Chicken brains....

[thistlebloom]

...and how do they work? I considered this as I tried to catch up on home weeding chores on Independence Day. (Wasn't Independence from weeds I guarantee ya! )

The girls kept up a constant muttering at their fence line near where I sweated.
"Let us out are you gonna let us out why can't we come out we want out let us out hey watcha doin' let us out..." and so on.

A squabble broke out between the Buff O. and the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte , Splash edition. The Lovely Jetta ( Black Australorp hen and reigning rooster wannabe ) hurried over to break it up and give the instigator, Buffy, a sharp peck to remind her to play nice.
Everyone went back to their pacing and muttering.
Once more the two crabby hens started pulling hair and scratching, or the chicken equivalent of a girl fight.
Once more the Lovely Jetta had to exercise some discipline.

So I wondered, not for the first time, about Jetta. She's my oldest hen and has been through two changes of layers. I happen to like her a lot, and so she's granted a lot of slack, but really she earns her keep. She's laid back and friendly and still lays large eggs with much regularity.

I had a rooster, a beautiful Barred Rock named Russell ( Crow ) who was her best buddy. You could always find them hanging out together, sunning themselves in their dust bowls, having chicken fellowship.

Unfortunately for Russell, his popularity didn't go far with the male contingent around here. Apparently they don't appreciate a little crowing at 3 a.m. . Every a.m. . And steadily throughout the day, every day. So, he was bought by a man down south who breeds chickens for fly tying feathers. Seems like a good life for a rooster.

Well Jetta missed him terribly.
One morning I heard an awful sound and rushed outside expecting to see some kind of carnage in the chicken yard, but nothing seemed amiss. I heard that awful noise a few more times that day and couldn't figure out what sort of animal was making it.
The noise continued now and then in the following days and I was never in the right place to pinpoint it.

Then one morning I was taking care of the other animals when it started. I turned in time to spot Jetta standing on a log and craning her neck in something close to a rooster posture and emitting the strangest hen crow ever.

Poor little darlin' was apparently trying to fill Russells position.

Time went on and eventually she stopped the crowing business. But now she has taken on Russells other, ahem, responsibilities...and surprisingly the other hens don't put up a fight.

She's the Boss lady for sure.

Seems like a lot goes on in those dinky little heads. Enough at least to give me something to ponder while I'm pulling weeds.

 

[curly_kate]

Great story!

 

[Carol Dee]

LOL

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a reason we call them bird-brains. It's not that they don't have any, just that they work differently than ours.

I have an older hen something like that, a Speckled Sussex/Black Australorp cross. Even with a young rooster in the flock, she is the boss. She also does that mating behavior. It's a dominance thing, not always sexual. She will do that to another hen in front of the young rooster and he does not dare try to interfere.

It's not that the rooster is that young. He's ten months old and the daddy of these,

so he is doing his job. But no way is he the boss!

 

[lesa]

It is an interesting sorority, isn't it? I love listening to the chickens when I am in the garden. They really do keep me company. They only complain if I don't throw enough weeds over the fence, fast enough and often enough! When I get tired of weeding- I tell myself I am harvesting free, organic food for the chickens! Cute story, thistle!

 

[ninnymary]

Ridgerunner, isn't that somewhat like us humans? The female rules the roost.

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridgerunner, isn't that somewhat like us humans? The female rules the roost.

Mary

I think there is a difference. My rooster is physically afraid of that hen. With men, they just don't want to see all those tears, so it's emotional blackmail, not physical fear.

 

[retiredwith4acres]

Good story!

I sometimes say, "chickens don't have brains". I have 3 chicken tractors inside my big run to put mom and babies into or separations of different kinds. My new buckeyes have been staying in one until recently. I opened the door to let them out but once or twice it blew shut so i open the let down the other door so no one could get accidently locked up in there in all this heat. Well it happened again and the chicken didn't have enough sense to get out the back way.

So many stories like that where I wondered if they had a brain. Love my birds!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

One of my stories regularly happens when I first let them out to free range for the first time with brooder raised chicks. They are usually about 8 weeks old. They may go in and out of the run gate several times during the day, but when it comes bedtime, they want to get back to the coop. If some happen to be on the side of the run fencing away from the gate, they just pace up and down the fence to try to find a way to get in. They totally forget about that gate they have been using.

Another gate story. I've seen this a few times with a broody and her chicks. Sometimes Mama walks out the run gate with her chicks in tow, but when she makes a sharp turn at the gate some of the chicks turn too quickly and get stuck on the wrong side of the fence. Mama is all upset and keeps telling the chicks to come on, get with the program, but she does not go back to the gate to collect them. This was when I had another older rooster. That rooster would go over to the chicks caught on the wrong side of the fence and squat down and watch them, protecting them until Mama figured out where the gate was. With one particular broody, a Black Australorp, the third time this happened that I noticed, he just looked at that hen with a look that clearly said, "Woman, I'm getting tired of this!" just before he sat down.

 

[hoodat]

Chicken police for laughs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQHDb-pF10