OMG. I thought I killed them!

karincs

Chirping
6 Years
Apr 3, 2014
26
15
87
Flourtown, PA
I have my four 2.5 week olds out for some playtime while I did some computer work in the same room. I suddenly sneezed and it apparently scared them! There was some loud squawks, a fluttering scramble,
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then dead silence. I found them in the corner, frozen like a statue. I felt SO bad!
 
hahaha...poor things! They do seem to startle easily. I put a paper bowl filled with grit in with my chicks. They didn't care about it, but when one of them accidentally flipped the bowl over, they nearly lost their minds!
 
They thought your sneeze was an alarm call warning them to take cover. Mother hens will make a loud noise if a predator is coming, and the chicks will scatter and take cover immediately. It's not you they were scared of--it was the mystery predator they thought you were warning them about ;)
 
LOL...when my chicks were about 6 weeks we had a really warm day and the house was hot. I figured it was warm enough that I could turn the fan on without causing them a chill.

Suddenly they all started freaking out BIG TIME! I quickly realized the ceiling fan over their brooder was scaring them witless and I had to rush to turn it off and then cover their brooder with a towel until it stopped moving.

The chicks were raised with barking dogs but if my LGD gives a serious warning bark they take notice, they definitely recognize that as the signal that there is a threat! Smart little guys!
 
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They thought your sneeze was an alarm call warning them to take cover. Mother hens will make a loud noise if a predator is coming, and the chicks will scatter and take cover immediately. It's not you they were scared of--it was the mystery predator they thought you were warning them about ;)

oh thank you! that makes me feel a little better... shortly after they recovered from the sneeze incident, I noticed they had discovered a wall outlet....without thinking I said "Uh-uh-uh!" like one might say to a toddler...and WHOOSH SCATTER and FREEZE all over again!!! At that point I needed some recovery time and decided playtime was over. Back to their pen they went, where they all settled in for a nice nap!
 

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