Wow, I never really believed that chickens memories were THAT short...

[caralouise1974]

It rained hard this evening in the West Midlands over here in the UK, for the first time in ten days or so.

My buff orpington was absolutely bewildered and freaked out! She ruffled up her back feathers, dropped her tail towards the floor, made scared clucking noises, and stood stock still in their covered run. I thought she was eggbound or something (she behaves exactly this way when she's got a soft shelled egg she's trying to lay), so I was squatting outside in the rain watching her and trying to figure out how I could help.

So, once I was entirely soaked to the skin (and at 36 weeks pregnant, getting cold and very wet is not the cleverest thing for me to be doing! My DH is very cross with me!) the rain eased a little, the noise on the plastic roof subsided, and Henny Penny stood upright, stopped clucking, and took herself off to bed. How cross was I about her frightening me like that?!

It has truly amazed me that it has only taken her 10 days to forget what rain is! I really did give chickens more credit than that. They sure are stupid

 

[codybird]

If chickens were mildly intelligent they would be in charge.......more than they already are.

 

[hen-thusiast]

 

[Emzyyy]

My chickens are terrified of unbrellas, I spent an hour catching 3 roosters who flew across our five acres I really did not think chickens could fly that far, and I slipped trying to run up a hill of mud I was covered in mud head to toe by the time I caught all of them.

 

[caralouise1974]

'In charge' you say? Hmm, no-one else but Henny Penny could have persuaded me to crouch on the lawn in the pouring rain! Even the baby was kicking me in the ribs, telling me to get up, and I ignored it!

Henny Penny's definitely already in charge, despite being unbelievably stupid.

 

[Uppity Peon]

I got soaked yesterday trying to herd the girls inside during a downpoor yesterday too! I got all but 2 of them in but those 2 GLW chicks would have none of it. I finally decided to give it up, at least they were under the overhangs and only getting the rain that came in with the wind gusts. They seem fine today.

By the way, does "Worcestershire" really rhyme with "rooster"?

 

[caralouise1974]

Quote:
Why on earth do we let them make such fools of us?!

 

[caralouise1974]

Quote:
Erm, I'm pondering how on earth you could be pronouncing it so that it does rhyme with 'rooster' but I'm afraid you got me there!

It's pronounced something like these three syllables...

'wuss-stir-shurr'

So no, sadly, none of that rhymes with 'rooster' I'm afraid. It would've been nice to claim it did though!

 

[Uppity Peon]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[caralouise1974]

We have some very strange pronunciations over here. For example:

At the tender age of 14, I was walking through a neighbouring village called 'Wickhamford', and some rather charming American tourists pulled up next to me and called 'Excuse me, is this Wick-Haam-Fudd?' (With the emphasis firmly on the 'Haam')

They were being completely sensible with this pronunciation. The actual pronunciation is not so sensible: 'Wick-Um-Forrd' (with the emphasis heavily on the 'Forrd')

I, being an awful adolescent and total village bumpkin, couldn't help but have a little chuckle at their silly American pronunciation before correcting them in that irritatingly smug and patronising manner that only middle class English teenagers have so far managed to perfect. I've always felt rather bad about it ever since.

Here's another for you: there's a town near Oxford called 'Bicester'. Pronounced 'biss-stir'. And there's also 'Leominster' - 'lemm-stir'.

Yeah, how completely ridiculous. We English are a strange lot.