What did your chickens do today?

[lauranickerson]

My favorite chicken, Lady, the Leghorn pullet, likes to jump onto shoulders. Today, she thought it would be great to jump from about 8 feet ONTO my face, the climb up it onto the top of my head. Let's just say, I hope I don't get weird looks tomorrow at work (I work in Sales

) from all the scratches.

 

[AParmer]

I treated my flock to chilled blackberries this morning. Most of them liked it. My two guinea keets and Blue Jersey Giant chicks didn't seem interested.

 

[LaLa Chickie]

I let all the hens out early. When JamJam who is in her own "yard" starting have a fit. I thought she was upset that she couldn't be out with the others, What she was upset about was a lineman who had jumped our fence to clear the bushes around the electric lines. She's a good watch dog. I told him he was upsetting my chickens. My fence says beware of "dogs"...pretty close! He went back into the neighbors to finish using his weed eater and blower. All the hens came back out of their coops from hiding from that horrible noise!

...Now they are all eating watermelon and dried meal worms. Happy Hens!

 

[iamjohn]

This is a new picture of my hen that was hurt last week. I tried to put her back with the other chicks a couple days ago but she didn't have a good experience so her and her sister were put back in their own pen. Yesterday they spent time with the chicks but my hurt girl ran to me for protection and she rested her head on my chest and looked up at me sadly so I put her back in her pen. A little bit later she was asking to get out of her pen and back with the chicks and that is where she has stayed. She's had a couple minor run ins with roos but hasn't gotten hurt. She is getting back into the normal routine of the chicks and seems to be adjusting well.




The problem roo, Red, has been going through retraining so he can be allowed full access to the rest of the chicks. He had one trip back in but he blew it. Today his attitude has turned around and my other roos have accepted him back into the pack. There have been funny moments like when Red tried to bully a smaller australorp only to have that australorp win the fight - a very brief fight. Red also tried to bully my king roo Teddy but Teddy basically turned his back on him and treated him like he didn't exist. That frustrated Red and he stood there feeling ignore and then Teddy turned around and shot Red a look and Red ran away lol. Red has also learned that me sternly calling him by his name means trouble and he has learned that trouble means a trip to solitary. So far his attitude has improved and it may be good news for him.

In other good news Teddy escaped his run and went free ranging. It was cute because he ran around in the tall weeds calling his chicks but realized they couldn't get out so he went back to be with them. They have a lot of room to move but they want to explore and I'm going to help them learn more about the farm.

 

[Angelicisi]

I have a hen that does this, table saw, dog house is her favorite lol, chairs, scrap bins...anywhere but a neat (many diff nests and material tried lol)

I have a question. Why would Lucy all of a sudden start laying her egg in random places around the house/yard? For about two weeks she used her box. Now she has put it on the couch a couple times, the driver seat of my husbands car, the seat to the lawnmower and we couldn't find yesterday's but it turned up on the bale of straw they slept on last night. It's like an Easter egg hunt. Who knows where it will be today? Lol

 

[LibRat]

I have a hen that does this, table saw, dog house is her favorite lol, chairs, scrap bins...anywhere but a neat (many diff nests and material tried lol)

Today was the cats food bowl :/ lol if it weren't for the egg song I don't think we would find them sometimes.

 

[LittleBits]

Quote: Well, they are chicken brains, after all!

 

[LittleBits]

Yesterday, I tried putting Greenie back into the run w/ the other chickens.v. Didn't go so well. She's either afraid of being in there because of the attack several weeks ago or she is terrified of Mr. Roo, which I think is the case.

She runs away, cowers in corners, flies to the top of the coop - even hides under my feet - and she IS NOT a friendly - love - human - chicken. Then she runs away from Mr. Roo ( she can outrun, outfly him anytime) and everyone else chases her; I suppose they think she has something that they want?!

So I put her back in a cage, where she seems to be perfectly content and happy by herself in this small space. I don't know what to do. Can't keep her in there forever - it's not even our cage... I tried the gradual - get used to the other chickens first - and this did not work. Results were the same. She didn't act like this when we first got them all.

So anyone have any suggestions? Anyway, that's what Greenie did yesterday. Today, she pecked, ate, pooped, ate some more, laid a green egg, and is now sleepin' in her nest box rather than on the small roost I stuck through the bars of the cage. I think she feels safe in there. She's a small hen, lays a small green egg, and quite excitable.

 

[Angelicisi]

Shes pretty. Mines flighty too and at the bottom of the pecking order, poor things so sweet too and sometimes another hen will just go outta her way to be mean. But they live together and there's no attack attacks :/ anytime one of my girls was seperated for a week or more she had to run the pecking order gauntlet again I'd keep trying. I stood over them for awhile nervous, them I got a super soaker squirt gun...bigvone so I could reach the run...fighting was almost non exsistant after a few squirts. (we're on the 2nd floor with wrap around porch, runs within shot distance so we can keep an eye out for predators)so it works, sorta like a shower to disrupt the bickering. I keep the bright yellow toy in sight lol

[COLOR=0000FF]Yesterday, I tried putting Greenie back into the run w/ the other chickens.v. Didn't go so well. She's either afraid of being in there because of the attack several weeks ago or she is terrified of Mr. Roo, which I think is the case.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]She runs away, cowers in corners, flies to the top of the coop - even hides under my feet - and she IS NOT a friendly - love - human - chicken. Then she runs away from Mr. Roo ( she can outrun, outfly him anytime) and everyone else chases her; I suppose they think she has something that they want?! [/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]So I put her back in a cage, where she seems to be perfectly content and happy by herself in this small space. I don't know what to do. Can't keep her in there forever - it's not even our cage... I tried the gradual - get used to the other chickens first - and this did not work. Results were the same. She didn't act like this when we first got them all.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]So anyone have any suggestions? Anyway, that's what Greenie did yesterday. Today, she pecked, ate, pooped, ate some more, laid a green egg, and is now sleepin' in her nest box rather than on the small roost I stuck through the bars of the cage. I think she feels safe in there. She's a small hen, lays a small green egg, and quite excitable. [/COLOR]

 

[BarredRockMom]

My two newest girls have found cicadas in the yard at last!! They devoured them quite loudly but the older girls didn't seem interested in the little ones or stealing their food, for once. I was finishing some things outside & my husband went into the coop to sit with the girls before their bed time, but my favorite chicken kept walking in and out of the coop calling to me. When I went into the coop, I got an earful about dawdling as she jumped in my lap & went to sleep. One of the "babies" decided to roost on my shoulder & the other was on "Dad's" shoulder. And "Dad", who warned me earlier not to train them to jump for grapes (that could become a bad habit, I suppose) proudly proclaimed "Hey, guess what? I'm training the little one here like a Falcon! When she gets up on her perch, I hold out my arm and she launches herself from across the coop, lands on my arm, walks up to my shoulder & lays down." Uh huh. And he wonders why I call her Sputnik! All of that natural talent combined with training means she should be ready for space travel any time.