Chicken oddities: what’s something you wish your chicken/chickens didn’t do?

[Vicker]

They have 5 acres for free ranging but want to hang out all day and poop where I walk and where I keep meat smokers.

 

[PeaceMary]

Hi, so what’s something you’re like “man I really wish you’d stop doing that”? I’ve been chicken keeping for a while now, and there’s some things my chickens do that drive me bananas! Maybe its when they all run and scream from a low flying cardinal but stop and stare at opossum. Seriously I’m cleaning out egg boxes one day, and my roosters and hens are loosing their minds in the yard, I come running out “what?! What is it?!?!” I’m ready to defend my flock from the vicious predator..it’s a cardinal. A low flying cardinal who didn’t even land. Sigh ok.
One day my coonhound is bawling and know something’s up, I go out and what do I see? All my chickens surrounding a huge opossum. This thing is baring his teeth and hissing! My flock is staring at it, trying to poke at it with their toe. Of course I go screaming and my flock FINALLY runs away. EXCEPT for Betty, my hen who decides it’s a good time and place to start preening herself…picture it..I’ve got Betty in a football hold under my arm, trying to cover the opossum with a bucket with my other hand, using my left foot to keep the nosy chickens away, while my dog watches my rooster make sure his lineage is carried on with another hen. All the while my broody is screaming because she’s been disturbed by the ruckus.
This isn’t a one time mishap. Last summer, my chickens went bananas over a black snake (non venomous) running away screaming. But a copperhead (venomous) was in the chicken yard, and they surrendered the thing poking it with their beaks.
I really wish they’d get their predators straight. Or at least run from everything. So that’s my “I really wish they’d stop doing that”. What’s your chicken oddity that drives you nuts?

I love that they hang out with the adult quail in my yard, but i hate that they scatter their food all over. They just peck it out of any container and waste over half of it!

 

[Chicken Heel]

Not getting freaked out when I wear shorts for the first time in spring once warmer weather kicks in. It's like I'm a complete stranger for a couple of days.

 

[OphyliaOrpington]

When I coop my mostly free-range chickens (during rain storms, etc.) some-chick protests by kicking ALL of the straw out of ALL of the egg boxes. 7 chickens with 6 egg boxes. Plenty. The coop is big enough for 16. The run would fit 21. They aren't crowded. They have stuff to do. Just throwing a big ol' fit in protest.

 

[morsekathan]

What a fun and funny thread! The thing that drives me the most crazy is mine lay eggs everywhere! I have perfectly good chicken boxes and they lay them on the ground or in the goat part of the barn or in the bag that I get the shavings from! Every now and then I really have to hunt when I can't find some of the more unique eggs that I know are being laid almost daily!

This is my peeve. At this time, none are laying in the nest boxes - I only have 7, but still, not one could be bothered with the nest boxes. currently, we have "the nest box chair" on the porch, under the porch couch and under the deck as favorite places. In the past, they have laid on the bed in a spare room (I didn't even know they were going in the house until I discovered 7 eggs between the bed and the wall); in the sock basket on the second floor landing; on the kitchen counter (this is true); in the recycling bin ONLY after we took the bottles out. Every day is an eggs hunt for us!

 

[hammyanne]

Lord have mercy, I wish they’d stop eating the insulation foam on the exterior of the house

 

[Abby3465]

I wish my White Crested Black Polish a.k.a Phyllis Diller would not search out the tiniest bit of dripping water in the run, every single time it rains and proceed to dig in the resulting mud to look for goodies. She always ends up with a wet & muddy head, resulting in that 'just emerged from a mud wrestling contest' look.

I wish my Buff Silkies a.k.a Thelma & Louise, (true partners in crime too!), would stop digging holes. These holes aren't dust bath crevices either. I thought I was missing one of them one day until all of a sudden her little head popped up from the hole. It was deeper than she is tall! I joke all the time, they're trying to get to the motherland (China).

And lastly, I wish my Lavender Orpington a.k.a Ouiser, (her identical cohort is Clairee..and she's an angel), would stop acting out a scene from some 1930's jailbird movie. You know, the ones where the criminals rake their tin cups across the bars to annoy the living snot out of everyone within earshot? Ya see, my birds have a door covered in hardware cloth separating their night time roosting area from the run area. I clean up the run area every morning before opening the door. Well Ouiser does the same thing as those jailbirds in the old movies but with her beak, all while growling...yes growling. She's just as cranky as her namesake... all the time!! I could not have picked a better name for her!!

They are crazy birds with funny personalities but I love them.

 

[500Chickens]

I wish my pullet Caramel wouldn't scream when I pick her up

 

[Nym]

Standing under the kitchen window screeching for bread.
Meanwhile, all the wild birds are feasting on the grain.
Not foraging = not hungry = no bread! lol

 

[K0k0shka]

Fun thread. I have this one hen that likes to stand around the run and yell for no reason. She is SO loud I can hear her 100 feet away from inside my house with the doors and windows closed. It's not the egg song, it's not the alarm call, it's not anything I can identify and it's not anything that any of my other chickens do. So why TF does she do that?!? It drives me nuts! Actually it's not the sound itself that drives me nuts - it's the fact that my city neighbors hate me already because of the chickens, so each yell is a stab of worry that they're gonna come after me AGAIN...