I thought she just wanted a pat!

[annette]

I need your experience with chooks. I have 2 light sussex chooks, Laverne and Shirley, named as such because one is very outgoing and the other a bit shy. Laverne is very attached to me and follows me around like a dog. She waits for me to come home from work and sits outside the kitchen door in case I come out.

Anyway she has this habit of prostrating herself when I am near, wings slightly out to the side and her chest on the ground. Now I thought (perhaps ridiculously) that she just wanted a pat. Until today when a friend of mine who has chooks informed me that, "Annette she doesn't want a pat, you have a frisky chook". Yes a chook wanting some action, toey as a roman sandal she reckons.

Has anyone else had this happen? I'm serious! If this is the case I may have to go and get a rooster. Can't have a frustrated chook.

[eco4560]

It's a submissive posture that girls chooks use to show the boy chook that she knows he's the boss. It's her way of saying that you are in charge. Or she wants you to have sex with her. One or the other!
I don't think girl chooks get "thingy" if they haven't had a bit of rumply pumply recently......
You'll need to check your council regs to see if you are allowed a boy chook.

[pippimac]

eco has it, it's the chook version of a dog showing its belly.
I've never seen it with chooks raised free-range all their lives, but 'rescue' chooks, yes. Hang on, that may be a false correlation, or whatever you call it: the submissive birds I've met also have no rooster around, so maybe humans assume the rooster's dominant role in a chooks wee brain...

[annette]

thanks eco and pippimac. She is a free range chook and always has been and I got her when she was about 8 weeks old. she hasn't been around any roosters at all but i caught her getting a bit broody the other day and had to turf her off an egg. So I'm probably the head chook. I don't want to get a rooster just yet. Need to design a better chook system with fences and such.

[eco4560]

My birds are all free range right from eggs. The behaviour is strongest in the more dominant birds in my flock. I guess when you are more dominant you have further to bow to submit... Or something. I've never had a rooster, bso it would be interesting to see if it only applied in all girl flocks. Anyone out there with a mixed flock able to shed some light?

[sun burn]

I haven't noticed anything of this sort in my bunch. I've got one young rooster and perhaps its mainly because my roosters and hens are mostly still young that i haven't seen it. Its mainly the rooster who gets thingy. He divebombs the hens. His bedside manner needs some work.

Speaking of that my younger drakes also still have a bit to learn. They just pound all over the poor females. I mean tromp all over them. And yet the silly girls seem to take it lying down for the most part. Sometimes it even looks like they are going to drown my girls when are doing it in the pond. But the little one i've got she was good in that if one of the boys was trying to mate with her, she made a lot of noise and so i could run over to her rescue. Though she wasn't too bad at escaping herself. She's a bit older now and i think she has given in and lost her virginity.

The boys are all fighting less too so i suspect that they've sorted out their hierarchy. I still haven't killed them all off. I am sick of the killing to be honest. It was just getting hard and harder but i still need to do it some more unfortunately. If it was as easy as chopping off their heads i could probably deal with it faster but the fact that it takes two hours to pluck and gut just makes the psychological aspect of killing that much more objectionable. But now at least i am only buying them one bag a fortnight as opposed to two. My budget can cope.

Sorry for threadjack.

[pippimac]

sun burn, I find doing a load at once easier than here-and-there. I can get into a bit of a routine and I think it's easier on my psychological health.
Skinning birds is really quick. I wouldn't recommend roasting them after as they look a bit hideous, but it saves lots of time. No lovely skin though...

[Susan Girard]

My problem is the reverse. I have been given a young hand raised rooster who thinks he's human. All that cute strutting wing down type fore-play to anybodies boot. He has no idea what to do with a hen, if he pecks one and she 'assumes the position' he just keeps pecking - I can only presume he see the girls as competing for my/our attention.
Maybe I should have guessed...after all when he was given to me he came with a security blanket (well actually an Ugg boot, that he was raised in).
He is truly beautiful, but I suspect he won't be passing he's genes on in a hurry. Perhaps if he watches my drake more closely he may in time get the idea!

[eco4560]

A gay rooster! Celebrate the diversity of your chicken flock!

[labradel]

hi sunburn you could try dunking the chooks to be plucked in near boiling water for a short while 20 -30 sec. this loosens the feathers and makes them easier to pluck but not nearly as quick as skinning but i realy like the skin too