Hen vs. paper bag

[kmwright]

Does anyone else find it sad but slightly amusing that hens LITERALLY can't find their way out of a paper bag? Mine do this ALL THE TIME and I'm like "just walk an extra 2 steps and you will be out!!!" They get "stuck" behind a chair. Or inside their open run. Or behind a small piece of fence. I swear. They can figure out how to jump my 6 foot fence when they want but can't figure out how to get around a chair.

 

[shortstaque]

They say they are "bird brained" for a reason. My favorite is, they can figure out how to escape from the fenced run, but not how to escape back into it. I have one chicken who is the exception to this rule. She regularly jumped out of the run, and one day I saw her jump back in, go lay her egg, and then jumped back out as soon as she was done! I always wonder why they can't seem to remember where the door is to get out (as if it moved since yesterday), but manage to find their way back home when the sun goes down.

 

[gryeyes]

I have noticed that very few of my chickens have a "reverse" mode. They go into something and if they cannot turn around, they can't get out. They don't know how to back up! Onward and Forward, left or right, but no reverse. I don't know how many chicks and adult chickens I have rescued.

And, unfortunately, lost two over the past two years, when they kept trying to go forward and got further stuck, then flapped themselves into a panic and died before I got home from work.

So I do fence and "small space" patrol every single day. Just in case.

 

[kmwright]

Quote:
YES! Mine will jump the fence in to my garden, then when I go to chase them out, they get amnesia and can't figure out how to get back out. Sheesh.

 

[doublejfarm]

My birds are hard headed. I fixed them a nice dust bath with DE in it in the covered part of their run and they ignore it and make there own in the dirt on the open. Go figure. But at least the are happy. They like to make their own dust bath and then strive to see who gets to dust bathe next to Maccaronni my rooster.