More proof - chickens are weird!

[gritsar]

I just spent fifteen minutes outside making sure that our newest (stray) cat, Cuatro, is good around chickens. Most strays around here are good with chickens due to the high number of commercial chicken houses in the area. Cats or dogs that harrass chickens don't last long; the chicken house owners make sure of that.

Just as I suspected Cuatro shows no interest in the chickens at all. The chickens on the other hand...

They are alternating between alot of BAWK, BAWK, BAWKing (interpreted as "watch out! be careful, there's danger here!") when they see Cuatro and chasing Cuatro when she tries to run away from them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, chickens are weird!

 

[Buff Hooligans]

And we're not?

 

[Shayna]

That's cute. When I brought my first chickens home, they were checking out the outdoors and a ground squirrel ran by and into the weeds. They had the most hilarious expression. They looked at each other with a "did you see that??? what was it?" expression and then they went over into the weeds to look for it. They had never seen one before. They certainly do react to new things differently!
I had a stray cat the other day I was feeding, but he hasn't returned again.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
We have a large pecan tree in the yard that the squirrels are always snitching pecans from, so the chickens are used to them. Not only are they used to squirrels, they somehow got the idea that a squirrel might be good eating, so the chickens stalk them.

 

[Shayna]

Quote:
That's very funny! I can't imagine a chicken trying to sneak up on a squirrel! They might want to steal some stalking techniques from the cat for that.

 

[TechnoCat]

more proof chickens are weird

MINE SING!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=600283

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
I have at least two resident gray squirrels in the trees on my property. There's a young, smallish one that is regularly in the yard and one really massive one with a larger territory but it sleeps in a tall tree growing in my gully.

My chickens stalk them too. Hitchcock is particularly fascinated with the squirrels, and has treed them both at different times. The big squirrel gets SO ticked off if it's been cornered in a tree too far away from another tree to jump to it. Must have important squirrel things to do. The smaller one just settles down on a high branch and naps u 'til the chickens get distracted by so merging else.

I wish I had a video of Hitchcock circling the base of a cedar as a squirrel dashes up and down and around the trunk looking for a good gap in the chicken guard perimeter.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I have at least two resident gray squirrels in the trees on my property. There's a young, smallish one that is regularly in the yard and one really massive one with a larger territory but it sleeps in a tall tree growing in my gully.

My chickens stalk them too. Hitchcock is particularly fascinated with the squirrels, and has treed them both at different times. The big squirrel gets SO ticked off if it's been cornered in a tree too far away from another tree to jump to it. Must have important squirrel things to do. The smaller one just settles down on a high branch and naps u 'til the chickens get distracted by so merging else.

I wish I had a video of Hitchcock circling the base of a cedar as a squirrel dashes up and down and around the trunk looking for a good gap in the chicken guard perimeter.

The squirrels here really have it rough. If they aren't dodging chickens, they're dodging german shepherds. The squirrels like to sit in the trees and chatter at the dogs. It makes Jax so mad.

They did finally manage to catch up with Cuatro and gave her a sound pecking. The poor cat sought shelter in the shop. There's a tiny opening in the bottom of the shop door and all I could see was her eyes. I had to convince her to come out to eat after the chickens went to roost. Bunch of vultures.