Learning the secret language of chickens

SALISBURY — Why did the chicken disappear?

Because it was laying an egg.

OK, the joke is not a knee-slapper. But it does explain why there was a slight delay before the start of Leslie Watkins’ presentation on chickens on Saturday, March 12, at Town Hall.

Watkins arrived about 5minutes after 4 p.m., with the chicken in question.

The chicken’s name is Love Bug.

Watkins’ presentation, “Chickens Are Smarter Than You Think!,” was sponsored by the Scoville Memorial Library and held at Town Hall. (The library is undergoing extensive renovations.)

Watkins said a box full of recently hatched chicks is, in essence, a bunch of “screaming little terrified barbarians.”

But they calm down quickly, and “figure out a social order.”

Chickens learn, too — and pass that learning along to future generations.

Of her own 25 chickens, Watkins said, “I am part of the flock now. The new babies have no fear.”

Chickens display “intelligence, cuteness and affection,” she said. 

Plus “curiosity and naughtiness.”

They can be “demanding, fresh and arrogant.

“And they make great gardening companions.”

Watkins said it is not a good idea to introduce chickens into a freshly seeded garden, but once things have begun to sprout a bit, chickens are very good to have around.

Why?

Because they eat ticks.

“Chickens love ticks,” said Watkins. “I don’t have to be afraid of sitting on my lawn.”

They also enjoy Japanese beetles.

Chickens communicate with each other, with different sounds signifying the presence of different predators.

One time she observed her chickens in a circle, making an unusual noise.

When she investigated, she found they had encircled a small garter snake, and were making “the snake sound.”

Watkins has had problems with predators — foxes in particular.

But when a hawk makes off with a chicken, she is inclined to accept it as part of the natural order of things.

“I’m living in the hawk’s world.”

That said, she does take precautions.

A well-made coop makes for a happy chicken. Watkins said her own is an 8-by-10 foot garden shed, modified to be “like Fort Knox.”

Watkins’ chickens are free range. Asked about diseases, she said the industrial chicken farm, with thousands of birds in tiny spaces, is the cause of bird disease.

Most of her chickens are 10 years old (commercial layers are usually slaughtered after two years).

At the height of the summer, her birds lay eggs every other day, so to get three eggs per day someone just starting out would need six hens.

Watkins told the story of Baby — “a special-needs chicken.”

Baby had a nervous condition that left her prone to fits.

It was difficult for Baby to live with the other chickens. “They would have picked on her.”

So in the summer Watkins put Baby off in the fenced-in vegetable garden.

One day Scarlet, another chicken, decided to go visit Baby. 

Scarlet knew how to get over the fencing, and pretty soon the two chickens were chattering away. Or clucking. 

“My impression was that Baby was a little spiritual Buddha.”

Eventually even the rooster warmed up to Baby.

Watkins said in observing her chickens, she realized it was very similar to the goings-on in a small town, like Salisbury or Norfolk.

“The different chickens are like the different people in town.”