Chicken Cuddling

This is a picture of me holding one of my chickens which was prompted by someone on the farm message board that I belong to. (www.maryjanesfarm.com). One of the members asked if any of us that raised chickens ever "cuddled" them. I admit it, I am one of those!! I'm also a duck cuddler as you can see from the other picture. The chicken is one of my newer ones and I haven't come up with a name yet, but the duck's name is Anna after one of my Great Great Grandmothers. I have another duck that we named Cally after the other Grandma, but she turned out to be a he and now goes by George. They are both kakhi campbels and have the sweetest personality. We have our animals for the obvious practical reasons, but I absolutely love each and every one of them. I love to hold the chickens and hear them chatter . They each have their own individual personalities.

We love to sit and watch our chickens go about their daily activity. They are actually pretty funny at times. It's hilarious to see a chicken stand in place and jump straight up in the air to catch a fly and the way they verbalize with one another and establish "pecking order" is so interesting. If one finds a worm then all the others will chase her around the run. We call it "chicken football!" I'll never forget the day my landlord came by and said he walked up to the chicken run and was shocked that every last one of them were sprawled out dead on the ground until they stood up when he got closer and started walking around. I reassured him that they were just sunning them selves and I thought the same thing the first time I saw them do it.

I have found that the hens are very particlar about their nesting boxes and for some reason all want to lay in one box. The first few days the newest batch of hens were here, they decided they wanted to use the same nesting box as well. One would be in the box and one would be on the ground telling her off. This went on for several days until they got their egg laying schedule down and go in shifts now. One day I walked in to see three hens crammed in one box together. All you could see were two heads, chicken fluff and one legg. You gotta love 'em!