Green Daily

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

The behavior of chickens is a fascinating and peculiar thing. They're unlike dogs or cats or your "normal" household pet, but they also share many of the same behaviors of these animals. Chickens are trainable to a certain extent, and of course their personalities are primarily dictated by their upbringing and surroundings.

I covered the most common behavioral "issue" with hens in yesterday's article about brooding, so in this article I will cover a few more common behaviors you may discover with your chickens.

Aggression - You'll find this most often in roosters (male chickens), and rarely in hens unless they are brooding. When chickens display aggressiveness, it simply means they're trying to dominate another chicken or another human. This is a very important social structure for chickens. The best way to curb aggression is to show them that you're the boss by picking them up and holding them regularly, and feed them from your hands. As the old saying goes, they will rarely bite the hand that feeds them. As with any animal though, chickens can still show unprovoked aggressiveness. This is why I advise against letting your children play with chickens unsupervised.

Wandering - As a general rule of thumb, chickens will not wander more than 50 meters away from their coop. This is a natural instinct for them, but of course sometimes there are exceptions. In a suburban yard, this becomes more of a problem than in large acreage. I've had chickens fly over a 6-foot wooden fence into the neighbor's yard simply because the coop was placed only 10 feet from that fence. The best advice I have for this problem is to place your coop in the middle of the yard, or closer to your house than the neighbor's yard.

Digging - Again, perfectly natural for them to do. If you want to have free range chickens and a perfectly-manicured lawn, you're dreaming. They will pick a spot, dig a hole about 4 inches deep and use that as their very own personal dust bath. The reason they bathe in the dust is to prevent mites and other parasitic insects from making a home in their feathers and skin.

Panting/Flapping wings - Both of these behaviors mean that the chicken is too hot. They flap their wings to cool their bodies, and their temperature-regulators are located in their beaks. This is also why they fill their beaks with water, hold their heads back and let the water run down their throats. It cools them off better in hot weather than simply gulping up the water.

Pecking Order - This is one of the most important structures in a chicken's life, besides dinner time. Don't fret if you see one chicken pecking the back of another. It's a disciplinary action from the pecking chicken to let the other know who's boss. It's natural in most pack/social animals and will work itself out eventually. If it doesn't, or the pecked chicken begins bleeding, separate them for a few days. If you're ever curious as to which chicken is the supreme boss, check them out while they sleep. Whichever chicken (male or female) is highest on the perch, even if it's only a centimeter higher, is the boss. This is why it's important to make the perch at a very slight angle in the coop. If the boss can't be higher on the perch than the rest, it will sleep on top of the coop or up in a tree.

Flying - Yes, chickens can fly, and quite high, too! As I mentioned, you will find them up in your trees eventually, if there are branches lower than 12-15 feet from the ground. Once they discover that they can get up there, you may have trouble getting them down and back into the coop unless you cut that branch.

Communicating - Chickens are said to be capable of making over 30 distinct sounds. These vary according to mood, but it is believed that chickens have a complete vocabulary all their own. Not only that, baby chicks can recognize their mother's unique sound in a group of hens.

Sickness - Generally, if your chicken is laying on its side, or has its head down, it is not feeling well. They tend to stay on their feet at all times, with their heads up, even when sleeping. So when this isn't happening, you may want to research the symptoms more thoroughly or seek professional veterinary help.

Again, these are basic signals to look for, but more research is certainly needed if any of these behaviors become problematic. It is important to realize that while you can keep chickens as unique pets with wonderful personalities, your neighbors might not think so. If you own roosters who crow loudly, or your chickens insist on jumping the fence and hanging out in the neighbor's hedges all day, you may have some complaints. In my experiences, people are much more forgiving of behavioral problems in dogs or cats than chickens.