How did your flock annoy you today?

[thecatumbrella]

My girls decided to throw all their feed out of their feeder and onto the ground, then they proceeded to scream at me to put more in their feeder as they are too royal to eat feed off the floor!

I feel like this entire concept is the 3 Body Problem of chicken society.

"I want to beak the food out, but I also don't want to eat it off the ground... what to do..."

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Flock drama:

So a few days ago I hear an unusual amount of irritated hen squawk. I go check. It's Flamingo, my BCM pullet. She's only laid a few eggs, and only with about 50% accuracy hitting the nest box, so it's not a shock that she's being dramatic about figuring out where to lay. But as I'm looking at her... she CROWS! Right in front of my very eyes.

My knee-jerk reaction was, "oh no! She's a cockerel!" but then I remembered that she has in fact been laying eggs... and she doesn't look remotely like a rooster. So, I chalk it up to confused pullet puberty, she just needs to decide where to lay her egg. I leave.

Well, a while later things still haven't settled down (but no more crowing). I go back outside to see why she won't just lay her darn egg. She looks right at my face and crows again. Like, she is distrinctly trying to communcate SOMETHING to me. I look over at her coop (She ranges with the big flock but still lives with flockmates in a seperate coop) and I see one of the mature hens, Rumor, sitting in the doorway of Flamingo's enclosure, just casually being a jerk, effectively blocking little Flamingo from accessing her nest box.

Well, once back up arrived (that's me, I'm back up), Flamingo was brave enough to go past Rumor to get to her coop. Flamingo runs into the coop, and I (stupidly) think the drama is over. I take my eyes off the coop for a second and the next thing I know Flamingo is out of her coop and still carrying on. Turns out that Rumor had teamed up with Morticia to torment the pullets. Although Rumor was the bouncer guarding the door, Morty was acting as the in-house security and was chasing poor Flamingo out of the nest box. You may have noticed Morty in the video, nonchalantly eating as if she wasn't being an actual tormentress.

Anyway, I kicked Morty and Rumor out of the enclosure, locked Flamingo in the enclosure, and Flamingo laid a lovely egg (in the nest box - yay!).

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

View attachment 4199945

Think they carry this at Tractor Supply ???

 

[thecatumbrella]

I wanted to let my broody out of jail and give her a break to (hopefully) do chicken things. It was meant to be a 15 minute visit. She took a dust bath for AN HOUR! Full-on body paralysis, soup pot deep hole. I didn't have the heart to stop her. Needless to say, I'm a bit behind on work now.

 

[ChickenChick46]

I wanted to let my broody out of jail and give her a break to (hopefully) do chicken things. It was meant to be a 15 minute visit. She took a dust bath for AN HOUR! Full-on body paralysis, soup pot deep hole. I didn't have the heart to stop her. Needless to say, I'm a bit behind on work now.

She was taking full advantage of her break!