Chickens can certainly teach us a lot about life, humor included. Their comical antics and unique personalities offer endless amusement. Whether it’s their dramatic reactions to a simple treat, their serious squabbles over the best dust-bathing spot, or their completely nonsensical but highly earnest clucking conversations, they provide a constant source of lighthearted entertainment.

Their ability to find joy in the smallest things—a freshly turned patch of dirt or a sunbeam on the coop floor—serves as a gentle reminder not to take everything so seriously and to appreciate the simple pleasures in life.

Here are a few other things that I learned looking after the neighbour’s chickens (and three guinea hens) this past Christmas . . .

1. chickens see more colours than humans so walking in the coop sporting lots of colour is like flipping a switch on a neon sign . . . you are bound to cause an uproar ;(

2. don’t count your eggs before they are collected, or rather removed from the coop, as chickens are naturally curious and can break eggs that they are pecking at with curiosity . . . in fact, they can break all the eggs in seemingly seconds ;(

3. the circle of life is real and sometimes brutal ;(

4. some days you are just going to get crapped on so don’t let it ruin your day ;(

Following are some of my favourite chicken quotes:

I dream of a better tomorrow where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken poop from chicken salad – Lyndon B. Johnson

Ain’t nobody here but us chickens – Song lyrics, Louis Jordan

The Sky is falling! – Chicken Little, childrens fable

Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken – Chuck Palahniuk

I feel like a carton of eggs holding up an elephant – Sherman Alexie

Left wing, right wing, chicken wing, it don’t make no difference to me – Woody Guthrie

Curses, like chickens, come home to roost – Susanna Moodie

If you dream of becoming an eagle, you follow your dreams and not the words of a bunch of chickens – Penny Johnson Jerald

It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs – Margaret Thatcher