Jack

Jack

Monday, January 13, 2014

Terror Apples!

So on the weekends we entertain ourselves by giving the chickens weird shit and webcamming it so others can laugh at them, too.

Seriously though, this is actually very stimulating for the chickens--any time you can combine food with fun it's a great day for chickens. In the same vein as the jack-o-lanterns and watermelons, are apples hung on strings--or Terror Apples, as I like to call them.  This is because with each peck, the apple swings away...then swings BACK and seems to attack it's chickeny tormentor.  This makes for lots of leaping about and chicken confusion at first, until the overpowering siren call of food brings them back.  They all get braver and encircle the apples, pecking away with enthusiasm as the apples swing and sway, bopping their flockmates with apples...sometimes not the one they are facing, either.  That's why hanging multiple apples is so fun.  The chickens bob and weave, trying to keep an eye on their apple and time their peck to get a good bite, all the while staying aware of the other apples and not get bopped.  It's chaos theory in action. 

Once they get the hang of it, it's all fun and games.  We watch them every minute while the apples & string are in the coop, and remove the string the minute they get the apple loose--we want to avoid anyone getting entangled in the string.

It was mostly the youngsters, the old farts chose to hold onto their dignity and not get relentlessly bopped by apples.


LOL
 Skillet!  Don't cross the streams!

It's OK though, Skillet has supercuteness that can overcome anything.
Zip IS dinosaur.  I think I saw this same expression on the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.
SNARF SNARF SNARF.  She really got into it.
 
Everyone had their own technique.  River and Zip chose to tag team their apple.
River earning a style bonus. 
And Fred... 
Fred, what?!
I swear I didn't drop him on his head or anything when he was a baby.

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