Chickens 101

I grew up in the country - out in the woods however, we did not have livestock...or chickens.  Even if we could have had chickens, my dad has hated chicken for the better part of my life so chicken meals were few and far between.  In any event I grew up around horses, dogs, cats, and various types of wildlife, but no chickens.  Casey had chickens when I moved in, so I have watched them grow from cute tiny little chicks, to the ugly in-between stage, to the normal/slightly creepy yet tolerable stage of adulthood.  Chickens are just weird.  They move quickly and almost like the Tin Man desperately in need of some oil.  Their eyes creep me out, too, and I hate how they move their heads sideways to see me better:

Exhibit A

Sometimes it is more exaggerated than this, but this is all I could find...

I do have a favorite chicken, Lucia.  She is always the first one at the door, follows you around until you feed her, will eat out of my hand, gets under my feet, doesn't mind being held, and always has to have her own pile of food.  She's really laid back for a chicken, and I like that.  The other ones - including Lucifer, the rooster (I still haven't forgiven him for lunging himself at me) are real drama queens. 

I have a lot to learn about chickens...I know virtually nothing - only that they give me eggs and occasionally meat and that's about it.  The other night Casey was feeding Remi for me and I was taking care of the chickens.  Lately every time I open the feed bucket there are about four or five mice in the bin of chicken food.  I really don't like killing things, and the mice have settled in on the routine of me slowly tipping over the grain bin so they can jump out and scurry off.  Scurry may be an exaggeration, though.  Is it bad that they have gotten so used to me they just kind-of hang around a few feet away from me???  This particular night I had dumped the bin over a little too quickly and only counted four. Where was number five???  I looked in the bin and couldn't see it anywhere.  Instantly I began to think about the poor crushed mice that I had found in the feed bin various times before, so I carefully started digging and after a few minutes, I finally found the dusty rodent.  He clamored out of the bin, somewhat dazed and confused (lack of oxygen?) and ran into the chicken coup.  "I hope he gets out of there before I shut the door," I thought to myself. "I wouldn't want to be stuck in there with those birds all night..."  Then I heard a scuffle and a squeak.  I turned around and to my amazement one of the chickens had the mouse in his mouth!  Was the chicken confused???  Did it think the mouse was an insect? The mouse got away and started to run but his freedom was only short-lived.  The chicken got him and gobbled him up right there in front of me.  I was absolutely dumbfounded.  By that time, Casey came in and said, "What are you staring at?" 

"One of the speckled chickens just ate a mouse..." I said.

"Oh, yeah, they'll do that if I throw a dead one in there sometimes."

"But this one was alive.  It was chased down twice by the same chicken and gobbled up. Is that normal???"

"Oh, yeah, I suppose.  They'll eat anything."  Of course my mind jumps to the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, concluding they would run me down and gobble me up, too if they had the opportunity...which made me hate chickens even more.  I know...I'm weird and I have a very vivid imagination based on solid evidence.  Obviously. 

My other crazy moment that left Casey scratching his head was a morning last week when I went out to do morning chores.  (I should note that I previously had thought a couple of the chickenss have begun to look somewhat rooster-like.  Yes, I realize that isn't a word, but I've been a little concerned about more than one rooster in a flock...will they fight?  I decided not to worry about it until they were of breeding age). 

In any event, I had just finished feeding the chickens when I turned around and one of the suspected roosters was mounting another one of the hens.  I ran back to the house and I'm sure I had a look of concern on my face because Casey asked, "What's the matter?"

"One of the chickens we thought was a rooster is in fact a rooster and he was mounting one of the chickens!"

He looked at me like I was crazy (attempting to keep a straight face, I'm sure) and said, "...Did you congratulate him?"

I didn't think this was the time for jokes - this was urgent.  "Won't Lucifer try to kill him?  Don't we have to separate them now???"

"Nah, they'll be fine." 

"Okay, but if I come home to a bloody mess I'm not cleaning it up, okay?"

"Okay..."

So, with that, I am learning more about chickens every day.  I'm still not a big fan of them...other than Lucia.