oh my goodness really? what an amazing roo. when i get my farm and set up my chicken rescue the first thing i will get is a roo
What's The "Smartest" Thing You've Seen a Chicken Do?
- Thread starter Redcatcher
- Start date
- Aug 8, 2011
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ha! tell my hubby that...
we did have a cow briefly last year... I've got milk goats but I was looking for a larger quantity of milk for making cheese. we found a nice brown swiss cow, they were ready to pull her first calf and were selling her as a milker. I was told was that she was easily handled before the calf arrived, but had gotten a little wild with it's arrival, and that she should settle down with a little gentle handling. Ok, so I'm a sucker for big liquid eyes and I was able to get her to sniff my fingers and I though, no problem, I've never minded doing a little training.
well "a little wild" fell *quite* short of the truth. this girl was pretty sure she wasn't a milk cow, but a fighting bull! she'd stand in the middle of the corral, snorting and bellowing, pawing and tossing dirt around, and flipping her head to show us what treatment we were going to get at the points of her dainty little brown swiss horns!
in order to milk her, we had to herd her into a squeeze pen, pull the gate closed with a rope from 20 feet away (lest she bolt), then snub her head to a stout post and tie a hind hoof back so she couldn't kick my head off! but hey, I'm not one to turn down a challenge, so... a little grain, some soft talk, a nice scratch where it itches and some udder relief, we can get through this!
So, 3 months later, she still thought she was Ms. Fighting Bull and we gave up on thinking she was ever going to be Sweet Bessy the Brown Swiss milker, and split the difference. the delta between the two is "dinner". moral of the story? if you're going to be mean, don't also be tasty...
ha! tell my hubby that...
we did have a cow briefly last year... I've got milk goats but I was looking for a larger quantity of milk for making cheese. we found a nice brown swiss cow, they were ready to pull her first calf and were selling her as a milker. I was told was that she was easily handled before the calf arrived, but had gotten a little wild with it's arrival, and that she should settle down with a little gentle handling. Ok, so I'm a sucker for big liquid eyes and I was able to get her to sniff my fingers and I though, no problem, I've never minded doing a little training.
well "a little wild" fell *quite* short of the truth. this girl was pretty sure she wasn't a milk cow, but a fighting bull! she'd stand in the middle of the corral, snorting and bellowing, pawing and tossing dirt around, and flipping her head to show us what treatment we were going to get at the points of her dainty little brown swiss horns!
in order to milk her, we had to herd her into a squeeze pen, pull the gate closed with a rope from 20 feet away (lest she bolt), then snub her head to a stout post and tie a hind hoof back so she couldn't kick my head off! but hey, I'm not one to turn down a challenge, so... a little grain, some soft talk, a nice scratch where it itches and some udder relief, we can get through this!
So, 3 months later, she still thought she was Ms. Fighting Bull and we gave up on thinking she was ever going to be Sweet Bessy the Brown Swiss milker, and split the difference. the delta between the two is "dinner". moral of the story? if you're going to be mean, don't also be tasty...
my chickens can fetch their treats in mid-air... Oh and i have a buff orpington who knows how to drink out of a sports bottle...
I wanted even more smart chicken stories so I did a search and found a thread short thread that suggested that Barred Rocks tended to be smarter than the average chicken. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2436245
I did another search for smart chicken stories and here was one from a short thread that I really liked from chickencharmer:
"I have heard that games are the smartest, and in my experience, they are. I had a OEGB hen named Daphne that was broody and was sitting on some plastic eggs in her nest. Her nest was not in the barn, so I had to take her off her nest during the night. During the night, a raccoon came and ravaged the nest and broke all the plastic eggs. In the morning, I let all the chickens out and Daphne of course ran away to her nest. I sat on a bench to watch the chickens, and after a while a distressed Daphne ran up to me and jumped on the bench beside me. She started tugging at my clothes like she wanted something. I've had this behavior before from her, so I knew something was wrong. So I got up and followed her as she led me to her nest. The poor girl wanted me to fix the destroyed nest, so I gave her new eggs, fixed it up, and she sat on it as happy as can be."
"I have heard that games are the smartest, and in my experience, they are. I had a OEGB hen named Daphne that was broody and was sitting on some plastic eggs in her nest. Her nest was not in the barn, so I had to take her off her nest during the night. During the night, a raccoon came and ravaged the nest and broke all the plastic eggs. In the morning, I let all the chickens out and Daphne of course ran away to her nest. I sat on a bench to watch the chickens, and after a while a distressed Daphne ran up to me and jumped on the bench beside me. She started tugging at my clothes like she wanted something. I've had this behavior before from her, so I knew something was wrong. So I got up and followed her as she led me to her nest. The poor girl wanted me to fix the destroyed nest, so I gave her new eggs, fixed it up, and she sat on it as happy as can be."
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The 'smartest' thing I have seen my chicken do is follow me when they know I'm 'going' to get some food. I usually have a bag of vegie in th garage. the run is right next to it. When i go get some, i usually leave the gate open because the bag is only 2 meters away. The next thing i know, all my 6 chickens have already snuck up behind me, staring intently at me. The instant I turn around I'm like O.O Oh my gawwwd. And then i go into a frenzy shooing them back in by throwing the vegie and yes, they all went in and started eating like they had never eaten vegie before.
Well, thats really the smartest thing I've known for them to do. Not like my chickens are smart.
Well, thats really the smartest thing I've known for them to do. Not like my chickens are smart.
aw Daphne sounds so sweet
bless her
I like having one long thread with a lot of smart chicken stories rather a bunch of short threads. In my effort to read more of such stories I found a link to a short thread with an intriguing story:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=533064&p=1
Keep those stories of smart chicken coming!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=533064&p=1
Keep those stories of smart chicken coming!
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There have been over 4300 views on this thread, but I want even more forum members to check it out just in case they have a story to share about their clever chickens.
Here is a link to a short thread that has some interesting stories and a video of a little rooster playing his version of fetch that really did make me LOL!
Check it out: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=326004&p=2
Here is a link to a short thread that has some interesting stories and a video of a little rooster playing his version of fetch that really did make me LOL!
Check it out: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=326004&p=2
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