You think chickens sit around all day looking for worms and laying eggs all day? Okay, well yeah, they do that too, but chickens have DRAMA! You see them in a group and notice things like they're in middle school! The bigger hens only hang out with the other big hens. They pick on the smaller hens. The large hens will only allow the big, handsome rooster to mate with them. They chase the smaller silly looking rooster away. Not the little hens though! They chase the little guy down over and over and lay down right in front of him until he mates with them. We had one hen that was so mean, she wouldn't allow the new hens food or water. We lost 3 hens that way. There is certainly a pecking order. They even have a system for crowing. If you have more than one rooster, the dominant rooster will be the first to crow in the morning and the last to crow at night. I have seen the little rooster crow at night after our dominant rooster has crowed, and the dominant rooster chases him down like "Hey! You're messing it up!" I wonder how much chicken politics goes on that we can't see, I bet a lot!
Comments
Post a Comment