The biggest reason we decided to keep chickens on our farm is for egg production. But even if our hens never laid another egg, I would still raise chickens just to watch their funny antics and their quirky behaviors.
In this post, our community of writers explore chicken behavior. Chickens hold a complex social instinct that is amazing to observe. The following posts discuss topics like instinct, dust bathing, and pecking order. They also discuss how to solve problems when chickens misbehave according to human standards.
Behavior
The following posts discuss a number of different chicken behaviors; crowing, roosting order and tame vs wild chickens. Learn about the fascinating world of chicken sociability.
Something to Crow About, Reader Questions Answered
The Early Bird Gets Her Preferred Spot On The Roost – Sometimes!
Dust Baths
Chickens like to bathe in dirt. This might sounds counter productive, but dirt is just the thing to exfoliate their skin and the shafts of growing feathers. It also helps to remove parasites and bugs. You can also give a chicken a water bath, which they enjoy very much. Learn all about chicken grooming in the following posts.
How to Trim a Chicken’s Toenails
Bath Time at the Lavender House
Problems
Occasionally chickens misbehave. Many times this is due to the action of humans trying to manipulate the factors of chicken instinct. Chickens have a set of rules to their social structure. They can be quite determined to stick to those rules despite our attempts to change them. Learn about different problems that chickens can present to their keepers. Like feather picking, over-mating and wandering.
Feather Picking and Pinless Peeper
“What Would You Do?” The Case of the Wayward Hen
Reader Question: Why are my chickens bald on their back end?
Reader’s Question: How do I keep the chickens out of my garden?
Introducing New Members
Because chickens have such a complex social structure, it can be difficult to introduce new members to an existing flock. Learn some tricks to make this transition easy for you and your chickens.
Adventures With Claudine: Trying To Add To Our Flock
Pecking Order
Pecking order is the system in which chickens rank themselves among the flock. It can include everything from when a chickens gets to eat, to where it’s position is on a sleeping roost. Learn all about pecking order in the following posts.
Using Squirt Bottles to Discourage Pecking
Reordering in the Pecking Order
Violent Behavior
Sometimes pecking order can get out of control. Chickens “peck” each other to send a message as to where each chicken belongs in the flock. While a natural behavior, sometimes those pecks can be a bit overzealous and lead to injury, death and even cannibalism. Learn how to deal with problem pecking order in the following posts.
The Dark Side of a Chicken’s Nature
The violent hen, and her impending end –
5-10 in the Slammer, Chicken Slammer
Boredom
Chickens can get bored, especially when they are kept in a confined coop. Help liven things up for your flock with these fun suggestions.
Battling “Coop Fever” in your Flock
Egg Eating
Egg eating is an annoying problem that can leave you with an empty egg basket. It usually starts by accident. An egg gets broken and the chicken eats the egg to “hide the evidence” from predators, it’s an instinctual behavior. But many times the chicken find that eggs are a delicious food and learns to break open eggs to get the tasty treat inside. Egg eating is a hard behavior to break, but it is possible. Learn some different tips below.
Backyard Chickens and Egg Eating
What Would You Do? My Chickens are Eating All Their Eggs!!
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