Raising chickens is every homesteader’s dream. Not only do they provide meat and eggs all year round, but they’re also very interesting creatures and extremely fun to raise.
As the days go by, your chickens will educate you about who they really are, and you’ll be surprised at some of their antics.
So that you’re not caught off guard, we’ve compiled a list of chicken secrets no one tells you about, keep reading to find out what they are.
Chickens Are Destructive
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but free-range chickens will destroy your property if you let them. If you’ve got a beautiful landscaped garden, it won’t look like that for very long!
Chickens are natural diggers and scratchers because that’s how they look for food. And if they’ve got access to your garden, that’s where all their digging and scratching will take place. They also love to sink their beaks into your fruits, vegetables, and decorative plants.
Chickens will dig the soil out of your neatly potted plants, and kick mulch out of your gracefully trimmed gardens. So not only will you need to predator-proof your garden, but you’ll also need to chicken-proof your garden.
Chickens Will Eat Anything
Make sure you keep non edible items away from your chickens because they’ll either eat them, or they’ll try to eat them.
⇒ The Only Plant That Will Make Your Chickens Lay More Eggs Than Usual
Chickens are very curious, and they like food, so they’re constantly checking to see if random items are edible.
Chickens are known to peck at glass, nails, plastic, Styrofoam, and each other’s toes.
Hens Will Crowd Into The Same Nesting Box
Don’t waste your money on multiple nest boxes, because your hens will all pile into one.
This is because they like laying eggs where others have laid, apparently it helps with their brooding when a nest already has eggs laid in it.
Hens Shave Their Chests
Some chicken owners get worried when they see their hens with bald spots on their chests. But it’s natural brooding behavior.
Brooding chickens make a bald spot on their chest by plucking their feathers out. This allows her moist, warm breast to make direct contact with her eggs.
Chicken Predators Will Catch You Off Guard
Never underestimate the intelligence of a chicken predator. When they are hungry, they will find a way to munch on your chicks by any means necessary.
Even if you think you’ve done enough to make your homestead safe, I would advise you to stay on your guard at all times.
Related: 50 Homesteading Hacks You Should Know
Most predators are not looking at the chickens, evolution has taught them that it’s their owners who do the protecting. So they’re just waiting for you to slip up so they can grab and go.
Chickens Have Got A Mean Streak
Although chickens can be really sweet and loveable, they are also extremely mean. Like most new chicken owners, you were probably warned about the chicken pecking order, or you read about it while doing your research.
However, what you are told or what you read is never how it turns out. Their behavior gets much worse than hens giving each other minor pecks to assert their authority.
It can get to a point where the hens feel they need to keep bullying the lower ranking hens to keep them in their place.
The victims can get seriously injured and end up depressed because they are living in a toxic environment fueled by fear.
Roosters are very aggressive while mating, they jump on the hens back and pull on the hens neck. The hens get very distressed during this time.
To make matters worse, roosters have favorites, and they don’t deviate from them. So these hens are forced to go through this pain until one of them dies.
Finally, roosters are not afraid to attack humans, and they will strike when you are least expecting it. They might be small, but their pecks are not for the faint hearted.
Chickens Get Themselves Into Trouble
You may have heard that chickens are very intelligent birds, which is true. Although they have a brain the size of a cashew nut, chickens know their names, they can tell the difference between their owners and strangers.
Related: 7 Chicken Mistakes You Should Never Make
They have the mental capacity to recognize up to 100 faces, and they keep track of everyone who’s been nice to them.
But they can also be surprisingly stupid, chickens have a terrible habit of endangering their own lives. One of the main reasons for this is that most of the time, they act on instincts, and they don’t think things through.
For example, if you ever come outside to find a dead chicken, or missing chickens, that’s because when they get hungry, they will eat anything even if it’s poisonous or they know that they won’t be able to digest it. Or they’ll find a way to jump over a fence without thinking about how to get back to their living quarters.
A classic chicken maneuver is getting stuck in a space that’s too small for them. You will often find your chickens struggling to fit through a hole in a piece of wood!
Chickens Have Got Exceptional Eyesight
Chickens have spectacular eyesight, since their eyes are on the side of their head, they’ve got 300 degree vision.
They can see a lot more colors and shades than humans because they’re tetra-chromatic, which means they have the ability to see ultraviolet light, green, blue, and red light.
Additionally, their eyes are very sensitive, giving them the dexterity to see miniscule light fluctuations that humans can’t see.
Nevertheless, they can’t see during the night which is why they make their way to their coops as soon as the sun sets.
Chickens Speak To Each Other
If you ever get a feeling that people are talking about you, it’s probably your chickens! Just kidding… but they do have their own language, and they do speak to each other.
The chicken communication system is highly sophisticated. They have 30 different sounds, and they all mean something specific.
Human studies have translated some of these calls to mean the following: “There is food over here.” “I’ve laid an egg,” and, “Be careful, there’s a predator over there.”
Hens also communicate with their chicks while they are still in the egg, and the chicks respond.
Chickens are fascinating creatures, and there’s so much more to them than meat and eggs. You’ll have a wonderful time raising them because, in my opinion, the good outweighs the bad.
Some people are put off by some of their wayward habits, but you’ll quickly learn to manage them and accept your delightful chickens for who they are.
This article was first published on Self-Sufficient Projects.
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I’ve been raising chickens for 12+ years. Everything you said about them is so true.
Yes, they will try to eat anything that looks like it could be food. I had one chicken find a small piece of 1/2 inch PVC pipe (it looked like a white donut). The chicken ran around with it in her beak being followed by all the other chickens in a game of Keep Away. Parts of my backyard looks more like a moonscape than a backyard.
I’ve had 6 different eggs piled up in one eggbox and three hens jammed into one box.
I’ve learned several Chicken “words”, the easiest is the “I laid an Egg” Celebration call. The “Hey there’s a snake over here” call. The “get out of my way, you pullet scum” call. plus some many more.
They definitely get into trouble. I have 2 chickens, in particular, that are always into trouble that I’ve named “Miss Adventure” (misadventure) and her best buddy “Chaos”.
If you get chickens be prepared, it’s a blast.
This was a good article and I also enjoyed hearing your stories. My grandmother had chickens and I remember one got stuck under the lawnmower – a bitch to get out..
Love my feathered comedy play group. Entertaining, cute, fiesty little Bs. Love the chicks with their Mama. Have two roosters at the moment. Chicken dinner doesn’t know it but his day are numbered. We are supposed to get 6 more laying hens this week. Looking forward to that but we may have a few days of fireworks here. You’d think it was an office full of menepausal women when new hens are introduced to the flock. I’m a woman so I can mention that. But once the newcomers are accepted they will be protected. Our rooster will kill for his gals. I’ve seen him challenge and win with a pit bull intent on a foul snack. Poor doggie was bloody and nearly blind. Makes me wonder what mothers son watched the chickens and decided he needed spurs to ride a bronc like a rooster fighting for his gals. Between spurs and a tough pecker, I’d give a good rooster the odds.
Will the people rise up against the coming digital currency the elites want for us?
Are we chickens, Sheeple, Ostriches bury our heads in the sand? Wishing it all go away.
Decades ago Americans would not put up with this garbage. That’s why we still call the WWII generation the greatest generation.
Today males have testosterone of their predecessors of old. This is why these freaks of woke rule corporations, ninny hens, not roosters.
We need macho-men roosters than Barney Fife, wimp know it all’s.
Transgender is another word for wimps. We need more roosters to rule the roost of cackling hens. In politics and society. Cock-A-Doddle-Do!
Restore the American family of Man an Women an children. Like the rooster, hen and chicks. America needs a reset back to traditions.
The thumps down critic is one of those wimps that hate America, thank you.
Antifa, BLM member, a Biden lover maybe?
May the dirt bags that do cock fights, end up fighting each other. In cage death matches as punishment to their sick pedophile darkness.
The throw their carcass to the hogs.
Good article! Short, sweet & packed with insights I wish we had read before getting our lovely, weird & fun mean girls.
Oh .. I see you have met my chickens!?
Little problematic lovable dinosaurs.
Hens have pecking that reminds me of the high school girls and their clicks. Mean ‘B’s’, cheerleader group vs the average girls at school thing.
Chickens are a good source of food and barter.
Kind of like the Biden old rooster cluck pas t his prime. The hens are now ruling the roost. A country full of feminized men hair sniffers of young women.
The left is bringing in California Governor Newscum as a presidential lame d*ck replacement.
As friends have seen their Cali State go rapidly into the sewer.
If you have looked at San Fransicko, you will see homeless walking dead in once high class shopping malls. The liberals destroyed their cities, now leaving the filth to your home States. To destroy your peaceful hometowns. San Fransicko is a ghost town coming to a town near you. The tourist vacation spot is gone! Go woke, go broke!
Well, Gov. Newscum will do that nationwide. We thought Jimmie Carter and Biden were bad, Newscum will be worse. Look at the Blue Sanctuary State of California, it looks like the walking dead in many areas. No 2A!
Even the liberals in San Fransicko who voted for liberal Marxism policies are regretting their votes.
These are part of the true SHEEPLE, Can’t Under Stand Normal Thinking; read between the lines. We see this happening in all Demoncratic run government anything. Anywhere destroying America.
Remember N. Pooplosi during COVID lockdown in SF? She got a hairdresser to do her hair. While businesses were closed. Some hens are more equal than others. – “Animal Farm.” Gov Newscum’s kids went to private school daily, your kid’s school was closed. Who’s the mask wearing dummy now?
Newscum’s businesses stayed open while other businesses were lockdown closed or closed permanently.
For people living in the city limits you can’t have a rooster only hens. So goes this with people. We have weak rooster leadership, low testosterone males who hate America. Our chicken hen house is being run by the Marxist foxes guarding our safety. Liberalism is equivalent to rotten eggs in politics.
We don’t want another Biden – Barney Fife, a nervous, twitchy little man, always sniffling, probably on downers.
Backyard chickens are part of our personal food stores. They provide entertainment while giving us food to live.
Why , pray tell , are comments like these not erased , and my little reply “STFO” was ?
It’s people like this that are ruining America.
Not all preppers feel this way .
Nice chicken article except for this .
Go chickens, The Sound of Freedom!
These are the same Sad Sacks, toll or trolls using different names.
They hide behind their dark basement stinky rooms of fearmongering:)
They are taught to hate Americans with a different point of view.
These negative thumb’s down ninny’s are the ones being exposed for what they are. They are Marxist indoctrinated, no sense of humor whatsoever in life.
Keep on strutting Rooster fans, crow for FREEDOM!
My backyard chickens are good little hens. During the Summer as temps get super hot we have box fan for them. Found out chickens do not sweat like us. So we help them cool down with slices of watermelon from the fridge.
Interesting they are related to dinosaurs, that’s probably why they have their pecking order fights too.
Good entertainment for us catching bugs. If a chicken gets something good, the others will chase that chicken for that goodie to eat.
chickens are more good then bad eat a lot of bugs snakes and such. they will watch out for each other . i say chickens are a plus to many
When butchering and their heads are cut off, they will still get up and run around. Early childhood memory.
Yeah remember an older neighbor did a few chickens that way. We kids watched as the chickens ran around. A couple like chased up in the open field. Not really that was the nerves acting that way.
You kind of wonder with the terrorist throat cutters coming across the Southern Border. If they do the same to people, let those people run around after they cutoff the victim’s head off.
My chickens are for eggs not for meat at this time.
I think chickens are smart, they get us to feed and protect them, an give us eggs.
We literally got chicks yesterday, and then I get this article today!! I loved all the advice and now I can say that I do know what to look for when my chicks are bigger and outside!
Placing limbs with thorns amongst your raised beds will deter chickens and other varmits. Cattle panels/hog wire laid across a raised bed works well as does throwing something at them when they hop up on the beds. They know where they are not supposed to go if your police their boundaries early on. I set up a sand box with peatmoss and sand to keep them from using my beds for a dust bath. Hope this helps for all the chicken wranglers.
I remember as a young child (5 or so), Mom saying “I need two chicken from the yard”. Yep that was my job too chop the heads off and let them run until “they ran out of juice”. Fried chicken in a cast iron 16 inch skillet. Fed all 8 of us buys. Ah the memories.
I butchered 6 chickens last week. We had most of 2 of them fried for supper that night.
I also skin the feet and heads. I like eating that tiny little brain.
If our chickens get to mean they get eaten. Roosters make amazing broth for cooking noodles in. That is one thing I will not tolerate, a rooster that attacks people. My mom didn’t either.
If people want their hens to hatch for them, check that the breed of hens go broody. Not all do.
Also hens do not really lay all year round. They take a break and loose their feathers then grow new.
If you want your hens to lay during the winter, give them longer hours of day light. Mor like summer time hours.
We used to take a chickens head in our hand and swing the chicken around then snap our wrist and the head came off. The chicken did the flapping dance. We kids were to watch where they went then gather them up . They were dubked in very hot water and the feathers removed.
Now there are fancy chicken plucked that many use. I’m not a fan.
To all new chicken keepers, I wish you joy with your feathered friends.
This was a great article.I have several acres and don’t care how the “lawn” looks. This makes my peep peeps very happy. In order to avoid predators in the coop we finally came up with a solution. We set a 5×10 dog kennel into concrete. Then made them a roof. You would be surprised at the tiny places that the snakes get in. We solved that by hot gluing rafter joiners with the pointy side out. This actually worked. We use an old dog house as their nesting box so they can come and go as they please or they all pile in during cold weather. I have had hawks and eagles snag the chickens during the day. You can tell that happened because there will be a small ring of feathers on the ground. The only thing I can do is fire off a few shots to scare them away. My chickens run free during the day and when I call they come running because it is dinner time. They get their non GMO feed and any bugs that I found in my garden. We fenced in the garden area to keep the chickens out and ran solar electric fences around flower beds. I hope these ideas help you save your chickens and you don’t have to find out the hard way like we did. Oh yeah we also get a mixed variety of chicks it helps with the gene pool.
I grew up having chickens in the Texas piney woods and if there was a copperhead lurking around he property, the chickens were the first to detect it and raise the alarm (and also have at it for a meal).