Top Chicken Behaviors

[LCT19]

What are some fascinating chicken behaviors you have seen in your flock?

 

[Isadora]

One of my favorites is the rooster tidbitting for the hens. He will scratch around in the leaves and if he finds something edible, he clucks excitedly to let his ladies know. They will come zooming from all parts of the yard to come get a piece of whatever it is. Sometimes they run over and don't quite know what he's showing them, so he'll pick it up and put it down a few times until they get the idea.

 

[3KillerBs]

I find it incredibly amusing that, though my chickens do not want to be picked up or even touched, they crowd around my feet to the point that I have a hard time walking. In fact, I sometimes step on the Cochin's foot feathers.

The other day I had to pick her up and carry her around because I absolutely could NOT make it from the door to the feeder without stepping on her. She complained about that.

 

[Zebbie]

Now everytime I approach my chicken, she sees me run up to her and she does a low chuckle-cluck (cluckle) and pretends to find something tasty on the grass. She makes the excited noise and holds something random and inedible in her beak to catch my attention. (Which she absolutely already has). Sometimes she holds one wing wide and low to the ground to make herself look bigger (the dance roosters do to impress chickens) while doing the cluckle. I really consider us to be equals, companions, and I think she does too.
She is 12 years old, a bantam, and her sisters all died recently so I am the last of her flock.