Not really something that someone HAS SAID, so much as something my CHICKEN DOES. About 3 months ago, my RIR Louisa (Not sure how old she is, around 2-3) started limping. She started limping and 2 days later, when I painted my coop, she went missing. For 6 days. Assuming as anyone who has a hen go missing for a while does, I figured she died until I went out one evening and she called out from near the coop door. So after the initial "She's alive! She's still limping?", she got a coop to herself until I tried to re-integrate her a week later. Nope. She screamed and hobbled away like she was being tortured(She is top dog and a drama llama...) So as a quick fix, I put her in a cat carrier in my garage. After failing to reintegrate her (and even locking her in the coop with the others for a week- she hid in a nest box and refused to eat or drink), she was upgraded to a large dog carrier in the garage. If I didn't let her in, she would hide behind the trash can outside or in the flowerbed. So now she is a spoiled little hen who lives in the garage with the cats, and whom also refuses to pay rent (or at least not in a place I can find- maybe my dog eats them...). She has upgraded from just being spoiled to being entitled. She only drinks from the dog bowl on the deck and will stare at people through windows so that they give her treats. Recently, if she doesn't get let in early enough, she tries to break through the window-screen of the house. Never thought I'd say this, but she is practically a house-chicken. (FYI all my pets (snake and fish excluded) are 'outside' pets, with the dog only allowed in one room of the house during adverse weather, night, or when someone takes pity.) If she sees me walking around outside near lock-in time, she will fake limp(I know because her hip is healed and she only does it when she thinks we see her....
And people still think I'm awful for raising and even naming meatbirds in the life of luxury until a quick and humane death. If only they knew! (Granted, last year at Thanksgiving I showed pictures of the fluffball 'Thanksgiving' as a chick... Grandma loved the chicken, my cousin was considering veganism.)
maybe rareness depends more on the quality you're looking for in the part of the country you're in.
Hahaha! It's funny, isn't it, how quickly and easily they can train us! I wish it were as easy to train them...
