to do so; hairs, moles, etc. Sometimes the chicks may pick the gnats off the roo's comb, which is cute and sweet. They will pick at one another's wounds, which is not. I just recently posted pics of a chick I had that had the skin picked off it's neck by a hen for no good reason.
They also pick at shoe laces, loose thread on fabric (look like worms?), paint flakes (try not to have any of those around,) bb's, small pieces of plastic from toys broken up by the lawnmower that got left in the yard, and hair. That's all I can think of right now.
I've found rational discussions concerning food are lost on chickens, so I pretty much stick to conversing with them in humiliating multilingual infantile babble (which is where the word chu came from) or threatening them in a bad Scottish accent, a bad Southern accent, or in Spanish. Sometimes I try to speak Chu, and they start to think I'm catching on and attempt to reply, but then shake their heads and realize I'm just repeating the sounds I hear them making.
Hi there! I put little diapers and festive hen aprons on faverolles and take them to visit senior citizens,but only on the weekends! Nice to meet ya!
