Lesson 758 – Guess what? Stinky butt.

There is an article on NPR about the how urban chicken farmers are using “chicken diapers.”  While the overall consensus of the commenters is that this is a foolish thing to do, even prompting one commenter to remark that we have “officially jumped the shark,” I beg to differ.

When Charlie lived in our house for about 6 months (we had gotten her as a newborn in January and by the time she was old enough to face a freezing winter, she had become a family pet) I tried everything I could to toilet train her. I tried clicker, paper, and treat training.

I even tried the diapers.

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Lesson 538 – Guess what? Chicken Butt. All about chicken diapers

I know that there are many of you out there who have long waited for this one, well here it is. This is a post about chicken diapers. Yup, you heard me, chicken diapers.

As you know, Charlie our house chicken has complete run of our first floor (It’s a renovated old cabin and the floors are either worn down wood or tile so it’s easy to clean up after her.)  Charlie goes everywhere. It’s not unusual to hear her squawk when someone bumps into her in the kitchen because Charlie is also there thinking she can get a free nibble (Charlie is a horrible beggar) or when someone reaches for the remote and accidentally grabs Charlie’s tail feathers.  (I know, I’d squawk too.)

Charlie is a lovely bird, with a tremendous sense of humor and tons of personality. She fits right into our flock.

She’d be a welcome member of the house any day …. If it weren’t for the poop.

Chickens poop. They poop a lot. Hens have only three things to do in life, eat, lay eggs, and poop.

I tried the clicker thing and although I’ve trained Charlie to come running when she hears the clicker (if you haven’t seen this video, you should, it’s hilarious) I was never able to get her to poop on command.

I think one of the reasons for this is that Charlie is not the type of bird to cuddle up in your lap (and we have a few of those in our flock – Simon and Morganne) Charlie wants your attention but only on her terms. If you are sitting down, reading a book, or watching TV, she’ll come over to you, not you to her. She doesn’t like to be picked up (except by Emily- the-Black-Copper-Maran-chicken-whisperer) but she adores it when you stroke her chest and the bottom of her beak.

At nighttime, we always have a rousing game of tag as I try to corral her into her roosting area.

So you can imagine, Charlie probably wasn’t going to be too keen on wearing a diaper. The first one I ordered from Amazon, was too large and slipped off her no matter how much I tightened it. I tried modifying it, no luck. That ended up being  28 dollars down the proverbial toilet.

Lesson 518 – Becoming one with chicken poop

Yesterday I went to the store and got a clicker (ergonomically designed to fit over my finger, no less.) I also got a jar of freeze-dried meal worms (again, YUM) ready for this coming weekend of chicken poop-training.

While I was at it, I also got some dog treats for Pippin. Hey, why not, right? Maybe we can get him to learn how to do something other than being adorably cute.

Anyway, in preparation, I’ve been watching Charlie for her poop tell (which of course, reminds me of the movie Casino Royale,which of course, reminds me of Daniel Craig, but I digress.) Haven’t figured it out yet, but then I haven’t been able to spend too much time with her.

That old black magic – work, calls my name. *Sigh*

Through Twitter and on Facebook though, I’ve been hearing sporadic stories of house chickens. Yes, apparently they do exist.