What are the hens doing when you approach them and they squat down, hunch their shoulders up, and turn into statues vs. running away? It looks like they're trying to be receptive to, say, a rooster's advances? Or is it supposed to look scary to a predator? I'm just wondering what's going on inside their birdie brains...
hen behavior: The Squatting Eagle
Interesting. I would think probably they are prepared for you to grab them or pick them up. Sort of like when they hunch down for the roo.
Ours are all pets and sometimes they will do that when we reach to pick them up, I think it's sort of a submissive behavior, an okay you got me.
Someone asked the same question on another website and was given the pretty much the same answer as you did, smedgekles.
It is the behaviour of hens preparing to mate...they start it about the same time they begin laying and it is a pretty good indicator that a pullet will soon lay....
When they are molting or brooding chicks, they look at you like you're crazy and run away if you reach for them...but when they are receptive they squat and it is sooooo much easier to catch them.
Do ducks do the same? I'm discovering chickens & ducks are similar in as many ways as they are dissimilar.
It sounds like the behaviour is similar--but since ducks prefer to mate in the water and fertility is better if they do, you may not see it.
http://farmingfriends.com/duck-mating-behaviour/
Hen's squating in similiar to ladies tripping when they want to be caught. LOL
Haystack
o Hay.. Ladies do not trip.
Thanks for asking that question.. I always wondered why they did that because they definitely don't squat all submissive like that for the roos I've got. they run like their tail feathers are on fire. My roos aren't rough with them but my girls definitely aren't sweet & submissive. But a few that have never squatted like that.. suddenly started it this week. I wondered why they were suddenly deciding i wasn't evil.. i'm sad to know its nothing to do with how much i spoil them.. they are just getting close to laying.
Hey Greykyttyn: What is it the ladies do when they want to be caught??? It's sure some type of song and dance. LOL. I love teasing you. Your such a cutie. Haystack
Squating is a survival mechanisim, chickens will also behave that way when being toyed with by a cat or dog often times. Call it submissive if you will, but I call it survival. Most often they will run first and then squat when they know they are not able to get away. But yes I see the more docile ones squat and never run. Just proves some like to be caught and some don't. Takes all kinds right. Hay
The spreading of the wings is the Do-Me position... turkey hens do it if they've imprinted on you... not an unusual thing to have happen, which makes me wonder... Haystack, are you bumplier and splotchier than an old Tom that you've never had a turkey take the Do-Me position behind you where YOU can trip over her? Pity, to be rejected by a turkey...
And your wife is gonna smack you with that rolling pin again for implyin' that she's no lady. Which you are doing by admittin' your ignorance.
Ladies SWOON, suh!
LOL
This message was edited Aug 15, 2009 1:12 PM
Hi JAY: I sure have missed getting body slamed by you, where ya bee, ya ole grinch!!! My wife ain't no lady, What guy in his right mind wants to be married to a lady. LOLOL. Hay
Ah, so she'd be a Dame then. Dame Haystack... =0) Kindly give her my regards. =0)
Ladies have always struck me as rathah high maintainence...
I, myself, have been tediously involved in squelchy personal drama that does not merit going into. To sum, my mood merely echoed the depressed economic climate and as it bottoms out and numbers improve by merely not getting any worse, I find unaccountably that the same may be said for me. My personal recession seems to be leveling out and I expect next we'll see an extended strong inflationary period in my psyche that no doubt the Feds would like to put a stop to.
=0)
:0)
I have two hens that exhibit this behaviour. I used to have three because Rosie did it incessantly. (sniffle). Sketch and Squiggles do this all the time. They also do a little "football shuffle" with their feet just as they squat. It is cute. I just pick them up when they do it and cuddle them.
My ducks do not exhibit this behaviour. When a drake comes after them, there is an elaborate "run around the farmyard in circles" routine that can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, during which he chases her and she evades. If he mounts her, she is sometimes successful in tipping him off to the side and she takes off again. It is rather amusing to see a drake struggling to right himself after being unceremoniously dumped by a duck.
We are dancing perilously close to unseemly topics...
{{gasp}}
=0)
Ooops. THUD.
LOL wow.. Cmoxon.. i can just "see" that.. I do need to visit you.. with my camera.
I'm a dancing machiiiiine... dancing, dancing.... a dancing machine.
So tell me... when you pick the hen up, does that mean you got to first base? Or you're keeping her from becoming first base?
{{a slippery slope, indeed}}
Well, when I pick the hen up, I'm just protecting her from those big nasty roosters who pull out her back feathers, so I am being the protector, not the aggressor. Yeah, that's it.
Aaaah, smooth move!
You are the dancing queen, sly and sweet, many chicken's dream
Dancing queen...
Ooooo yeah!
Mine just fly up on my shoulders to get away from the roo's. Then the roo comes & stands at my feet looking up like he's saying "ok.. give her back."
You all are a hoot! ....When my hens "assume the position", I usually tell them, "I love you, but not in THAT way!" They look at me like they understand and then walk away. My grandkids love it when they squat down because they're easier to pet. :-D
Glenda, I'm so glad for you that they get the message. I wonder if they laugh at you as hard as I am. That was just to good. I'll have to remember that line next time one of mine assumes the position. That line made my jaws sore I laughed so hard. Haystack. I just tell mine I'm to busy.
My Buff Orpingtons squat when approached by the Barred Rocks who regularly mug them. Only the head Barred Rock usually squats for me. I think it is a sign of submission to a perceived superior.
Snowshoe squats... she goes from bowling ball to pancake in one second flat.. LOL
It is interesting, they don't squat for perceived enemies... they may freeze, but the squatting seems reserved for fellow "chickens" or at least recognized acquaintances.
Oh that's sweet....I am a fellow "chicken" now....I feel all warm and feathery....
Freeze.. mine ran for my feet.. all 35 of them! they seemed to think they could hide under me...
I did notice tho.. they don't squat when they are being attacked.. they run, fly, do something to get away... but do not squat. Hadn't really thought that thru before.. but they do pick & choose who they squat down flat for.