Special relationship with your chickens

[eimalou]

My chickens will crouch down and put out their wings in a 'big' way (I think it's a protect-the-chicks stance) and let me pet them - or at least the wyandottes do that.  A few will scurry away, but most will walk up to me (or any of the kids) and crouch down if I bend over, and I'll pet them for a while.  They only started layi in October, and we don't have roosters, so I'm not sure if it is the pose for protecting chicks but I would imagine that it is.

 

The cochins will walk right up to me or the kids (and my 16 yr old son is 6'6" tall) and brush up against our legs, pretty much wait around for us to pick them up.  This summer, before they started laying in October, my daughter would sit on the tire 'cradle' swing with Princess Peeps, and the chicken would fall asleep on her lap while swinging.  The black cochin, Hawk, would get carried around from place to place by my 10 yr old son all day long, and just hang out wherever she was set down.  I definitely want more cochins in the future. 

 

One day Hawk did try to eat my 8 yr old daughter's front tooth, and she got her lower lip chomped on.  That was the day that she stopped calling that chicken Hannah Montana.  The cochin eggs are lighter in color and smaller, and the kids are always excited to get a cochin egg to eat.

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Mera Colling

[Sally John]

ummm. . . hens crouch down when they’re receptive to being mated. They fact that you don’t have any roosters suggests to me that they see you as the dominant rooster-surrogate.

 

 

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[Trae Dever]

I guess some people have a very "special" relationship with their chickens. It's even legal in Mississippi and parts of Arkansas I hear. :)

[Chris Squires]

I think your hens are asking to have sex with you! It is more obvious
with turkeys -- my turkey hens are always flirting with anything taller
than themselves. But chicken hens will do it to (as will parrots). Are
you stroking them on the back a lot?

Just a thought.
Chris
Little Biddy Farm

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[Robert Plamondon]

On Dec 17, 6:50 am, Trae Dever <t...@dever.us> wrote:
> I guess some people have a very "special" relationship with their chickens. It's even legal in Mississippi and parts of Arkansas I hear. :)

Let's keep the slurs to a minimum.

> Sally John wrote:
>
> ummm. . . hens crouch down when they’re receptive to being mated. They fact that you don’t have any roosters suggests to me that they see you as the dominant rooster-surrogate.

I've seen this stance in other circumstances, such as by a hen that is
being bullied mercilessly by other hens. A lot of chicken behavior is
common to both sexes. When a rooster finds something good to eat, he
calls the hens over using the same kinds of clucks than hens use to
call their chicks.

Robert Plamondon
http://www.plamondon.com