Chickens

[mystang89]

Chickens are dumb. :chicken2:

I bought 3 poop free water nipples from QC for the chickens. Sat there and easily installed them yesterday in a 5 gal. bucket which I then hung up and figured that since the chickens had run out of water earlier they would go for it. I kind of thought the shiny nipples plus the red coating would make them peck at them. This was around 7pm last night so I didn't have time to make sure they were catching on since kids were starting to swarm the house for candy and the family still needed to eat.

Today comes and I go out to check and see how they are doing. All of them are pacing in front of the gate with picket signs, rotest: "No water = No eggs" squawking at me. So I walk over to the 5 gal. bucket and tap the nipples. Water comes out just find, no leaks or anything. It works great. I do this for a short time to try and show the chickens that wet stuff comes out of these shiny things. Peck at it and find out more. No luck.

Ok, so I go and find some thin strands of string to put around the nipples in hopes of luring the chickens into pecking at the string and the nipple at the same time. They couldn't care less.

:-? ....Ok. Now what? Fine, I thought to myself, the chickens aren't going to lay an egg for me right now anyway because they are stressed from lack of water so I might as well chase a chicken to add to my fun :duel: .....Soooo, after chasing a chicken and finally catching said chicken I stuck its beak under the nipple, tapped it a few times and watched the water flow into chickens beak. Did this a few times, thinking that the chicken would get the hang of it. The chicken did not get the hang of it. Once I let the chicken down it scampered off like a rat.

Wonderful...Now what? :SOSSOS: I sit there thinking. Well, what doesn't work once is bound to work a second time right? SURE! Lets chase a chicken again, weeeeee. So I catch a chicken again, put its beak near the nipple and stay there, hoping that the "monkey see, monkey do" attitude kicks in on the other 8 chickens and they wonder whats this chicken next to. So after sitting there with a chicken, (these are anti-social chickens who don't much care for being touched,) 1 of its friends finally comes over and looks at the chicken I'm holding, sees the nipple and pecks at it. A small amount of water comes out.

EUREKA! Right? The chicken walk off. None of its friends saw it do that and it's not interested enough to do that again. :gun: I keeeel joo!!

So now I'm forlorn. :allalone: The chickens are still wondering where their water is and no amount of talking to them is getting it through their bird brains.

Out of no where the chicken who pecked at the nipple comes back over and pecks again at the water nipple. It's friends see this time and start edging closer, wonder what in this world is this chicken doing that they aren't? Finally another pecks at the same nipple, and another..at the same nipple. All of the chickens (9) are pecking at the water! YEY! :hooray: I win.....hey, HEY! There are 2 other nipples you idiots! Stop pecking each other and get the other nipples! &$*$#* *$#*#(( I KEEEEL JOO AGAIN! :explode: You're dumb but at least you all know where the water is now.

I go inside where it's nice and warm, drink some warm tee, bask in my winning glory and watch my kids as they tear my house down. :king:

I check back outside 15 min. later and they are all still pecking at the nipple(s). Yes they figured out there were more than 1. I check again after another 15 min. and they were still pecking at the nipples. 1 hour pass after I had originally taught them where to go and they were still going at it. I went out there to check and make sure that water was still coming out and it is. They have since calmed down and just peck now whenever they get thirsty as normal good little chickens.

TL;DR <----Chickens are dumb.

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

LMBO Dumb chickens...

 

[owlsfriend]

well, this proves that bunnys are smarter than chickys.. :mrgreen: .When I got the two junior does, they'd never seen a water bottle....I just waited until their bowl was empty and hung the bottle right above it. When they went to drink from the bowl, they bumped the nozzles and got their heads wet. Within seconds both were drinking just fine. Took all of 1.37 minutes to complete. :ugeek: very cool :bunnyhop:

 

[mystang89]

Lol, yeah, I'll have to agree that rabbits are smarter than chickens. Chickens are creatures of habit. When they find out something is there, then they will always go for it. Train a chicken to come by always throwing scratch in the same spot and saying "Here chick chick chick" etc.
Rabbits you can train and they can train themselves. They are quiet and warm and their fices doesn't stink. If rabbits layed eggs I'd probably get rid of my chickens. Anyone have rabbits that lay eggs?

 

[MaggieJ]

:chicken: Yeah, chickens are bird-brains, for sure. But the eggs make them worthwhile. :fryegg:

 

[3mina]

:chicken: Yeah, chickens are bird-brains, for sure. But the eggs make them worthwhile. :fryegg:

ALMOST worthwhile, until I can find a chicken that doesn't reek or make a horrendous mess, I'll stick with buying my eggs from the egg man every week. The freshest eggs in my area

 

[MaggieJ]

Mine free range and I don't have to get up close and personal with them... except when they mob me for treats. I guess they smell but it's not noticeable unless you are processing one. I hate that! You do have to watch where you step, but since I wear rubber boots or plastic clogs most of the time, it is not a big deal. I love to see them out there scratching around... and they do control the insect population nicely.

 

[Secuono]

Put food on the nipples or scoot over a friendly and curious chicken and peck at the nipple yourself. She should see the water and try it out herself.
Chickens aren't stupid....guinea fowl are dumber than dumbo....

 

[wsmoak]

Give them both the original bowl and the nipple waterer for a while. They'll figure it out when they're less stressed.

-Wendy

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Chickens are dumb. :chicken2:

I bought 3 poop free water nipples from QC for the chickens. Sat there and easily installed them yesterday in a 5 gal. bucket which I then hung up and figured that since the chickens had run out of water earlier they would go for it. I kind of thought the shiny nipples plus the red coating would make them peck at them. This was around 7pm last night so I didn't have time to make sure they were catching on since kids were starting to swarm the house for candy and the family still needed to eat.

Today comes and I go out to check and see how they are doing. All of them are pacing in front of the gate with picket signs, rotest: "No water = No eggs" squawking at me. So I walk over to the 5 gal. bucket and tap the nipples. Water comes out just find, no leaks or anything. It works great. I do this for a short time to try and show the chickens that wet stuff comes out of these shiny things. Peck at it and find out more. No luck.

Ok, so I go and find some thin strands of string to put around the nipples in hopes of luring the chickens into pecking at the string and the nipple at the same time. They couldn't care less.

:-? ....Ok. Now what? Fine, I thought to myself, the chickens aren't going to lay an egg for me right now anyway because they are stressed from lack of water so I might as well chase a chicken to add to my fun :duel: .....Soooo, after chasing a chicken and finally catching said chicken I stuck its beak under the nipple, tapped it a few times and watched the water flow into chickens beak. Did this a few times, thinking that the chicken would get the hang of it. The chicken did not get the hang of it. Once I let the chicken down it scampered off like a rat.

Wonderful...Now what? :SOSSOS: I sit there thinking. Well, what doesn't work once is bound to work a second time right? SURE! Lets chase a chicken again, weeeeee. So I catch a chicken again, put its beak near the nipple and stay there, hoping that the "monkey see, monkey do" attitude kicks in on the other 8 chickens and they wonder whats this chicken next to. So after sitting there with a chicken, (these are anti-social chickens who don't much care for being touched,) 1 of its friends finally comes over and looks at the chicken I'm holding, sees the nipple and pecks at it. A small amount of water comes out.

EUREKA! Right? The chicken walk off. None of its friends saw it do that and it's not interested enough to do that again. :gun: I keeeel joo!!

So now I'm forlorn. :allalone: The chickens are still wondering where their water is and no amount of talking to them is getting it through their bird brains.

Out of no where the chicken who pecked at the nipple comes back over and pecks again at the water nipple. It's friends see this time and start edging closer, wonder what in this world is this chicken doing that they aren't? Finally another pecks at the same nipple, and another..at the same nipple. All of the chickens (9) are pecking at the water! YEY! :hooray: I win.....hey, HEY! There are 2 other nipples you idiots! Stop pecking each other and get the other nipples! &$*$#* *$#*#(( I KEEEEL JOO AGAIN! :explode: You're dumb but at least you all know where the water is now.

I go inside where it's nice and warm, drink some warm tee, bask in my winning glory and watch my kids as they tear my house down. :king:

I check back outside 15 min. later and they are all still pecking at the nipple(s). Yes they figured out there were more than 1. I check again after another 15 min. and they were still pecking at the nipples. 1 hour pass after I had originally taught them where to go and they were still going at it. I went out there to check and make sure that water was still coming out and it is. They have since calmed down and just peck now whenever they get thirsty as normal good little chickens.

TL;DR <----Chickens are dumb.

:nothingtoadd: :rotfl:

 

[MaggieJ]

I kind of like these... but they'd be useless in winter.

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/mini-cup-waterers.html

 

[Marinea]

Ahem...we are NOT dumb, we are just creatures of habit! No eggs for you!

 

[mystang89]

lol, I didn't get eggs for a couple of days but I think they are finally starting to come around.

 

[Honorine]

What Marinea said, chickens are very smart, but creatures of habit. They have to be exposed to new situations to learn, but then they learn quickly. They are much smarter than rabbits, and learn faster than some people. Humans tend to repeatedly engage in the same behavior expecting different results, chickens try once or twice and then move on. Want stupid, try turkeys!!

 

[skysthelimit]

I'm going for the chickens are dumb. I had my waterer for three months, and I tried daily for almost two weeks before giving up. I continued to make sure the water was right, but stopped trying to show them how to do it. In a small space they are smelly and noisy and not worth the poop everywhere. I don't eat eggs so they left and gave there space to the buns.

 

[akane]

I actually had no problems with my chickens. I just set it to drip a little and they immediately pecked at the water droplet. Within 30mins all chickens had the new water figured out and I replaced the leaky bottle with a proper one.

 

[MaggieJ]

To me, it seems as though a great deal of chicken behaviour is instinctive, but they are capable of learning. Watching mine, I have come to the conclusion that they have all the brains they need.

 

[mystang89]

I've heard of people training their chickens to be house broken. The birds go to a certain spot to do their deed. I don't think I would have the patience to train a bird like that though. That bird would end up on the dinner table before anything.

 

[akane]

They actually have chicken training clinics as examples for training other animals like dogs because they respond so well and predictably whether you do it right or wrong.

 

[owlsfriend]

I just keep thinking of chickens taught to "play the piano" by putting grain between the keys of toy pianos that they can peck for....maybe we could teach bunnies to play piano by stuffing dandelion leaves between the keys? Mine like to make noise with bowls and bell toys...perhaps they (rabbits) are more percussive, and would do well with a tambourine?