Three chicken facts that might surprise you
Whenever someone new comes to visit my little chicken coop (20 chickens and counting), these are the three bits of trivia I whip out to blow people’s minds. Some of you chicken-savvy readers might already know this info, but many will not. It was not until I had my own backyard chickens and spent years getting to know their quirks that I truly internalized these unexpected facts about their behavior.
Chickens love to sleep high up in trees
And I mean HIGH! If left to their own devices, domestic chickens will flit from branch to branch as the sun sets until they are 40 feet up in the air. Then they’ll hunker down and sleep for the night, remaining quiet and trying not to move lest they attract the attention of weasels, raccoons, or other animals that can climb trees. A chicken sleeping close to the ground is at high risk of being killed by ground-predators like foxes, coyotes, or dogs. Chickens HATE being near or on the ground once the sun starts to set. As you can see from the below video, I provide branches for my chickens to roost that are about 7 feet high. Without exception, this is where my chickens can be found once night falls.
Chickens love forests
We often picture farmed chickens running around in open fields, or milling about in vast single-level barns. But all this open space is not something chickens enjoy. They much prefer to be in the thick underbrush of an overgrown forest. Trees provide not only shade, but cover from airborne predators like hawks and eagles. Chickens are, after all, nearly identical in both outward appearance and behavior to their red junglefowl ancestors from Thailand. And junglefowl live, as you can probably guess, in the jungle. Chickens are tree-loving animals, which is not often how they are portrayed on TV or film, or how most chicken owners and farmers think of them. But the more trees you expose your chickens to, the happier they will be. The below video shows my chicken run which encompasses half-an-acre of forest.
Some chickens are affectionate and love human contact
For those who have raised chickens from a chick, you are probably aware that chickens not only tolerate human attention and affection, but sometimes actively seek it out. I have raised a dozen chickens from chicks, and most of them are not necessarily all that interested in being in contact with me. But a couple chickens are not only interested in being around me, but will actively seek me out in hopes that I will pet them. Two of my chickens – Ghost and Shadow – will jump up on my lap whenever I sit. Honestly, these two are more affectionate than my cat. Like cats (and humans), chickens have individual personalities and personal preferences. Here is a video of Ghost, the lap-chicken-iest of lap chickens.
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If you’re a chicken owner, I urge you to try making a roost as high as you can for your feathered friends and find a way to expose them to trees if you can. They will love you for it, I promise you! For more fun info about backyard chickens, check out the book Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them by Tove Danovich.