Chickens do not come with instruction manuals. Nor do they come pre-programmed to know what to do or not do. Although they should. There is a theory that sense has been bred out of many animals, including chickens. Most chicks nowadays are shipped in shell or just hatched in a box and grow up with no momma to show them the ropes so you have generation after generation not having a role model (sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it?). So we’ve had to kind of step in.
Our first lesson: when it gets dark, go inside and go to bed. Our mature chickens know this. Darkness starts to fall and they’re nowhere to be seen…safely tucked inside their house. No worries. In place of momma hen, we have had to show our young chicks how to do this. Each night, we go out and physically place the chicks in their house. One at a time. All 34 of them. Jett just happens to be the perfect size to fit inside the sled.
Thankfully, they slowly learned to do it on their own…Hooray! After a few days, there were a dozen needing help. Another few days, ten. Two weeks ago, 6. A few days later, only 2! Now, we have just 1 who is either (a) stupid (b) stubborn (c) wants to be Marlene Dietrich (d) loves the attention.
It feels good to be a positive role model.