- Sep 10, 2007
- 92
- 11
- 41
My wife and I have 18 two month old buff orpington chickens living in the home while we're finishing up their coop and we've noticed some peculiar behavior. Perhaps some seasoned chickie-vets out there can explain what's going on?
First we have a chicken that loves ice cream. I had one sitting on my shoulder and my wife gave me a little dish of ice cream and the chicken put her beak in it. She cleaned off her beak (on my shirt, thank you) then went back for seconds! Peck, chomp chomp, wipe wipe... I don't know that it's healthy for her so I moved the ice cream and she squaked at me to put it back. Silly chicken.
We separated the two youngest and smallest hens since one was getting pecked alot and the other was too afraid to eat, so and put them in a pen just opposite of the other chickens. They're both about 3 weeks behind in age from the other ones. They started growing bigger and really seemed to get on with each other. We have been taking all the chickens out during the warmer days to run around outside but I think the little guys get too tired so when we bring them in they peep non stop until we hold them, then they go to sleep on us.
Last night was especially bad.. they were peeping and I was in another room on the computer and they both got through the netting on their enclosure and were making their way to my office. They did this twice, the little escape artists. My wife spotted them trying to climb stairs that leads to my office so she brought them to me and put them on my shoulder until they finally calmed down and went to sleep. When I put them back later on in their pen, they started the same behavior. We put them in with the bigger chickens to see if that was the problem, still the same frantic behavior. And these little guys can get loud! So I finally put them on my chest, they went right to sleep. I said to my wife, "I'll be sleeping on the couch it seems."
I think it's cute as heck but just a tiny bit inconvenient. They only do this when we take them outside for the day. Since they're still young, and they REALLY like their outside time, I think they just get so tired and too worked up to sleep.. or have they imprinted on me as their big dumb warm buddy who gives them treats and is fun to sleep on? I don't know
First we have a chicken that loves ice cream. I had one sitting on my shoulder and my wife gave me a little dish of ice cream and the chicken put her beak in it. She cleaned off her beak (on my shirt, thank you) then went back for seconds! Peck, chomp chomp, wipe wipe... I don't know that it's healthy for her so I moved the ice cream and she squaked at me to put it back. Silly chicken.
We separated the two youngest and smallest hens since one was getting pecked alot and the other was too afraid to eat, so and put them in a pen just opposite of the other chickens. They're both about 3 weeks behind in age from the other ones. They started growing bigger and really seemed to get on with each other. We have been taking all the chickens out during the warmer days to run around outside but I think the little guys get too tired so when we bring them in they peep non stop until we hold them, then they go to sleep on us.
Last night was especially bad.. they were peeping and I was in another room on the computer and they both got through the netting on their enclosure and were making their way to my office. They did this twice, the little escape artists. My wife spotted them trying to climb stairs that leads to my office so she brought them to me and put them on my shoulder until they finally calmed down and went to sleep. When I put them back later on in their pen, they started the same behavior. We put them in with the bigger chickens to see if that was the problem, still the same frantic behavior. And these little guys can get loud! So I finally put them on my chest, they went right to sleep. I said to my wife, "I'll be sleeping on the couch it seems."
I think it's cute as heck but just a tiny bit inconvenient. They only do this when we take them outside for the day. Since they're still young, and they REALLY like their outside time, I think they just get so tired and too worked up to sleep.. or have they imprinted on me as their big dumb warm buddy who gives them treats and is fun to sleep on? I don't know
