Chickens are strange birds. On the one hand they seem smart. My hens know to come when called, they know I am the bringer of treats, they know Mike is not. On the other hand they’re pretty dumb. Everything shiny must be pecked and shadows are scary.
We’re two girls down here at the hennery. Yesterday I sent Pru and Danny home with my friend Denise. She’s had a run of bad luck with her birds and was down to 2 hens and 4 roosters. The two hens will bring her back to even at least. Plus my coop is just barely big enough for 6 birds when they’re in there full time and everyone was starting to get a little stressed – me included.
So now there are four. And I think that’s a pretty good number until we can move and expand their space.
But back to the minds of chickens. The girls have been staying up late partying for the past month or two. But now everyone but Agnes has decided that sleeping in the roost box is overrated. Tonight they were not only sleeping down in the run, but actually in the complete exposed part. And it’s in the high 30s!
Silly birds. If they get frost bite it’s totally on them.
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Hah! Little bird brains. Glad you opted to relieve the stress in their little world by giving them more room. But four roosters? That’s just BUSY.
I swear MY girls are Rhodes scholars some days, at least compared to our guineas. What’s with sleeping in the nesting box, though. I have one girl who insists on it (and she’s not broody). But I guess sitting down on a nest of straw beats balancing on a pole up in the air…
don’t the 4 rooster fight all the time? and won’t they constantly be after the hens? I’m just curious.
They do have some odd habits don’t they? I have three that we have to physically bring in every night. It’s like they can’t find the door…
And out here we have lots of critters that would love to stumble across three fat hens in the dark.
I’ve been catching up on your housing saga – hope things are looking up soon.
YES! I totally know what you mean. You start thinking they are smart and then they do something that TOTALLY confirms where the phrase “bird brain” came from! Last week TWO of my birds made my jaw drop on two separate occasions with their complete STUPIDITY. I have to kennel our dogs in a coral in order to let my girls free range. I thought they were very clear on staying out of this area, but no apparently they weren’t. I kenneled the dogs, let the chickens out, went inside to have a snack and happened to glance out the window to see my dog with a black blob of chicken in his jaws. I went shrieking outside and much to my surprise our dog with a very high prey drive dropped the chicken and backed away. I must have scared the crud out of him as I’ve never seen him loose consentration on prey so quickly before. Surprisingly the chicken was alive & is well. Also surprisingly a few days later one of the other girls tried to do a similar stunt. So yes, chickens are stupid stupid stupid!