So out of three chickens, only one of my girls (Florin) would ever do the egg squat. Her version of the squat was to just flatten herself right down low, tense up and quiver for just long enough for me to give her a quick scratch then she'd run off as soon as she could as if anxious to get away. It didn't seem nice for her, just a quick submission to me out of instinct. When Florin passed away, I noticed Penny (bottom of the pecking order) started doing the squat when I got near her. Today however was an eye-opener.
She came to me when I called her, squatted low, held her wings at a really odd angle so her shoulder blades were really prominent, stuck her neck up high, her tail up in the air and sort of pushed up against my hand as I gave her a good scratch. I scratched her for ages because she just kept squatting there and to be honest I was quite pleased to have a chance to have a good look at her since she never let me get that close before except after dark. I scratched her tail, back, neck... quite firm, like a massage almost.
After I decided she'd had enough I stopped scratching her and she stayed still for a few seconds and then did the biggest fluffing up of her feathers I've ever seen, like a dog shaking off bathwater from head to tail. It felt like she was about to lie back and light up a cigarette
She came to me when I called her, squatted low, held her wings at a really odd angle so her shoulder blades were really prominent, stuck her neck up high, her tail up in the air and sort of pushed up against my hand as I gave her a good scratch. I scratched her for ages because she just kept squatting there and to be honest I was quite pleased to have a chance to have a good look at her since she never let me get that close before except after dark. I scratched her tail, back, neck... quite firm, like a massage almost.
After I decided she'd had enough I stopped scratching her and she stayed still for a few seconds and then did the biggest fluffing up of her feathers I've ever seen, like a dog shaking off bathwater from head to tail. It felt like she was about to lie back and light up a cigarette