What does this behavior mean?

[OrpingtonManiac]

Indeed it is! I don't use any mask at all. In fact I don't even have a poop board - the poop falls straight onto the straw on the floor of the coop. When it builds up I just muck it out for compost and replace it with either fresh hay or dead tree leaves. Any residual poop on the perch is easily pushed off with a paint scraper.

SeriousDogFeet, why do you use such a heavy duty mask?

Perhaps they could have some kind of condition that will be affected by the dust/poop?

 

[SamLockwood]

So my lowest ranking girl, Cordelia, recently started laying. She instantly went from untouchable to being my best friend. I absolutely love the change, but she has started being really involved when I clean the coop. She fusses around the best boxes, she parades back and forth in front of me on the roost bars, and she picks around wherever I'm trying to clean. She vocalizes a lot and does a lot of what I can only describe as a whine and I have no idea what it means. Is she just hanging out with me for fun? Or does she feel threatened that I'm close to the nest boxes and she's warning me? I usually just stop and love on her now and then, but if this is her feeling uncomfortable, I don't want to make her MORE uncomfortable and I'll just try to clean as quick as I can and get out.

https://ring.com/share/b2615fc2-f901-4d06-a25c-0f072e620389

Also, I know this isn't the place for this question, but while I'm posting, I've noticed a few of the girls are getting straight/messy bum feathers. Do I clean them or leave them?

Both hens and roosters often go through personality shifts as they mature, and overall they get more confedent as they reach adulthood.

Chickens in general hate change, and they never like it when you mess around with their environment. Any time I change the bedding and straw they'll complain. And when I had to make some alterations to better rat-proof one of the coops one of my younger hens flat-out threw a temper tantrum, flew on top of the awning on my house, and made a noisy show of trying to make a nest up there until I finished what I was doing.

Any time I clean up or make any sort of alteration there's usually the same "suspects" that eyeball me the whole time and when I'm done they move in and look over every detail of what I did. I call them "the building inspectors."

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@SplendidDogFeet I wear a mask when I clean my poop boards too; in fact I'm amazed everybody doesn't! My poop boards contain a mixture of construction sand and sweet PDZ and when I sift the droppings out of it, it raises up a dust cloud. No way I want to be inhaling that! I'm a former smoker and I want to take better care of my lungs. And there are respiratory diseases, serious ones, you can get from inhaling chicken dropping dust and dander. So you keep masking up, it's smart and healthy. Oh, and just an FYI - I also wear disposable non-latex nitrile gloves!

 

[SplendidDogFeet]

Indeed it is! I don't use any mask at all. In fact I don't even have a poop board - the poop falls straight onto the straw on the floor of the coop. When it builds up I just muck it out for compost and replace it with either fresh hay or dead tree leaves. Any residual poop on the perch is easily pushed off with a paint scraper.

SeriousDogFeet, why do you use such a heavy duty mask?

I have a few health conditions that are easy to trip and I also learned it from a person on another chicken group I'm in. I hadn't thought about it until she brought it up, and many people chimed in afterwards talking about how they or their loved ones have gotten sick from not taking precautions. Since the sand is easy to kick up when I'm working in their spaces and I don't enjoy feather and poop particles in my nose, mouth, and lungs, I just take wear the mask. I'm also allergic to the adhesives they use making the non-floppy disposable n95s, so that's not an option. Other people can do whatever makes them happy, but this works for me

 

[thistlewick]

our cell phones are dirtier than toilet seats in a public bathroom; so there is that.


I use nitrile gloves to clean up as well, because it's faster to clean up by just taking them off.

that old show mythbusters was sure awesome

 

[ChookaPete]

I have a few health conditions that are easy to trip and I also learned it from a person on another chicken group I'm in. I hadn't thought about it until she brought it up, and many people chimed in afterwards talking about how they or their loved ones have gotten sick from not taking precautions. Since the sand is easy to kick up when I'm working in their spaces and I don't enjoy feather and poop particles in my nose, mouth, and lungs, I just take wear the mask. I'm also allergic to the adhesives they use making the non-floppy disposable n95s, so that's not an option. Other people can do whatever makes them happy, but this works for me

All good . I appreciate the detail!