Being A Chicken Is Tough Work!

[JP]

Yep, they work so dang hard at gettin' grubs and things, they have to have their daily nap or they go nuts!

Chicken Napping Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/January142010?authkey=Gv1sRgCOLK-a7At9emcA#

They dig them a hole & lay in it like a dog, lovin' every bit of it!


...JP

[reinbeau]

Don't they look like they're going into some kind of spasm when they dig their dustbath?  At least yours can still dustbathe, here in the frozen north it'll be months yet before they'll be able to do that outside again!

[mick]

I like chooks.

The local Ingham processing plant burnt to the ground last week, they did 120,000 chooks a day. Looks like the price of chook will go up here.

[poka-bee]

Don't they look weird flopping around & napping like dogs?  I have an EE with almost the same coloring!  I like where the silver laced and EE are sharing the hole, all tangled up!  Mine can't dust bathe till summer but not cause of the cold, we have MUD!  They do sometimes go into the sand under the cedar trees but it's not the same as the warm dry sun.

Jody

[Natalie]

My teenage son saw a group of my chickens dustbathing in the sun and came running to tell me that a bunch of my chickens are dying or dead.
I look over, as I was working in the garden on the other side of the yard and tell him they look fine to me.
He was incredulous, he said they look dead and some look like they are having seizures.
I tried to explain that they were in ecstacy, dustbathing in the afternoon sun but he was having none of it.
Some were spread out, twisted on their sides with one wing up in the air, others were doing the same but their feet were going a mile a minute trying stir up more dirt and their wings were flapping trying to get more dirt under their wings.
He walked away shaking his head and saying that they looked like they were dying to him but it was no business of his, they were my chickens and if I didn't care.....

[poka-bee]

Hee hee, thats funny Natalie!  Until I had chix I never imagined they did such things.  I was surprised to see the little chicks doing it too flipping shavings all over!  They give me a chuckle every day.

Jody

[ayyon2157]

     Any of you good folks know anything about hypnotizing a chicken? Here in darkest Indiana farm kids used to amuse themselves by putting a chicken's head under it's wing and tilting it all directions, and setting it down upon which it would remain motionless for a surprisingly long time.

     Another interesting method was to show a chicken a stick and drag the stick with the point on the ground away from the chicken producing immobility. I assume this was for when the fox carried it away.

     I always figured that as chickens were made to be eaten (generally alive) that a merciful God designed them to be unconscious when it happened.  Another factor of chicken design is to change directions when startled by a fast moving object to avoid diving hawks.  Doesn't work very well with automobiles however, as they will run across the road and change directions at the last moment.

     Remember a few years ago when the live chicken with it's head cut off was exhibited at fairs and featured in newspapers and magazines?

     Chickens have surprisingly different "personalities" if you get to know them well.

ayyon2157