My pet chickens are very interesting animals. They all have different personalities. For example, Amber— the big orange hen— is super relaxed and calm all the time. On the other hand, Midnight—the black hen— is always anxious and restless. 

Another hen named Brownie likes to peck people and other hens alike, even though she isn’t the biggest hen in the pecking order. In fact, she is the second smallest chicken out of the ten we have. My mom is thinking about giving her away since she keeps pecking humans and chickens too much. 

The chickens may have different personalities, but they are all crazy about food; they love grains and vegetables. Whenever they see me with vegetables, they’ll jump up and down until I give them to them. The hens often fight over the food, pecking until others leave so they can enjoy the food alone. 

Another thing that I have noticed is that the chickens are very intelligent. When the chickens first moved to the new big coop we built, they were afraid of the wooden structure for sleeping because it was dark there. We had to put them in the hen house as they wouldn’t go in by themselves. Surprisingly, after one day, the hens realized that there was nothing to fear in the wooden structure, so they wandered into the hen house stress-free. 

What is more impressive is that they know to go into the hen house when it gets dark, evidently a habit. Usually, it takes 21 days for a human to develop and maintain a habit. But it took the hens, a less intelligent species compared to humans, a fraction of the time humans need to develop a habit. It is pretty amazing that something with such a small brain is able to surpass humans. 

On the other hand, my chickens always hate being picked up. Whenever I pick them up, it’s to brush their feathers or bring them closer to food, so it is hard to see why they are so unhappy when they are off the ground. Furthermore, the chickens can fly, so they should have nothing to fear when they are in the air. It is difficult to understand how they can conquer their fear of the dark so quickly yet persistently scared of being in the air. I will keep observing my chickens and hope to eventually figure it out.