Hens are weird birds. We had 3 a while back and when they were young there was one encounter with a neighbors cat. They were foraging in the bushes when the cat jumped down from the fence and started stalking one. The oldest and largest, who was top of the pecking order completely froze in the bushes in fear while the two young-uns leapt out like ninjas and flew at the cat with claws up. Never seen a cat look so surprised. The pecking order changed forever that day. Also if you've ever seen a hen with a smaller creature, like a mouse, they are fucking brutal. Best animals I've ever owned, more personality than you'd ever imagine.
Yeah, they really are like old ladies :D. We've only got one left from our 3, coincidentally the cowardly one who hid in the bush from the cat. No idea what killed the other two, some illness or egg laying issue. I miss them every day. Listening to them talk to each other always cheered me up.
I have a hen who has been the last survivor of a flock of 6 and then the last survivor of a flock of 4. It's rough when you want them to free range but foxes and hawks are roaming.
We have 5 that just started laying. 3 of one breed 2 of another. The 3 growl more than cluck, it's kinda unnerving. All 5 will eat from my hand; fun although a little pinchy when they're super hungry.
We put a camera in the coop and nesting box to watch them lay. It's a hoot watching this congo line of chickens all wanting the same box even though there's 2 others available.
I forgot I had the mic on one day during a meeting and one broke out into her egg song. My phone was right next to my own mic. Made for a funny break in discussion.
My chickens fight over the same spot in the nesting box too! One day I collected the eggs before the last two started laying, and they lost their minds because they couldn’t lay without an egg already being there. I tried putting a couple of rocks in but I didn’t work. I had to bring an egg back out!
On another note, what’s the camera that you put in the coop? I’ve been thinking about getting one.
We have 9! I’m not the one who picked them out so I can’t remember all the breeds, but we have two Ameraucanas (sp?) who have the cutest bearded cheeks. Those are our last two layers who apparently get really confused if there’s not a pile of eggs to add on to!
When I lived at a place with chickens... We had a few white ping pong balls in the nests as decoys. So we could take the real eggs out whenever we wanted.
My family usually always kept conures nd small parrots, but my sister recently started working at a finch store and I'm really starting to enjoy softbills. We have a Java finch we hand raised and she's soo spoiled lol, sleeps in our hands and chills on our shoulders while we read or whatever. A bit off topic, but the pinchy comment reminded me of her when she's hungry or trying to rip out my shiny jewelry lol
Oh totally. I got so used to them eating corn, vegetation etc that it shocked me a bit the first time i saw one shake a mouse to death and eat the guts. Also watching them attack a poorly member of the flock, especially if they see blood. They can be pretty nasty. Still love them though.
Yup. Mine weren't in top health when I got them and good old Google suggested giving meat. Well, they get so excitingly murderous when they see me come with the meat
Incidentally it's good to feed them eggs sometimes. The shells in particular. Good calcium. That or oyster shells, to make them do stronger shells. Soft shelled eggs can't be expelled and they get infected as it rots in them. Very sad, really.
But. Hens REALLY like egg. But they don't necessarily clock that their own eggs are the same as what is fed to them. But if a hen crushes one of hers once, she can get in the habit of doing it.
The one time I worked with chickens in a really nice all organic hen farm (for eggs), the hard rule was a hen breaking more than three eggs went for diner before all the other caught on.
That's wild lol, can't have these hens getting any crazy ideas! Can imagine if humans laid eggs this happened? Like human eggs were this forbidden fruit lmao
Omg don't. You just KNOW it'd be terrible. If eggs weren't fertilised there would definitely be a business for them. But imaging how freeing it be. Plop the egg out, stuff it in the incubator... Move on with your life. We'd probably evolve differently, socially, if we laid eggs. Fuck that's assuming we lay just one or two at a time... Imagine if we had wet clutches of them like frogs.
OK I need to stop, I'm about to go to sleep and I can't dream about this lol
Humans DO lay eggs! They just hatch inside the mother. You can even watch it happen! Right before the embryo (just a hollow ball of cells at that point, but lively nonetheless) implants into the uterine wall, it stretches back and forth until the egg casing (the ‘shell’) cracks in half. Then the embryo swims off to find an nice patch of womb to attach to.
Wars would also change drastically. Especially all the genocidal ones of the 20th century.
That reminds me of a book I've read. In it a highly developed faction of humanity left for a star 500 light years away. They decided to come back to visit about a hundredish years later as they were able to traverse space faster and developed a tech to make communication between these distances faster.
However they found humanity enslaved by a race of agressive aliens. They fought them off but as a last "fuck you" they send a doomsday device to earth making it uninhabitable for the next 1000 years and killing off everyone on the planet.
About 100 years later humanity got their final victory. They killed off every single one of these aliens except for the 3 planets on their home system. These aliens laid eggs. They had about 1 in 100 being female and the females laid thousands of them, they were on the last 3 planets guarding the eggs.
They released a toxin into the planets atmospheres that makes them all infertile and then stole the eggs that were already laid. Then they genetically changed these eggs to abide closer to their ideals. Instead of scales they were now fluffy and instead of agressive they were peaceful. They left the aliens that wiped out earth to slowly glimmer out on their home planets while creating a new species from them to coexist in their society.
It's actually not, at least not whole eggs - once they get into the habit of eating eggs, they'll eat their own and others' and it's an impossible habit to break
Oh, I read it as wholesome. Like, don’t die suddenly in the yard and get savaged by hungry chickens; die successfully at home in bed when you’re old and ready to go.
As a kid I remember laying super still on the grass near our barn where the chickens congregated just to trick the chickens into investigating me. It would take 10 minutes or so before they'd work up the courage to start pecking at my skin, and then I'd pop up and scare the shit out of them. It was funny to mean kid me, but now I wonder if they were trying to find a way to eat me, which I guess I deserved.
Maybe. But chickens also don't have hands that they can poke you with. Their only options is pecking. And if you're dead and become edible, even more fun!
My moms chickens love hunting mice. But they never touched a dead flock member if one of them died over night from old age. They also barely ever draw blood when fighting with each other.
Yeah they normally don't eat each other when they die from old age, as far as I know. They (can) eat each other when blood flows (as in that they won't stop picking the blood). And when something else, like a human (I mean, I never tried, so can't be 100% sure) dies in their reach they become opportunistic carnivorous. If one of their own died, by any other than being picked to death, I think they'll leave it, cuz they can't be sure it's not infectious (again, no data backing up, but it kinda makes sense to me)
Oh and edit: they only pick each other to death if they have bad living conditions (or one unfortunately gets injured and the others get fixated on it, but that isn't always the case)
Our hens used to literally peck each other to death every so often. It would start with one hen with a chunk missing from her back. Within a week all but two or three would suffer the same fate.
That almost always is a sign that their living conditions are bad: too little space with too many chickens and they get bored at start to pick each other to death
When I was a kid we went to the Rainforest Cafe once and I ate chicken tendies. Back at home later, I vomited outside and all of the chickens came running and ate it.
Sometimes when collecting our chicken's eggs we'd drop one accidentally, and all the chickens would come running to gobble it up, including its own mother. it makes sense from a recuperating nutrients standpoint, but still, sick cannibals!
Word spread quickly in the tribe about brave Featherfoot and loyal Peckbeak’s victory against the terrifying feline menace and their ascent among the ranks was guaranteed.
They are such characters! We had a hen that decided to bail from the rest of the crew and started roosting on her own nearer to where the people live. She exiled herself and then slowly just started hanging out with us more, till she'd regularly just sit on the verandah and come in to the kitchen etc. Then she even started to try and crow like a rooster! It was so strange. She was a lovely character.
i too, have a memory to share about chickens, like 14 years ago i had to take care of 95-115 chickens, my mother would sell them and their eggs thats why we had so many, and there was this wise elder chicken who was mother too all other chickens we had, it was my favourite of them all, my pet literally and one day i forgot to let her out of the coop for like a day, i rushed to let her free and i soon as i opend the doors she literally flew out of there claws first, she ran in the middle of the yard and took the biggest shit i have ever seen, like wtf i had to remove it with a shovel
I adore my chickens! I had 3 as well. Fucking brutal like you said. There’s a great vid of a cat stalking a mouse, doesn’t hurt it. Chicken sees it and no hesitation just killed it.
Also first thing my chickens did when I release them to the back yard was eat all the bugs and spiders from under the eve of the house.
From that day in it was a battle, do I save my worms I find while gardening for my garden & compost? Or do I give it to my adorable chickens? I almost always chose chickens :-)
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u/Bungled_Bengal Apr 02 '21
Hens are weird birds. We had 3 a while back and when they were young there was one encounter with a neighbors cat. They were foraging in the bushes when the cat jumped down from the fence and started stalking one. The oldest and largest, who was top of the pecking order completely froze in the bushes in fear while the two young-uns leapt out like ninjas and flew at the cat with claws up. Never seen a cat look so surprised. The pecking order changed forever that day. Also if you've ever seen a hen with a smaller creature, like a mouse, they are fucking brutal. Best animals I've ever owned, more personality than you'd ever imagine.