Weirdest Things Your Chickens Have Done

[2 chiks n a roo]

Your last picture (BYC post #144 above) of your two fluffy hen butts on the perch should be posted on Fluffy Butt Acres thread
It's so cute.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...of-our-flock.1286630/page-19845#post-27925740

Lol I call mine fluffy butt productions..

 

[2 chiks n a roo]

I love how people solve issues to meet their flocks' needs! Every flock, environment, mix of chicken breeds has different issues. Our weirdest or most troubling issue is that when our Dominique hens developed Bumblefoot no other breed in our flock ever did!

The vet suggested the usual to make sure the yard had no sharp objects to injure chicken feet and for us to wrap burlap or something to cushion the roosting perch in the coop. We wrapped stretchy cushy wide Ace bandage around the entire length of the perch but the two Dom hens still developed Bumblefoot by the next year again! No other hen did!

Then we found the Dom girls did this a lot that the other hens didn't ~ they would sit on the narrow cedar board frame of their sandbox to perch or else sit on the cement paver stone borders around our two raised garden beds! That alone would irritate chicken feet!

SANDBOX CEDAR BORDER
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GARDEN BED PAVER STONE BORDER
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I had a chick that would only sit on the edges of things, that's why I came up with the ground perch. It's sturdy and doesn't wobble, plus can be raised to hook into a fence, cage or whatever.
The perch in with the 5 girls (Teenie, Tiny, Daisy, Cinderella, Caramel) seems to give them good balance. It also depends on the size of chickens, mine are big, Teenie the white one is almost 3kg. Their feet can't quite wrap around the perch but there's enough width to support the soles of their feet.
I've worked out through trial and error that a perch to fit the sole (padded area before toes) is a perfect size.

Perhaps try instead of wrapping around the perch, find a half round 1" piece of any wood from the hardware store, cut it to length. You could try hammering some perches across corners of their sand boxes. or attach a slightly wider square strip across the sides, something you can remove if required.
Another idea might be add some scalloped type edging across the tops so they either don't perch there or have grooves to help slow down the bumble foot. (Will google that cos never seen it)

There's always a way to improvise

 

[Will You Rescue Me]

So my silkies have established that I want the eggs that they’ve been laying even though they don’t really want them. Hence tonight when I went to gather everyone to put in the indoor coop for the night, I found all of them bundled up in their day coop and the daily lone egg they want nothing to do with laid neatly outside of the coop door like an offering to distract the human so they could get a few more minutes of sleep before I bug them by bringing them in lol

 

[alinas2010]

Mine have learned to drink from the sprinkler head. It’s not running even, it’s residual drizzle from watering in the morning and they just LOVE it. Never mind that they have fresh cold water in their waterer. They go back and forth all day nibbling at the little dribble of water. Idk how they even learned to do that!

 

[Shetland lover]

Stanley's latest weirdness is an abject and totally incomprehensible (to me, anyway) fear of the colour purple! It's not all purple, just one particular shade of deep, royal purple. I first noticed it in the spring when I planted some gorgeous primula. He went insane with fear, squawking dementedly, shaking and running around like the proverbial headless chicken. I had to dig up the primulas and move them out front where he couldn't see them. Yesterday, I took a royal purple t-shirt out to hang on the washing line, forgetting about the spring fiasco, and yes, he went crazy. Honestly, he behaved like the sky was falling in and then jumped on my head!

 

[Will You Rescue Me]

So I used to love my rescued chickens, but now I’m convinced that they’re out to screw with me now. I’m getting two eggs a day which is great, don’t get me wrong. The issue is, I don’t know which ones are producing, if they’re rotating every other day or it’s the same ones. All I do think I’m certain of is that the one that is now always found sitting on them is more than likely not the one who’s laying them… Evidence you ask?… -_- One built nest not built by me, two eggs in said nest that was miraculously made overnight. One massive fluffy chicken sitting on top… Problem? The big chicken sitting on them is the only rooster out of the mini flock! Look, I don’t judge, you do you, but come on! They may both be his but I’m pretty darn sure neither one of them actually came out of him. I’ve been tempted to start picking up the girls and giving them a squeeze like in the old cartoons to see if an egg pops out or even giving them a bit of a shake to see if there’s one rattling around inside. Someone’s gotta tell me who’s doing what because by this point I’m starting to question everything.

 

[PoppasGrill]

So I used to love my rescued chickens, but now I’m convinced that they’re out to screw with me now. I’m getting two eggs a day which is great, don’t get me wrong. The issue is, I don’t know which ones are producing, if they’re rotating every other day or it’s the same ones. All I do think I’m certain of is that the one that is now always found sitting on them is more than likely not the one who’s laying them… Evidence you ask?… -_- One built nest not built by me, two eggs in said nest that was miraculously made overnight. One massive fluffy chicken sitting on top… Problem? The big chicken sitting on them is the only rooster out of the mini flock! Look, I don’t judge, you do you, but come on! They may both be his but I’m pretty darn sure neither one of them actually came out of him. I’ve been tempted to start picking up the girls and giving them a squeeze like in the old cartoons to see if an egg pops out or even giving them a bit of a shake to see if there’s one rattling around inside. Someone’s gotta tell me who’s doing what because by this point I’m starting to question everything.

We have a couple Roos that will swap out with a broody hen so she can eat.

Funny that it was a bantam hen brooding and this hippy fella sat for her to eat. Later that afternoon she was back on the eggs.

 

[2 chiks n a roo]

So I used to love my rescued chickens, but now I’m convinced that they’re out to screw with me now. I’m getting two eggs a day which is great, don’t get me wrong. The issue is, I don’t know which ones are producing, if they’re rotating every other day or it’s the same ones. All I do think I’m certain of is that the one that is now always found sitting on them is more than likely not the one who’s laying them… Evidence you ask?… -_- One built nest not built by me, two eggs in said nest that was miraculously made overnight. One massive fluffy chicken sitting on top… Problem? The big chicken sitting on them is the only rooster out of the mini flock! Look, I don’t judge, you do you, but come on! They may both be his but I’m pretty darn sure neither one of them actually came out of him. I’ve been tempted to start picking up the girls and giving them a squeeze like in the old cartoons to see if an egg pops out or even giving them a bit of a shake to see if there’s one rattling around inside. Someone’s gotta tell me who’s doing what because by this point I’m starting to question everything.

Omg, I love the babysitting Roo...

There is a foolproof way to see who has an egg in the hatch, and who hasn't..
When they face away from you, those that have already laid an egg, backend is smaller as in emptied than those who have yet to lay.. this is dependant on them laying the same time of day though.
When they have a split time, (am/pm or hens just 3-4 hours apart) it's harder but ya can still see the difference. Either way, those ready to lay's bums are wider almost square and lower than the ones already popped, those not ready seem to look like their bums are skinnier.
Also you can cup your hand gently under their bum and feel the weight without lifting her up. This is how I know which of mine have already laid and who's standing in line I'll try and get pics tomorrow. It's weds night now and they're all tucked in for the night

 

[Gwindollyn]

In our setup, the coop is in the center and the run is a large square around it. We picked a muscadine off our vines that was ripe and tossed it into the run. Golda, our most egg laying and vocal of the bunch, snatched it up and took off running around the coop where we couldn't see, with the others in hot pursuit. As the herd (?) of chickens came running around the side of the coop and into view, Zippy, (Aptly named), had possession of the muscadine and was leaving the rest behind searing the dirt with her high-stepping, fast moves.

 

[FrostRanger]

I was out there a bit ago and was doing a quick health check on the ladies. I pick up Basil and she made a screeching noise that sounded like it came from a dinosaur! Everyone is healthy including the flock loudmouth lol

This wasn't my chicken (yet) but yesterday I was riding to work and decided to stop by tractor supply to get a Powerade and a snack. Turns out they open later than I thought and I had gotten there a few minutes too early but I saw a bantam running around the parking lot with the employees trying to catch it. I came back a few hours later after work to try and catch it and while I was unsuccessful, that bird was constantly chattering while I was trying to approach it. I have never heard a bird be so noisy while someone was trying to catch it lol. I did leave my name and number with the tractor supply so if they catch it in the live trap they set they'll give me a call. I am unsure of the breed and I want to get a better look at the bird before I can say for sure on the gender, but I am surprisingly leaning towards hen but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong (a roo would be easier to integrate into my flock of 7 girls)