Chickens are interesting birds but they are not lovers. They do not preen one another or love on each other and they don’t tend to love on their owner. They, for the most part are nervous creatures and do not seek to be held or nurtured. They are not lovers and yet if you raise them or have one, you love them and adore them! You want to hold and love touching their soft feathers. Fine. You may desire to kiss them ( but don’t!) and you might even try to catch them from time to time to sit with them but on a whole, they are not nesters with people. They nest in boxes.
On a whole, the main focus of a chicken is to eat, peck the ground for food and eat some more. They do beak themselves and love to sand bathe. When they sand bathe they literally roll in the dirt, throw dirt on their backs and stretch their wings out to gather more dirt for the roll. Now, while chickens do not nestle each other, they like to gather together in clumps to sand bathe and dust themselves with dirt. The enjoy perching together. They find fighting for the one and only insect is a game.
Chickens are funny too. For example, among our 47, we have 5 Sex Link who have their own run, coop and nesting boxes. Today the hens were all vying for the same nesting box. There are 4 from which to choose but no, they all wanted the top left box. Today, after one hen was situated trying to lay her egg, another perched in the laying box with her. We had to laugh and then before long a third one came to edge the others out of the box.
Our chickens are very peculiar. Each like a specific laying box. They prefer one side of the chicken run to another, and make certain noises which for the most part, we can identify who that chick is simply by hearing from afar.
We’ve been in the chicken business for only a year and while it has had its ups and downs, its enjoyable to watch them grown, change and have their own little quirky personalities.
We’re a lot like chickens too… were interesting people!
Josie
