Friday, July 28, 2006
New Chickens! | Reason vs instinct
¶ 8:48 PM 
| The reason for the peculiar title will become apparent a bit further down. Read on! This is the first vid footage (funny word, 'footage', in this digital era...) of my Sumatra boy crowing. Quite biblicaly, he crows three times in this vid :) Big doings in the fowlyard these past week or so. Here's the new flock configuration: One Sumatra rooster, one Phoenix hen, one Welsummer hen (who does not appear in this video, alas; she is still very timid around the others), one Cuckoo Marans, and two half-tailed blue-egg laying crosses. Yes, I decided that it would be best if one of the males went, so I found him a 'good home in the country'. No, really! He has a great place with several hens of his own. When I went to get a male to take, I had put some time trying to decide which one I wanted to keep. As Bill and I chased around the pen trying to catch one (the best time to catch them of course is at night when they are roosting, but that didn't fit into the timeframe we had), Bill asked "Which one should we keep?" I replied "Whichever one we don't catch. So, as was later pointed out to me, I am well started in my genetic selection for 'uncatchability' in my flock ;-) The day after I moved the 'extra' Sumatra boy, I brought in the four new hens froma nearby breeder; they are about a year old and actively laying. So (we're getting to the part that relates to the title now): I have four hens to add to a mini-flocklet of two, the Phoenix and the Sumatra. The breeder wisely suggested I segregate them, but I don't really have the facilities for that. She suggested that I at least keep them crated up (they were in a dog kennel for transport) until evening when I could place them on the roost by hand, but I thought it was too hot for that, and I wanted to see them happily scratching around. So, I got home and just let them all out at once (it was around 1PM). No problem! Everyone settled down to pecking and scratching most satisfactorily. The Phoenix came in for a bit of bullying, but nothing more serious than a peck on the head (she spent most of the first several days glued to the Sumatra). So all seemed well, and after about 10 minutes of chicken-watching and getting-eaten-by-mosquitoes, I went off to do something with a friend. The rooster was in heaven - just coming to adulthood, no male rivals, and his own flock literally plopped down into his yard. Came home about 4PM, and there was the Marans running around the yard outside the pen. Whoops. I thought it would be clever to let the Sumatra out (he was obsessed with the Marans, I guess size does matter, as she is the biggest hen) to get her back into the chicken yard. That worked surprisingly well - only the Phoenix came out with him (she was glued to him, a little overwhelmed by the introduction of four older hens, I guess), and he indeed did go to work rounding up 'his' new hen - with, of course, a short diversion to eat some yummy greens. OK, so they're in. I fasten the rickety 'gate', go to the house, do some stuff, then come out ot the porch to hang some clothes or something. I'm yakking on the phone, so it takes me a while to notice that I'm not alone (fortunately the dogs were inside) - the Marans is on the porch too. Grrr. I figure she'll go back in when the sun sets, but after about 20 minutes I am worried because she doesn't have water and looks stressed (mouth open). I herd her up to the pen and get her in without too much trouble. Then I sit ona chair outside the gate and consider. She starts trying to get through the gate again. I flap her away from the gate. The rooster helps by getting between her and the gate and chivvying her towards the henhouse (he also takes the opportunity to nail her, wasting no time in fertilizing some eggs). Then I notice the other new hens are also testing the fence borders and looking stressed. Odd! They seemed fine at mid-day. It's nearly sundown; they ought to be going to the henhouse (they had all gone in earlier to check it out and eat) to get on the roost. Thats' what hens -do-. Well, duh! It finally hits me that what hens -do-, in reality, is return to the SAME roosting spot every night. These hens had no idea where their roost was (several miles away), but they DID know it wasn't where they were. They'd been happy to scratch around during the day, but they wanted to get home for night! NOW I understood why I should have kept them confined until evening that first day. So I stayed out that evening, getting eaten alive by skeeters and discouraging the hens from testing the fence too much, hoping they'd eventually follow the Sumatra and the Phoenix inside to roost. But of course the Sumatra wanted to be where his new girls were! The Welsummer actually got out in a panic flight, but was just on the fencing and I got her back in with no real trouble. I wondered if I would have to catch them all one-by-one and put them in the house. But as it got dimmer, several went into the house and I breathed the proverbial sigh-of-relief. Then all but one were inside. Then most of them came out again. Grrr. Then they went in, and out, and in.... Well, all at once they seemed to catch a thought-wave from the Phoenix and went in, and within minutes I heard them flying up to the roost. With a quarter-hour everyone was settled in, I closed the door and didn't let them out of the henhouse for another two days :) No problems at night since then, and no passion for escaping. I haven't started giving them evenings out yet; Bill wants me to wait until after tomato season :) but I want to wait until they are a bit more coherent as a group; the Welsummer is still too nervous to stick close to the others. So here's what the title refers to: I made the mistake of thinking like a person (there's a nice roost, they should find it with no trouble) rather than like a chicken (I need to get where I was LAST night, and fast!) and I could have easily had uneasy chickens wandering the neighborhood all evening, prey for loose dogs. Chickens can seem pretty clever at times, and they are awfully engaging to watch, but their minds - unlike those of humans - work almost completely on instictive reaction rather than reasoning. That's part of what makes them so fascinating ... and so frustrating! | |
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Sounds like some of mine, only I have 2 frizzles & one other who I have to put up every night, I enjoyed your story.
# posted by 
: 10:45 PM
: 10:45 PM
Thanks! I am lucky that mine all put themselves up at night without trouble - once we got past that first day!
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