Normally a game of “Talking to yourself” is the prelude to a game of “Hide and seek”. Chickens are not the greatest at holding a conversation after all. This game comes into its own when you are busy in the garden, enjoying a bit of chicken company and are busy doing something at the same time. It is human to chat to your pets, they make great listeners and don’t give any “good” advice so enjoy this game as often as you can.
Aim of the game:
The chicken has a different aim to you. Your aim is to spot when you are playing “talking to yourself” before it becomes “hide and seek”.
The actual aim of the game is for the chickens to be more than 5 meters away from you so they can take no notice of the strange noises you are making. If they succeed in searching out additional flock members or food in foreign places it means you didn’t realise you were playing “hide and seek” silly you!
Equipment:
- One or more chickens
- A garden activity – this can include doing gardening or just relaxing
Rules;
- You are only playing “talking to yourself if there are no chickens within 5 meters of you. Any closer and you are working in the garden you are probably playing “Tug of war” without realising it.
- Introducing food to keep your chickens within hearing distance is cheating and means you are actually playing “Snatch”.
- Activities you undertake in the garden can include digging, weeding, cutting the grass, reading, sunbathing and having a tea break, see rule 5.
- Food is not allowed. The introduction of food means you are intending to play snatch, unless you are following rule 5.
- Rule 6 overrides rule 4
- Having a cup of tea and enjoying a bit of garden time with a biscuit or bit of cake is marginal territory. Once the food is gone your flock will lose interest in you and start looking for a tasty snack elsewhere, the game will switch to talking to yourself before you know it and you will still have your cuppa to drink. Therefore biscuits or a small piece of cake are allowed.
- The game ends when you do not get 100% response from the flock
How to play
- First let the flock loose on your garden. There will be a general flurry of activity until you and they settle down to a bit of whatever you want to do.
- The game starts when you find you are holding down a decent one sided conversation with one or more chickens. Do not expect a response but you might just be surprised, especially if it looks like you might have food.
- As time wears on you will notice an absence of noise, familiar to any parent of a child old enough to walk! It is now that the game is really on. You will have been talking, doing your chosen activity, and the flock will have wandered far enough away to no longer form part of the conversation, you are “talking to yourself”!
- Give a little chicken call, something like “chickens where are you”. You should get a flurry of feathers and return calls from the flock who will, as one, be anticipating a shower of foodie treats.
- When no treats are forthcoming the flock will tell you what they think of your stingy approach to chicken management and settle down to whatever they were doing before, and so will you.
- Continue to give an occasional call until you finish what you are doing, or you do not get a 100% response from the flock and have to go hunting for them – you are now playing hide and seek.
Winner;
There is only one winner and that is your chickens. They are out of the run enjoying some quality garden destruction whilst enjoying your company and if they are not listening then they are off having fun elsewhere dummy! See rule 7.