1. Chickens are vegetarians. Chickens are not vegetarians, but rather opportunistic omnivores. They enjoy eating bugs, including tics, which is nice for us. I have even witnessed a chicken eating a live baby mouse.
2. Chickens are chicken. Well, sort of, but not really. They do sometimes become afraid over ridiculous things. On the other hand, I witnessed a hawk attack the chickens one day. The Gentle Giant (our rooster) herded all of the lady chickens into the cover of the Jerusalem Artichoke before he himself went to safety- and it was nearly too late. The hawk landed beside him and got him by the tail! The Gentle Giant made a getaway, minus one majestic tail feather. The hawk flew away. So, you see, sometimes they are heroic.
3. Chickens are stupid. While they are not exactly able to read and write, chickens have individual personalities. They look around before going out into the open. They have enough intelligence to forage on their own and develop a pecking order. The roosters have singing competitions. I guess it's debatable if personality is a form of intelligence, but some animals have no individualism. Chickens did not seem especially intelligent to me until I started raising turkeys. Turkeys are truly idiotic.
Of course, none of this explains why those silly chickens always have to cross the road.
We've got turkeys on the local golf courses and a golfing buddy sent me some pix of three hen turkeys chasing each other around a sprinkler control box (a little taller than they were). It went on for the 15 minutes it took to play the hole (a 3-par) and then tee off on the next hold and walk off down the fairway until they were out of sight...still at it!! :oD
ReplyDeleteTurkeys are truly fun to have for comic relief. And they're nice to talk to. They always have an answer for whatever you say. In unison! "Gobble gobble gobble!" They sing along to music, too. And giggle with little girls. I have friends who watch them when I'm away and they are very fond of them, too. They even took pictures of them last time.
ReplyDeleteOnce, Mom and I were going through the garden and there were a ton of those big, green, horned tomato worms. We picked them all off the plants and couldn't figure out what to do with them, so we decided to throw them to the chickens. Birds like worms, right? NO KIDDING! They went apesh*t over them, playing tug of war with them. It was like 20 Godzillas all over Tokyo!
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