Ended Official BYC Mini Contest - Share your funniest/favourite chicken story

[N F C]

Many years ago I had a BBB (broad breasted bronze turkey) that decided she should be broody. I also had a couple of African geese hens and one Toulouse gander. The geese were laying so I gave two goose eggs to the turkey hen.

Twenty-eight days later one goose egg hatches and the BBB hen steps on it. By the time I found it, the gosling was already dead. The next day the second egg hatches and the BBB hen again steps on the gosling. This time I checked soon enough to find the gosling alive but its legs were out flat on either side of its body.

I made hobbles for the little one and hand raised it until it was doing good enough to remove the hobbles (several weeks old). Once it was walking fine without the hobbles I would take it out for walks. It always stayed very close to me, very often walking along with me positioned between my legs.

The adult geese were yearlings and had never hatched any eggs yet. They were also not pets and would not let me get within 30 feet of them.

One day when I was taking the gosling for a walk, we got as far as the end of the concrete pad in front of the garage. The geese happened to be down the hill approximately 60' away. They spotted the gosling and these geese who would not let me get close to them began to approach. All three came within 30 feet, talking the whole time. One hen left the group and continued to approach. The gosling placed itself between my legs for protection.

The goose continued to approach until she was close enough to stretch her neck to its maximum, reached between my legs and gently herded the gosling away from me. She retreated with the gosling and returned to the other two geese. She took that lone gosling and both hens adopted it and raised it without any more interference from me.

Animals are simply amazing, thanks for sharing your story Bob

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

One time we thought there was a burglar in the garage cause there was such a lot of smashing noises, but actually it was our flock clashing around Lol

 

[meetthebubus]

Mowhawkie the hen

I live on a suburban ranch. The land is surrounded by hills and mountains that seem
within arms reach. My family came from the city, and our new land put us in the middle of the
wild which was very different than what we were used to. We came from HOA’s and cookie
cutter neighborhoods, to peaceful freedom and sprawling brush. At first we were not expecting
much wildlife since people have been inhabiting the area for many years. Because of that, we
started our homestead ranch with a chicken run and coop. A five foot high fence was put up
around them, and for many months we felt pretty safe. On our first Thanksgiving morning on the
ranch, we were inside preparing for a turkey dinner when suddenly an uproar outside erupted
from the chicken run. This sound of the chickens yelling was more intense than I usually hear
from them. I am out the door right away to check it out, and I see something that took my breath
away. My golden colored hen was jumping higher than the five foot fence, flapping her wings as
a bobcat was leaping right under her. Its paws were outstretched trying to grab at the hen. I yell,
“mountain lion!” My husband runs down the narrow steps toward the commotion, and the hen
takes off with the wild cat right behind her. She was running at full speed, feathers tight, neck
outstretched, and low to the ground. She runs past my husband towards the brush to hide as the
bobcat cuts its chase short having just seen him there. My husband yelled and waved a large
object, trying to convince the bobcat not to challenge him. The bobcat was considering its fight
or flight options. It arched its back and let out a fierce growl and hiss that only a large cat can
produce. It took a swipe towards him, but it was too far to reach him. The bobcat decided the
flight option was its best choice, so it turned tail and ran off towards the sanctuary of its
mountains. With the bobcat gone, we started searching for the lost hen. My daughter followed a
trail of feathers that led her to the right bush. Mohawkie the Hen was found safe, lying low in the
bush, and still breathing very hard from the exertion.
A snack of pomegranate seeds right away to the flock took their stress away, and a 360 enclosure was installed within 2 weeks.

 

[wildone]

wow. i've never had much experience with bobcats, just coyotes and dogs.

 

[N F C]

More stories anyone?

 

[silkiemother]

does it count if it is someone else's chicken getting into your yard and you have a story about it?

 

[R2elk]

does it count if it is someone else's chicken getting into your yard and you have a story about it?

Yes!

 

[RuBee]

The Sleeping Rooster
I often tell people that my mom is a fowl person. She has always loved and owned fowl of all kind, chickens, guineas, turkeys, ducks, geese, peacock, and even emu. It is no surprise that I would follow in her footsteps with chickens of my own. My first flock of backyard chickens consisted of an assortment of hens, but no rooster. My mom came to visit once and brought a very realistic looking fake rooster that she put in the chicken yard with the idea of tricking me. I discovered it right away, but my husband didn't. It was almost dark as we finishing up supper. I told my husband that I would clean up if he would make sure the chickens were safe in their coop. I had forgotten about the fake chicken until he came rushing back in with a startled look on his face and asked, "Do roosters sleep standing up?" He then explained that there was a rooster in the chicken yard, just standing there. I reminded him that we didn't have roosters, only hens. He insisted that there was a rooster. He had even waved his hand in front of it and it just stood there like it was made out of plastic. So he wondered if it was sleeping while standing up. I told him he would have to ask my mom, the chicken expert. She was in the next room doubled over laughing. When he realized that he had been tricked he replied, "Oh, brother, I guess I'll be hearing about this for a long time." That was almost twenty years ago and we still laugh about the plastic rooster.

 

[N F C]

The Sleeping Rooster
I often tell people that my mom is a fowl person. She has always loved and owned fowl of all kind, chickens, guineas, turkeys, ducks, geese, peacock, and even emu. It is no surprise that I would follow in her footsteps with chickens of my own. My first flock of backyard chickens consisted of an assortment of hens, but no rooster. My mom came to visit once and brought a very realistic looking fake rooster that she put in the chicken yard with the idea of tricking me. I discovered it right away, but my husband didn't. It was almost dark as we finishing up supper. I told my husband that I would clean up if he would make sure the chickens were safe in their coop. I had forgotten about the fake chicken until he came rushing back in with a startled look on his face and asked, "Do roosters sleep standing up?" He then explained that there was a rooster in the chicken yard, just standing there. I reminded him that we didn't have roosters, only hens. He insisted that there was a rooster. He had even waved his hand in front of it and it just stood there like it was made out of plastic. So he wondered if it was sleeping while standing up. I told him he would have to ask my mom, the chicken expert. She was in the next room doubled over laughing. When he realized that he had been tricked he replied, "Oh, brother, I guess I'll be hearing about this for a long time." That was almost twenty years ago and we still laugh about the plastic rooster.

Great story

And by the way....

 

[silkiemother]

okay I have a funny story to tell about one of our neighbors hens.
okay so this hen is a EE and she loves to escape and is very flighty and one day she dug a hole out of the chicken coop and flew 300 yards and then landed in our fenced in yard.and we did not know that theiy had been looking for her or that there was even a strange chicken in our yard until I found a note in our yard saying our chicken has flown from our house and landed in your yard, we could not find so please keep your eyes open for her.and by the way,she is bright orange.and so me and my sister looked and looked for her and we only found her tracks and in the hopes that she would come out of hiding, I put a bowl of feed out and a small dish of water.she did not show that day, and the day after that we still could not find.my dad thought she was gone or even dead because we had not found her for three days in a row,but on the fourth day when I got home from school and I had just about given up on finding her, I saw an orange something out of the corner of my eye.and you see, I had forgotten that she was orange so my first thought was: "FOX!" I took another look and it was the hen! I yelled to my dad I found her and for some reason, she was so flighty that even the sight of a human sent her into flight or fight mode and after chasing her around the coop, we finally cornered her at the corner where the fence and the adult hen's coop meet. apparently she had been in the shed the whole time even when we were shifting everything around in there.so yeah, she gave me a scare and that is the end of the story.