Must be a great way to pick up chicks
Posted: 29 Aug 2009, 02:39
8-year-old "Chicken Whisperer" teaches fowl to lay on their backs.
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The typical chicken spends its time nervously scratching the dirt, pecking at food, flapping its wings or clucking softly and delivering eggs.
Except at the home of Wayne McCarthy and his wife, Debbie Corcione, where a visitor might see a hen or two lying motionless on its back, feet in the air and head cocked at an angle, kind of a poultry version of a sunbather on the beach.
That's because their son, 8-year-old Joshua McCarthy, has the uncanny ability to pick up a fluttering bird, hold it gently for a few moments, then lay it down on its back, where the chicken will remain for several minutes, usually until Joshua either picks it up or rolls it onto its side.
"He's been doing it since he was about 3," Wayne McCarthy said. "We started calling him, 'The Chicken Whisperer.' "
Joshua, a third-grader at Sherman School, remembers exactly what he was thinking when he first attempted the trick with a hen he'd named Crooked Beak several years ago.
"I was just curious what would happen," he said.
Somewhat to his surprise, Crooked Beak held the unnatural position, initially alarming Joshua's mother, who'd been watching from inside the house.
"I ran up and yelled at him, 'You killed the chicken,' " Corcione said. "He said, 'No, I didn't. It's fine.' "
Sure enough, Crooked Beak was alive, and to this day, remains Joshua's all-time favorite pet, even though she went to the Big Chicken Coop in the Sky a couple of years later.
What Joshua discovered, according to Michael Darre, a professor of poultry science at the University of Connecticut, is a technique employed by researchers to measure stress levels in chickens. A stressed bird won't stay on its back, but one that is relaxed, or has been trained, will remain there.
"It's a fun little parlor trick that he caught on to, and it's something that most people don't see, because most people aren't around a lot of chickens," Darre said.
Since his initial success, Joshua has trained succeeding generations of the family's chickens to do the same thing, and his parents have grown accustomed to the sight of him walking around the backyard, a chicken under each arm.
Once, he had four on their backs at once. A current hen, Sunny, holds the record for holding the pose the longest, about 10 minutes, Joshua said.
"He considers them his pets, and he can tell them apart by their clucks," Corcione said.
<!-- m -->http://www.newstimes.com/ci_13217140<!-- m -->
The typical chicken spends its time nervously scratching the dirt, pecking at food, flapping its wings or clucking softly and delivering eggs.
Except at the home of Wayne McCarthy and his wife, Debbie Corcione, where a visitor might see a hen or two lying motionless on its back, feet in the air and head cocked at an angle, kind of a poultry version of a sunbather on the beach.
That's because their son, 8-year-old Joshua McCarthy, has the uncanny ability to pick up a fluttering bird, hold it gently for a few moments, then lay it down on its back, where the chicken will remain for several minutes, usually until Joshua either picks it up or rolls it onto its side.
"He's been doing it since he was about 3," Wayne McCarthy said. "We started calling him, 'The Chicken Whisperer.' "
Joshua, a third-grader at Sherman School, remembers exactly what he was thinking when he first attempted the trick with a hen he'd named Crooked Beak several years ago.
"I was just curious what would happen," he said.
Somewhat to his surprise, Crooked Beak held the unnatural position, initially alarming Joshua's mother, who'd been watching from inside the house.
"I ran up and yelled at him, 'You killed the chicken,' " Corcione said. "He said, 'No, I didn't. It's fine.' "
Sure enough, Crooked Beak was alive, and to this day, remains Joshua's all-time favorite pet, even though she went to the Big Chicken Coop in the Sky a couple of years later.
What Joshua discovered, according to Michael Darre, a professor of poultry science at the University of Connecticut, is a technique employed by researchers to measure stress levels in chickens. A stressed bird won't stay on its back, but one that is relaxed, or has been trained, will remain there.
"It's a fun little parlor trick that he caught on to, and it's something that most people don't see, because most people aren't around a lot of chickens," Darre said.
Since his initial success, Joshua has trained succeeding generations of the family's chickens to do the same thing, and his parents have grown accustomed to the sight of him walking around the backyard, a chicken under each arm.
Once, he had four on their backs at once. A current hen, Sunny, holds the record for holding the pose the longest, about 10 minutes, Joshua said.
"He considers them his pets, and he can tell them apart by their clucks," Corcione said.
