Our little trio of feathered friends is doing obnoxiously well.
Baby bird, my little bundle of love, is as sweet and sassy as ever. Unless you’re a biscuit. Then you will face the ravening maw and ferocious fury of her beak ripping your innards out and throwing them against the surroundings. Baby girl doesn’t play with her food, she demolishes it.
Volunteer hen has taken to sleeping under the window of my bedroom. So, when she wakes up, there is a flurry of clucking, buking, boking, scratching, and general insanity until she either decides to bugger off to the back yard, or I get up and go to the porch to say good morning. She is not exactly a loving companion in the back yard, but in the front she is distinctly misanthropic. She stomps off at speed, scolding me the entire way around the house.
However, when I go to the back yard and come out the door, she will switch mental gears and sweetly brrrk-brk-brk for treats, as long as I don’t get too close. Apparently, she thinks I am two different people: back yard monkey, and front yard monkey.
The giant numpty of a rooster has had a strange development.
See, he has a complicated relationship with my kid. Depending on where they encounter each other, he treats them as anything from a mortal enemy to a beloved friend.
However, this rooster has only become cuddly the last six months or so, and absolutely was not cuddly with the kid. Or my wife. Or my dad.
But the last two weeks, he has been shifting things. He went from being okay with my kid carrying him to where he wanted to go, but otherwise not wanting contact, to damn near being a baby doll.
When he comes inside, we don’t really let him wander because he can drop bombs that count as acts of war. Giant, reeking bombs. But, I was the only one he would deign to allow to really pet him, or sit still for on a lap.
But my kid got dizzy a while back, and sat down while holding him. For the first time ever, he didn’t try to get away. He just sat there, without being held in place.
So my kid, having wanted to do so for ages, pets him. Instead of his usual response to being petted by anyone but me, he fluffed his feathers a little and just stood there for a while.
Since then, he has gotten increasingly chill on their lap. To the point that he almost falls asleep. Yesterday, me and the kid were in the living room with him, on their lap. He was nestled in, wings spread across their legs, feathers completely loose, and getting tag team petted in his favorite spots. He kept sagging his head, and his eyes would start to close. He’d catch himself, and come back up a little with a gentle bk-bk and then repeat the process.
He was like that for a half hour.
Now, that may not seem like a big deal, even if a reader has seen me talk about him before. But this bird, even when we first got him and thought he was a hen, has never been that fond of people. He would stay at arms length, and would stay as far away as possible even when taking high value treats. There was a span of time where he wouldn’t take treats from our hands at all. You’d have to toss them away from yourself and he’d eyeball you while going for it.
Just a year ago, he was perfectly willing to attack any of us that moved too fast. Tbh, he still will go after the kid outside randomly, but no longer attacks and needs restraining for basic care. Now, he just pecks their boots and grabs their pants legs. Luckily, he has always been a giant numpty, and didn’t know how to attack a human in a dangerous way, he’d just grab a shoe or pants leg and flap wings really hard. He’d kick at the ground if he kicked at all.
Well, unless you bend over to pick something up. Then he’ll launch into the air and peck the daylights out of your ass. He even does that to me, and he knows damn good and well I’ll pick him up and tuck him under my arm and call him a giant numpty.
He surprised me once early on trying to go after my leg, and I got startled, swung around, and he got caught on the noggin by my cane, so I’m the exception to his normal levels of roostering. Unless I’m bent over, when he can’t seem to help himself.
But here he is after not even a full two years, and he’s falling asleep in laps, enjoying pets and scritches.
Ngl, I’m tearing up a little thinking about it. Oh, he’s still a jerk at times, and he’s about as smart as a lump of old oatmeal, but watching him settle in with us and start to trust even the kid (who moves faster, so is harder to predict) enough to just soak up some lovin has been amazing.
I’ve worked with nervous dogs in the past, and a couple of cats. But for whatever reason, seeing this guy change has been a very fulfilling thing. I don’t know where he’ll end up in terms of his relationship with us, but this whole chicken journey started with him just needing a place to live, and no intent of him being a part of the family. We thought we were basically just going to have a bird in the yard so that it didn’t end up hurt or killed. Now we’ve got a friend.
Edit: he decided to be a jerk to my kid this morning, so they picked him up and carried him around while getting the birds set up for the day. He was then brought inside for a visit. He was not happy about it, but sometimes he needs to be a handbag to keep him aware that we could eat him.
Anyway, I hear him grumbling, brrrrrrrrr buk-awk!, brrrrrrrrr. So I get up and head to the kitchen. I call his name in the special pitch I use for him, “Sesame! Helllooo!”, and he switches his tune to bukbukbukbuk until I turn the corner, whereupon he screams, BRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAWW! And starts kicking his legs and trying to run in mid air.
I move over to him and pet his little neck and he switches over to little trills and the occasional bk-a-bk-a-bk until we sit down. He immediately sprawls out on my kid’s lap and starts buking until he gets pets. When any given person stops, he brkawks and starts looking around until the next person starts petting. Then he’s back to gentle buking every few seconds until we switch again.
Have mercy!
Our little trio of feathered friends is doing obnoxiously well.
Baby bird, my little bundle of love, is as sweet and sassy as ever. Unless you’re a biscuit. Then you will face the ravening maw and ferocious fury of her beak ripping your innards out and throwing them against the surroundings. Baby girl doesn’t play with her food, she demolishes it.
Volunteer hen has taken to sleeping under the window of my bedroom. So, when she wakes up, there is a flurry of clucking, buking, boking, scratching, and general insanity until she either decides to bugger off to the back yard, or I get up and go to the porch to say good morning. She is not exactly a loving companion in the back yard, but in the front she is distinctly misanthropic. She stomps off at speed, scolding me the entire way around the house.
However, when I go to the back yard and come out the door, she will switch mental gears and sweetly brrrk-brk-brk for treats, as long as I don’t get too close. Apparently, she thinks I am two different people: back yard monkey, and front yard monkey.
The giant numpty of a rooster has had a strange development.
See, he has a complicated relationship with my kid. Depending on where they encounter each other, he treats them as anything from a mortal enemy to a beloved friend.
However, this rooster has only become cuddly the last six months or so, and absolutely was not cuddly with the kid. Or my wife. Or my dad.
But the last two weeks, he has been shifting things. He went from being okay with my kid carrying him to where he wanted to go, but otherwise not wanting contact, to damn near being a baby doll.
When he comes inside, we don’t really let him wander because he can drop bombs that count as acts of war. Giant, reeking bombs. But, I was the only one he would deign to allow to really pet him, or sit still for on a lap.
But my kid got dizzy a while back, and sat down while holding him. For the first time ever, he didn’t try to get away. He just sat there, without being held in place.
So my kid, having wanted to do so for ages, pets him. Instead of his usual response to being petted by anyone but me, he fluffed his feathers a little and just stood there for a while.
Since then, he has gotten increasingly chill on their lap. To the point that he almost falls asleep. Yesterday, me and the kid were in the living room with him, on their lap. He was nestled in, wings spread across their legs, feathers completely loose, and getting tag team petted in his favorite spots. He kept sagging his head, and his eyes would start to close. He’d catch himself, and come back up a little with a gentle bk-bk and then repeat the process.
He was like that for a half hour.
Now, that may not seem like a big deal, even if a reader has seen me talk about him before. But this bird, even when we first got him and thought he was a hen, has never been that fond of people. He would stay at arms length, and would stay as far away as possible even when taking high value treats. There was a span of time where he wouldn’t take treats from our hands at all. You’d have to toss them away from yourself and he’d eyeball you while going for it.
Just a year ago, he was perfectly willing to attack any of us that moved too fast. Tbh, he still will go after the kid outside randomly, but no longer attacks and needs restraining for basic care. Now, he just pecks their boots and grabs their pants legs. Luckily, he has always been a giant numpty, and didn’t know how to attack a human in a dangerous way, he’d just grab a shoe or pants leg and flap wings really hard. He’d kick at the ground if he kicked at all.
Well, unless you bend over to pick something up. Then he’ll launch into the air and peck the daylights out of your ass. He even does that to me, and he knows damn good and well I’ll pick him up and tuck him under my arm and call him a giant numpty.
He surprised me once early on trying to go after my leg, and I got startled, swung around, and he got caught on the noggin by my cane, so I’m the exception to his normal levels of roostering. Unless I’m bent over, when he can’t seem to help himself.
But here he is after not even a full two years, and he’s falling asleep in laps, enjoying pets and scritches.
Ngl, I’m tearing up a little thinking about it. Oh, he’s still a jerk at times, and he’s about as smart as a lump of old oatmeal, but watching him settle in with us and start to trust even the kid (who moves faster, so is harder to predict) enough to just soak up some lovin has been amazing.
I’ve worked with nervous dogs in the past, and a couple of cats. But for whatever reason, seeing this guy change has been a very fulfilling thing. I don’t know where he’ll end up in terms of his relationship with us, but this whole chicken journey started with him just needing a place to live, and no intent of him being a part of the family. We thought we were basically just going to have a bird in the yard so that it didn’t end up hurt or killed. Now we’ve got a friend.
Edit: he decided to be a jerk to my kid this morning, so they picked him up and carried him around while getting the birds set up for the day. He was then brought inside for a visit. He was not happy about it, but sometimes he needs to be a handbag to keep him aware that we could eat him.
Anyway, I hear him grumbling, brrrrrrrrr buk-awk!, brrrrrrrrr. So I get up and head to the kitchen. I call his name in the special pitch I use for him, “Sesame! Helllooo!”, and he switches his tune to bukbukbukbuk until I turn the corner, whereupon he screams, BRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAWW! And starts kicking his legs and trying to run in mid air.
I move over to him and pet his little neck and he switches over to little trills and the occasional bk-a-bk-a-bk until we sit down. He immediately sprawls out on my kid’s lap and starts buking until he gets pets. When any given person stops, he brkawks and starts looking around until the next person starts petting. Then he’s back to gentle buking every few seconds until we switch again.
I fucking love these birds