Three ways chickens will freak you out April 6, 2012
When I first started keeping chickens—or as my daughter likes to say, “way back in the olden days”—I was easily freaked out by their behaviors. Like, all the time. Seriously. For a while it seemed to happen at least once a week. Now, it’s not that I didn’t inform myself beforehand about what to expect; it’s more that when actually confronted with what I’d read about, it was way different than what I’d imagined.
For example, if you’ve never seen a hen dust bathing, the first time it happens, it will give you the heebie jeebies. After all, when you initially get your hens, you may have read that they like to dust bathe, you may remember it, and you may look forward to seeing it, even. But when you actually walk outside and see a group of your hens flopping around in the dirt—all uncoordinated wings and feet, as if they’ve had their necks broken—well, dust bathing is just not always the first thing you think of. It looks more like a seizure. Worse, they’ll flop around a while as you stand there with your heart in your throat, then stop flopping at all. DEAD, you think! As you try to gather your wits to figure out what to do, and what may have happened—Predator attack? Sudden illness? Are there any survivors?—they may start flopping again, and you think with horror, “Sweet suffering babies, the poor things are still alive!”
Even sun bathing, while not quite so violent-looking as dust bathing, can be more than a little disturbing. I remember walking out into the yard one summer day to come across something that stopped my breath.
Like Scarlett O’Hara viewing the casualties from the Battle of Atlanta, when I saw the scope of the devastation, my heart dropped. Everyone lay on their sides, wings askew, all lined up unmoving, like casualties of war
But my worst terror was my very first!
A little background, first. Hatching a batch of baby chicks is, in itself, very stressful, and especially so if it’s your first. In the “olden days,” I had a simple styrofoam-type incubator without a fan or egg turner. Waiting 21 days is always excruciating, and this first time I was so worried that I would do something wrong, or that the temperature would spike, or that the power would go out, or that one of the million bad things that could happen, would happen. As it turned out, I had an okay hatch for a beginner trying with shipped eggs: 8 out of 18. I was so relieved! After the chicks had mostly dried, I put them in their warm, safe prepared brooder. Then I went back to candle the remaining eggs to see if any additional chicks would be forthcoming, perhaps late. However, there was nothing. So, I discarded the undeveloped eggs, sanitized the incubator, cleaned up and went back into the brooder room to see how everyone was doing. I was so relieved after three weeks of worry that I was actually successful at hatching my own chicks in a home incubator.
But, DISASTER! The chicks were unmoving. They looked as if they’d been scattered into the brooder, just tossed, and lay in various awkward positions as if dead. One of them actually lay belly up, its little twiggy legs in the air.
Tell me this wouldn't terrify you.
I took a few moments to get a hold of myself, and then finally I reached into the brooder tearfully and with a shaky hand to remove the dead babies, horrified, wondering how I’d killed them. My mind went over everything; I had checked the temperature of the brooder just 20 minutes ago, and it still looked good. Could the thermometer be so off? Had they died of some illness? Was there something wrong with the food? But as my hand touched the first one, it jumped up with a surprised peep, and rushing through the brooder, awakened and refreshed, it roused all the others. They began running around as if nothing had happened at all. Even the one on its back.
They were fine. In fact, they’d just been asleep in the warmth of the heat lamp. And as I watched them for a while trying to catch my breath and get a hold of myself, they one by one plopped over again to sleep… with the same one rolling over on its back. WHAT?
So, okay. Apparently that’s normal after all.
Now, after having had my chickens for years, I seldom get too worried unless something is actually wrong. (I’m kind of afraid to say that; will it jinx me?) But what unreasonable terrors did YOU had with your chickens when you first started? I’ve only covered three. Please share your own story in the comments!
Oh yeah, the dreaded sun bath. When we moved here 10 years ago, I was thrilled to finally have a yard surrounding the house. I could watch the chickens doing chicken things from every window! Yay! Then I looked out the kitchen window to see – dead chickens! OMG! I raced to the back door, calling and making all kinds of noise….to round the corner and see – nothing. I had scared them out of sunbathing mode and they were somewhere else looking at me like “what?” Chickens! Love ‘em!
I have found that dead chickens are more life-like than sunbathing chickens.
love the post..i just got my hens this week so this will help me to not freak so bad
Wonderful post! New to chicks I almost fainted as I watched them just walking normal then fall straight forward as if they expired in mid step. Only to realize they had just fallen asleep. And as tiny babies in the brooder making the first attempt at a ‘dust bath’. I yelled for my husband, Something is wrong! Monty is having a seizure! And the first time they ‘melted’ in the sun. I thought they had heat stroke. Black stars in the Florida sun…thought it was the worst decision we had made. Apparently they love it since they look for a sun spot and melt right there. I love my babies!
What a funny post!! I had all of those same moments with my first batch of chicks. The sleeping especially. For some reason I thought they would settle down like hens on a roost. But no – they fall out mid-stride in a death pose. It’s quite terrifying if you don’t know what to expect.
My kids had never been around chickens before so they wake me up one morning freaking out because the, “Chickens are burying themselves!” I was like, “What!?!” I ran down to see what was going on and was about ready to fall on the floor laughing when I saw the babies were just dust/sun bathing under the heat lamp!
The first molt! James and I panicked as the hen suddenly lost handfulls of feathers which were spewn all over the yard. We checked for signs of illness then did some quick research and realized that she wasn’t sick and dying, just molting. Whew! Soon after two others followed in her stead but by then we knew what was happening.
Oh, yeah! Can SO relate! Dust bathing never startled me, thought it looked kind of cool actually. Sun bathing startled me a little bit when I first saw it, but I’m used to my dogs and cats doing the same thing, so I was prepared for what something like that looks like. But the way they sleep when their babies (even though I had read and was “prepared” for it) scared the heck out of me! I still stop and stare and make sure I can see their little backs/sides moving up and down, so I know they’re breathing! When I first saw it, I had the same reaction as you, picking them up to check on them. Which peeved them a bit, as I was disturbing their naps! Ha ha! Chickens make all the “stress” worth it, though! Such a joy to have.
Kitty (The Hockman Girl)
I learned the hard way about the dust bath..lol I thought she was hurt for sure..
This has been a great blog ty!
This has helped considering this is my new adventure of chicken raisen
Happy Easter!
We had our brooder in the house and one chick insisted on trying to “dust” bathe in the shavings in the middle of the night. I remember getting up and hearing the noise and I thought she was having a seizure. The first time I saw one sun bathing it was over 100 degrees. I thought she had just given up on life to lay in the hot Texas sun.
Several of my chickens were out in the gravel driveway just 2 days ago “performing” the hilarious dust bathing. lol I also remember the olden days of the sleeping chicks. I have gotten into the habit of making noise as I go in to check on them.
I had my “freak out over dead chicks” in the store before I actually brought any home. I was oooh-ing over the adorable little bundles of fluff when I spotted a dead one. “Aww… Poor little thing…” I notified one of the store employees who calmly walked over, tapped on the brooder, and said,”Nope, they’re good. That’s just how they sleep.” Huh… Weird…
So, when i did finally get to bring my first batch of fuzzy chicks home, I did not worry(as much) when they’d fall asleep in awkward looking positons.
Well I worried myself about “chicken flu” – even bought the vaccination online and had a friend of ours who raises parrats come and vaccinate them… Then of course the first year – HARD – molt – I knew it was coming and when it starts you’re all like – oh they’re just molting, then days later when they look horrible, you start thinking to yourself – wait – maybe it’s something else – maybe it’s some form of disease… and I hold my breath until I can finally see feathers coming back in… whew! Love my chickens – they’re the best!
Ah, the dust bath (or, right now, more “wet dirt bath”). Yeah, I kinda freaked out the first time I saw that.
I, too remember vividly my first “dead chicken” experience. Also, the dust baths were awful the first couple of times. They truly look like they are having some kind of seizure and knocking at deaths door!! I love my chickies and these blogs!! Thanks!
We got our first dirt bath yesterday. I might have missed it if not for my dog freaking out and barking his fool head off. Apparently he was just as distressed as I might have been if I’d not known better. I laughed. He calmed down. The dominant hen got up and pecked him – much like a scolding for disturbing her. He yelped but didn’t bother them any more. I went and got my camera and got a couple good shots. It was a good day and a great “first” memory.
I smiled all the way through this blog post
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Jen
Having “mothered” baby chicken chicks , Turkey poults and even baby pheasant chicks (They are really cute) , Im kind of an old hat when it comes to chickens sleeping or dust bathing My worst moment came one day when I heard an unearthly noise coming from the chicken pen . Somehow a Red Tailed Hawk had gotten in under the netting and they were all calling for me their mum to come save them . A hair raising few minutes ensued as I tried to free the hawk ….. he was huge , without scattering my chickens through the yard , but I did it and apart from a few ruffled feathers (Sorry) no-one was the worst for wear Except me I was shaking …..
This past year was my first year with chickens. Got them as approx 8-week olds (they’d been abandoned at the humane society after hatching). Along with my experience of “what the what?” with the dirt-bathing (which I at least knew to expect, just not how awesomely odd and amusing it appears!) and the sun-bathing – one of the things that initially freaked me out a bit (at least enough to head out to the run/coop to investigate) was the cacophony generated when one of the hens lays an egg and starts yelling about it, causing the rooster to start yelling as well. I srsly thought that there was poultrycide happening in there the first time I heard it – only to discover that it was just a lot of chicken-exclamation.
Molting was scarier since they seem to loose them in fall when they should keep them. Brrrrr. And Hawks are always scarey since they coming so quietly. But that is all part of life too.
First my Husband and I along with our son decided to venture into 2 chickens. Then 2 became 5 then 5 became 9 then 9 finally became 10! We are maxed out! When we added our 3 with the 2 chicks we already had, the bigger babys still in the brooder. We had no fight no pecking levels nothing like that. The new ones happend to be brought home at 1 week the others were two weeks when we got them. So we have 5 happy seemingly healthy chickens. Well as a worried Mom of new chickens I went to look at my brood the first night of the new ones and found my husbands americauna all spread out with it’s neck bent! I looked to see if it was breathing and I couldn’t see that it was. So went runny into the bed room woke up my sleeping husband screaming that Bernadette was dead! We both go running down the hall tear around the corner and she is laying out flat as a pancake. She hears my husband and jumps up and runs to him and makes the little Amercauna cooing noise! I don’t know if I was mad that she scared me to death or happy she was fine.
LOVE this post! We’re getting our chickens in the next couple of weeks, so this is very very timely!
My first day I had my chickens–they had been in the brooder for 20 minutes when I went back to check on them and 4 of them were soaking wet and almost dead!! The waterer I had bought had sprung a leak and almost drowned them. PLEASE check the waterers before putting them in with the babies!!! I was mortified that I was so careless. It made me wish I hadnt bought them at all but …now I love them like my own kids.
I myself have been freaked out..but my fear now and thermal is predator attack..one day I heard my hen just boking loudly my heart pounded as I ran out to them too find not only was things okay but I had what would be my first eggs from my new hobby and that I have one proud egg layer. …three years later she still anounces every egg she lays with very loud excited billing..
When I got my first chickens, one of them didn’t have any down on its neck and most of its head. I thought, “what’s wrong with this one?!” It turned out that she’s was a transylvanian turken and I was elated.
Most of these behaviors I have encountered before, so it was not a surprise to me. However, last year was my first year hatching chicks, and I had two roosters. Each time I let them out, they would go up to each other and body slam each other. I had not seen that behavior before!
I saw my chicks have a “dirt bath” for the first time today! Thank goodness I read this first or else I would have thought she was having a seizure!
We were freaked out when one of our first chickens, a Japanese bantam, turned broody last summer at just a few months old. She stopped eating and wouldn’t leave the nest box–I was sure she was ill and dying. Brought her back inside, made a little hospital room for her under the heat lamp with warmed towels… of course she was fine. Put her back outside the next day, and she went right back into her nest box. It took several weeks before she really got over it, and she was the last of the 7 to begin to lay. All talk, no action! She laid well over the winter but with warm weather has turned broody again. Just a natural-born mother!
Thank you for a very funny post – I love the chick on its back photo! Here in Scotland we’ve had a couple of bad winters recently, and my hens have reacted in different ways to snow. Most simply refused to come out in it, while a couple of them strode off until they sank. However, it was the ones whose wee brains worked out that the white stuff had to end somewhere and set off to fly over it that caused us most concern. One had to be dug out of a drift, one settled on the bonfire we were building and had to be carried home. Sparrow, the tiniest bantam, ended up on the roof of our garage. No coaxing would get her down and when my husband climbed up a ladder to reach up for her she ran to the other end of the roof. In the end we had to – very gently, I promise – push her off with a broom handle then pick her up where she landed. Luckily they all seem to have learned from their experiences and we’ve not had a repetition of these experiences – yet.
Great post! I don’t have anything to add, although I’ve always wanted chickens!
I had one of those moments today!!! Just got 4 baby chicks today, set them all up, went to check on them, found them dead!! Lying in all odd positions……then I touched one…..LOL
Oh, this is just too funny! We had a neighbor scared recently when the chickens decided to sunbathe on the property line…. she was so shocked! lol Love it…. they truly are more entertaining then television
Great post!
Today marks the first week anniversary of bringing home my first batch of day old chicks. I got 10 going ‘cheap’ at the local tractor supply (every pun intended), they’ve been going ‘cheep cheep’ almost ever since.
6 Rhode Island Reds, and 4 Comets, and they are growing very fast. This morning my young’un declared me a chicken whisperer when I discovered how to put them to sleep almost instantly, by holding one of our little ‘nuggets’ in one hand, on it’s back, and rubbing its tummy with the fingers of my other hand. Just like soothing my girl by rubbing her back when she is upset, and she was rather upset to find several of them ‘dead’ under the heat lamp one afternoon. After reading all of these posts I realize that I’m nothing special after all, and that there will be many more dramatic moments with my young’un!
Back home in England, an old timer used to call eggs ‘cackle-berries’ due to the noise the hens make when they lay, but I’m really glad to know about the dust baths and sun bathing. I love watching them nod off on their perch – they always look like they are about to pitch forward and fall over. So we made it thru the first week – The indoor coop is all but finished, stained, draft proofed, perches, home made waterers and feeders that hang from hooks, it stands several inches off the floor, so I hope to convert it to outdoors if I have to, but in the meantime, it is furniture – they really are more interesting than the TV. BTW, I recommend Bag balm (developed by farmers for cows udders) to relieve your hands from the dryness and cracking from all the hand washing – since of course you can’t help cuddling them…..
;o)
dst bathing never scared me. my hen, ariconnie molted and i thought she was sick.
I’ve had one surprise in the three weeks- one of my chicks was sprawled out, i touched it, AND SHE DIDN’T MOVE! then a chick walked over her head….PEEP PEEP PEEP peep. peep…..and then to sleep again. just a deep sleeper.
Thank goodness I read about dust bathing ahead of receiving my chicks, although at first when i witnessed dust bathing just one of my chicks was doing it, so I thought, “Oh no, its Marek’s disease! Thankfully, after almost having a nervous breakdown the other chicks joined in, and I re-read the section on “dust-bathing” in my literature. I realized it was just dust-bathing. What a free for all!!!!!!
Oh, the dreaded sun bathing!!
I grew up with parakeets and had several during my childhood and teen years. Unfortunately they pass away eventually. And when they are dying, they look exactly like a chicken that’s sun bathing! Flopped to one side with their wing and leg stretched out and the head twisted in that horribly unnatural angle.
Even after keeping chickens for over 10 years now that sun bathing still gets me and my heart skips a beat, worried that I lost one of my precious hens.
escapism-
the nuggets (as my young’un) calls them, are now the size of ‘cordon bleu’s, not that we will be eating them – they have been transferred from their cardboard box to their temporary indoor coop. I have towels over the top, except for where the heat lamp is, so imagine my surprise when I spotted two little legs under my bedroom door this morning!
Amelia (the only one with a name so far ) is the largest of the golden comets, and had somehow managed to ‘fly the coop’. She has escaped several times yesterday and today, she just loves to fly – but I can’t figure how she is getting out. She also gets the most handling since I cuddle her and stroke her before putting her back with her peeps. This site is so wonderful, I would have thought they were all dead so many times over if I hadn’t read all your posts…. thank you soooo much!
My babies arrive next week and I’m SOOO glad I know how they fall asleep. That would certainly have had me freaking out. Didn’t know about the sun bathing, either. Thanks for the hilarious post!
Thank you! I thought my chickens got some sort of disease but after watching your video, they were just sunbathing!! I was so scared b/c the chickens would flop over like they just started sinking into a slumber, and then kind of close their eyes and flop over on its side!! The other chicken would peck at it to get it back up!
I keep a watchful eye over a feral hen that took up at my house about a year ago. Of course, I feed her too. With every new thing she does I have to run to the Internet to find out why she’s doing it. I thought she had done everything until today when she did her “sunbathing” in 100 degree weather. She usually stays in the shade in hot weather so I was very surprised to learn that this is a normal thing hens do. Thank goodness — I thought she was very sick too!! Thank you for the knowledge. Love this site!!!
I’m so glad I came across your blog! My husband and I just hatched chicks in an incubator for the first time (only two chicks so far), and they keep randomly falling over like they are dying. I was so worried that they are sick and not going to make it. I feel a lot better now knowing this is probably normal and they are just falling asleep.
I’ve been reading this blog and mypetchicken.com almost all day. I’ve become obsessed. It is now 1:17 in the morning and I have finally moved from the couch to my bed. I feel so silly – here in my bed, by myself in the wee hours of the morning, laughing so hard that tears are running down my cheeks and my eyes are so filled that I cannot see. You know – it’s that kind of laughter that you can’t control. Every time I settle down a little bit, I think of “dead chicks” and crack up all over again. How wonderfully therapeutic ! ! Thank you all for sharing your stories and providing such joyful stress relief. I’m hoping to get started with my chickens in the next few months and now I know much more about what to expect. And what I now expect, is to absolutely love my new venture – I CAN’T WAIT ! !
Thank you so very much for this post! I received 6 chicks yesterday that are pets for my kids. We went down for a quick cuddle and to say good night. We were sitting on the floor, when I looked up and noticed “Fluffy”, my son’s chick belly up…just like your picture. My heart sank so fast and I just knew she was dead. Thankfully, it is normal and now I can sleep tonight!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
You should be a part of a contest for one of the greatest websites on the internet.
I’m going to recommend this web site!
one time my two laying hens were sun bathing but of corse when i fed them there meal they run over clucking and making there signiture rrrrrrr-b-b-b-b and one of my hens lilly who already ate her full started to have a dust bath . well that got the whole flock rilled up and they all started to dust bath untill the whole coop, flock and myself was covered in dust
Wow, I am so glad that you took the time to write this. I stumbled across it while I was looking up why my chicks were flapping on their sides in their tank, phew, glad to see it was only dust bathing. I thought the only one I had named, Ginger Rogers, was dying, but she finally got up and was fine, but just now another was doing it. Many things raced through my mind. Thanks again for reassuring me that all is well in my chick land. I am new to this and I have 6 girls….they are precious!
You’re very welcome. I just remember how worried I was when I first saw that flapping and flailing, too!
Thanks for the info my did this today and I was worried, not so worried now!
I found this page on a frantic search of why my chickens are outside in the sun dying! First day in the open, and all of them flop to the side and onto the ground. I’ve already beat myself up for not adding vitamins to the water, putting a new perch in the coop (was it treated wood?!?) and wondering what else they could have come into contact with. Thank you for turning my day around!
So glad this helped!
Oh my gosh, I knew about the dust bathing and sun bathing, but I have to say I would have undoubtably freaked if I had seen my precious new hatchlings “dead” like that. My goodness.
Haha, I have to say though, one thing about hens that scared my mother was when she thought our Buff Orpington had injured her foot. She wouldn’t come out of the nesting box and whenever we’d try to move her she would make a shrill screech and growl; all the while puffing up to impressive size. When she was taken out of the nesting box she’d just sit there puffy and forelorn, ocassionallu still growling. We’d try to help her stand but she would just fall back to the ground like a rock. Concerned my mother separated her and put her in a dog kennel so she wouldn’t “injure” herself more before she could come back from work to take her to the vet. I found her in the kennel stuffing her face and standing just fine. Three large and really smelly poops keeping her company. So I figured if she was ill she wouldn’t be standing, eating, pooping, and acting normal; so back outside she went. I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, but confused, I watches her extra puffed body hike itself back into the coop. By now I knew she wasnt injured but my mom had her doubts- so she went surfing online for answers while I figured, eh she’s just being strange and obsessive over that box- must want to hatch those eggs. Sure enough my mother calls saying she’s Broody- meaning she wants to hatch eggs- I giggled at the notion of her injuring her foot compared to broodiness. So I was instructed to remove the eggs from under her to stop the broodiness. Hilariously it didn’t work because now she wanted to hatch the shavings. Few day later I changed the shavings in all the boxes and she was snapped out of it. Silly hens amiright?
LOL! I was so sure my dust bathing chickens were having a seizure. I’m glad others have thought so too, makes me feel not so alone