[Bert]

Inspired by a thread in members only. Here is a little story for you 


Last summer I was working in the veg garden when all hell broke out in the orchard ( the chickens residence ). I look up to see two of my girls having a tug of war with an adder . So I spend the next 10 or 15 minutes ( felt like an hour ) trying to wrestle this adder away without getting bitten. Spent the next 10 minutes standing in the middle of the orchard astride a very shocked & dazed adder while swotting  chickens away that wanted there play thing/ snack back. As all this was going on I was shouting at the top of my voice for the other half ( who is deaf as a ...... Post ). I know the rest of the village heard me shouting because I could hear my voice echoing off the mountain behind  . Anyway by the time I did finely get his attention the adder was starting to recover and was hissing to show how incredibly annoyed he was (he was bloody livid  ). Adder was removes safely no chickens were bitten 
Funny now very stressful at the time .
So what do your chickens do that drive you mad?

[Marches Farmer]

A whole bunch of the non-breeding ones going broody at the same time and leaving me short of eggs to sell at the farm gate!  I like having chicks hatched for free but always run out of housing for them by midsummer.

[HesterF]

Interesting - I tossed a big worm into one chicken pen this morning and all of them turned their noses (beaks?) up at it. I imagine they'd have run a mile over a snake!

The chickens don't drive me quite as mad as the ducks or geese who are all crazy and never do as they're told. Much like my children really. Certainly getting them into bed (birds and children) is a constant battle!

[Q]

I have had to rescue the neighbours cat who had ventured into the pen and got cornered. The chickens would not let it move - it was terrified.

Also they always find a way into the greenhouse and wreak havoc with the seedlings I have carefully nurtured.
They go crazy for the raspberries too - I hardly ever get any. 

[chrismahon]

Fighting over the same nest box Bert. 4 Wyandotte hens and 4 nest boxes. In fact, now that I think of it most of ours are on a 1:1 ratio and worst case it is 2:1. They all do it. Then one goes broody in the favourite box!


Also our young TNN cock (Jean-Claude) doodling at 4.00am and starting the others off -9 of them including our pet Orpington in the kitchen below us.


Talking of worms, we get some very large ones here which most ignore, but I had to stop a little TNN hen from eating a 9" one yesterday. I can't believe she could swallow it all anyway. But it might be the same one that ate the Hornet grub -essentially a 2" maggot. We had whip snakes in the Dordogne. They move so fast and used to terrify all the birds. Haven't seen any here yet.

[lord flynn]

all laying in the same nest box-they have 5 to choose from, all dark and curtained off-all 8 hens lay in the same one.


my two older rumpless araucana systematically kick out any bedding, of any description out of their nest box. They also insist they've never seen a human before, every.single.day.

[Womble]

The fact that they currently eat more eggs per week than I do, so have reduced me to buying them from the supermarket? 

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Hi there. My Pekin bantam and large fowl chickens are soooo friendly!! Which is lovely but can be a bit of a challenge when I'm cleaning them out-they all want to sit on my shoulder! (I've got . If I go up to have my coffee with them which is at least twice a day I get mobbed by a flurry of feathery footballs who ALL want to sit on my lap (all at the same time of course!!). My large fowl girls and boys are in a massive enclosure and all want to come and see me for cuddles when I go in to them but I can't pick up more than one at a time because they are so big! I love them all dearly and wouldn't have it any other way!! Keeping chickens is a lovely way to maintain your physical and emotional well being and are the loveliest creatures!