Monday, June 27, 2011

Smarter than a Chicken?

Musing on the intelligence of human versus chicken ..... (a no photo Monday)

My 'girls' (the chickens) like (love) to get out of their coops and sit on a perch and look out the window.  They are content to stay there for hours. They've gone outside a few times, but the jury is still out on that.  They like the deck (but I don't like the poo there) but they are having trouble adjusting to the grass.  They scratch in their coops all the time, but haven't gotten the hang of scratching in the grass.  Maybe it's a texture thing.

Not that they're dumb. 

They have been showing more interest in each other.   If one is out on the perch, that one will be agitated until I get the other one out too.  If I leave their coop doors open, they like that too (Abigail never comes out on her own, but I have to watch Dolley).  More and more they were craning their necks to see each other, seeming to want to be near each other, and Dolley has been in Abigail's coop (door open) with no fireworks. So, I put Dolley in with Abigail on purpose, and closed the door so I could putter around the house without having to watch them. They were fine like that without a peep for an hour or more. 

Then - I went down the stairs to put in a load of laundry, and no sooner had my foot hit the bottom than I heard SQUAWK!  BWAK! BWAK! BWAK!    I ran back upstairs and found Dolley cowering in a corner under the roosting pole.   That Abigail!!!  She heard me on the stairs and immediately took the opportunity to peck Dolley.  I know that establishing the pecking order is normal behavior, but I found it amazing that Abigail held off until the instant Mom wasn't around, knew the sound of me on the stairs, then tore into Dolley.  She was a bad girl, but smart.

Humans on the other hand ........

Last week I was at Walmart, in front of the canning supplies, when a Mom came by with her little boy, about 3 years old.  He was talking about wanting to " keep [his] whitnin' bugs," and it was too cute!  Mom said "I don't know, I don't think you can buy just one...."  I thought she was putting him off, until she turned to me and said," what do you think?   "Can you just buy just one (canning jar)?"    Now, this was not a teen mom, or a woman who appeared to be lacking in means or education.  Trying not to let my mouth hang open, I sputtered, "if it were me, I'd just buy a jar of applesauce or something, and use that when it's empty."   "What a good idea!" She said.  "I would never have thought of that."    Really?

Twice I have been by the spices at Krogers and had women ask me where the cinnamon sugar is.   Is it just me?   Does it seem stupid unnecessary to anyone else to buy cinnamon sugar?   You  - uh  - just take a cup or so of sugar, stir in a couple of teapoons of cinnamon.....et voila'!     

Is it any wonder this world is going to you-know-where in a handbasket? 

Just some thoughts for the day ........from Wren Cottage.

3 comments:

  1. Send those people to Community Chicken College - ha!

    And too funny; my word verification was stcrou (St. Crow - the name of the college :-)

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  2. I have those thoughts all the time. I work in the traffic department for a mid-sized city. I got a call from a woman wanting us to put arrows on the pavement to show what the lane was supposed to do. When I pointed out that there was a sign saying the same thing (right next to the signal head, I might add), she said (really, I'm not making this up), "Who looks up there?"

    Ya gotta wonder...

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  3. Hi Deb. I wanted to return the blog visit and thank you for your kind comment. Great post. It does seem like a lot of folks are really out of touch with reality. Such a shame!

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