Life of a Chicken

In my previous post I did not say why I am observing my chickens. Well, I have a project to do for my AP English class. We have to observe something that is relatively accessible and fun to observe, that also makes us look a little more openly at the environment around us. I eventually decided to observe my chickens. They are something I usually look over, they do get plenty of attention as they regularly have problems like escaping from the pen and not being able to get back in, and providing plenty of eggs to eat. Now I give them a little more consideration and thought as to what they do within their pen.

My chickens eat their feed but so do other animals. There are always little birds that fly in during the day and eat some seed then take off as I walk out. We also regularly have quail fly in and take some food from the chickens. And even doves look for food there in the coop too. But then there is my goat Fey, which will sometimes push her way under the pens fence and eat the feed. It’s a bad move because she must then wait for me to let her out if she does this. She recently stopped when we put a thicker hog wire fence around the pen, and squeezing under became much harder.

The chickens are followers of each other. If something lands, scratches, or runs the rest trail close behind. The chickens are always looking for something to peck, whether it be themselves or the ground. I usually throw out some seed to them in the afternoons so they won’t peck each other. But they move as one all going where one other has went. If one flies up to the coops roof, the rest will try to fly up there too.