no reverse

[cedarpondfarm]

Are chickens able to back up?  

I had a pullet go missing and never could figure it out.  We just found her skeleton sitting between 2 rows of lined up and tipped over 55 gallon barrels.  It appears she walked in and couldn\'t turn around so she just sat there and died.  

I\'ve been jumping out of the shadows trying to spook my girls into going backwards but they go up instead.  

We\'ve been married 42 years so nothing surprises my husband - not even my playing hide and seek with the chickens.  But I bet the neighbors wonder about me.



:0)

[Blue Egg Acres]

I love it

[QUADCH]

LOL!
I have seen chickens \"back up\". Usually when they have something they are trying to wipe off their beaks. I\'ve also seen them get eaten by coyotes, because they can\'t figure out how to get back up over the fence they just flew over! Not always the best bird at problem solving.
I\'ve have also seen them back up, due to neurological disorders. Which is what your neighbors might be discussing amongst themselves. :p

[greeneggsandham]

I don\'t think they can.  At least for more than a step or a hop backwards.  I had a hen go missing also.  Found her 10 days later wedged between a building and some tin laying up against it.  Amazingly she was still alive.  Nothing for her to eat except the dirt around her.  And she really couldn\'t move, she was packed tight on her side.  And I don\'t remember any significant rain so I\'m surprised she made it that long.  She had a bit of a limp, some toes that wouldn\'t work anymore, but she made it.

[Guest]

I have seen my penedesencas walk backwards a few steps when I put the apron on their backs. It\'s very strange looking. It even looks like it\'s not normal for them.
April

[Beth C]

I don\'t know if they can or not, but I\'ve had ones who wouldn\'t. I have one rooster who wedged himself behind a stock tank, and even reaching through and trying to push him backward, he just didn\'t get it. I finally had to move the tank. Fortunately he hadn\'t been there long enough to do him any real harm, although he was pretty stiff and not moving very fast for a few hours.

[Guest]

I found a hen that had wedged herself between some foam pads we had leaning up against the coop. She couldn\'t walk for a few days, but finally was ok.

The weirdest thing I found was my only Cochin hen head down in a bucket dead. She must have jumped on the rim of the bucket and fell head first inside. I missed her for 1 day, before I found her. She was white and inside a white bucket so I must have looked right over her. I wondered if she broke her neck when she fell in. Odd.

Sue