This breed is dumber than a doorknob...

[MilburnCreek]

So, my daughter works at a huge commercial chicken farm, and they were sending some chickens off to the cat food factory. There was one that was smaller than the rest that she had taken a liking to, so the owners let her take it home...which means it ended up with me.

The hen is a one-year old Hubbard Grimaud, and I have never seen a chicken more lacking in chicken-sense in my life.

This thing will literally starve with a full feeder, because she only eats when she sees me shake it. She sleeps on the floor of the coop instead of on a roost (which means she's covered in chicken poop.) When I open the hatch and let them all out in the run every morning, she just sits inside looking out. When I go to pick her up to move her, she doesn't move a muscle.

Note to self: Avoid these dummies in the future!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The chicken doesn't know how to chicken due to the management it has been under prior to you getting her. Commercial management inhibits instinctual behaviors like roosting, seeking outdoors, etc...in short the bird has been institutionalized...this is not a breed issue

 

[Rammy]

Poor chicken.

 

[Gray Farms]

The chicken doesn't know how to chicken due to the management it has been under prior to you getting her. Commercial management inhibits instinctual behaviors like roosting, seeking outdoors, etc...in short the bird has been institutionalized...this is not a breed issue

Agree completely. She doesn't know how to be a chicken.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Poor girl

 

[cgmccary]

Agreed. It is the way she has been trained. I'd put her on the roost at night, set her out on sunny days and scatter some whole oats and BOSS on the ground for her. She can catch on. Not her fault.

 

[MilburnCreek]

One bright spot...she actually showed a spark of chicken behavior yesterday! I opened the coop and the run, as it was fairly warm (for Vermont in February), and some of the snow and ice patches in the walkways had melted, revealing some grass. My Orps were excited and all ran out the coop to explore their 'old' world again.

The Grimaud (named Blanche), of course, just sat in the coop...but she watched the others through the window. When the Orps began running out of sight, Blanche got hysterical and for the first time started clucking up a storm as she realized she was 'separated' from her coopmates. A glimmer of hope!

 

[Chickenaddition]

@MilburnCreek glad you are giving her a chance at a new life. Give her time and she will eventually learn how to be a chicken again. She has just never had a chance to be one so it's going to take her time to be one. Thank you for giving her that time.

 

[Ribh]

Having kept rescues I can assure you they are no dummer than other chickens. It just takes them a while to learn how to chicken & like any other rescue animal, once they get it & realise they are safe, they are incredibly grateful & excellent additions to any flock.

 

[MilburnCreek]

Another break-through! Went out to get eggs today, and there she was, in a nesting box, hunkered down on two eggs. Neither were hers, but just he fact that she was there was a great sign, considering that for the last year of her life she laid an egg and it just rolled down a chute somewhere...