“Madder than a wet hen” is a common enough phrase and I’ve heard it all my life. But do hens really get upset when damp? Can any farmer folk attest to the ire produced by moistening egg-layers? Do fowl really turn foul when befouled?
As much time as they spend preening and arranging their feathers just so, I can’t imagine that any hen would be thrilled about getting deluged. But the way I always interpreted this saying is that hens do look bedraggled and morose when they get wet, and somehow that got misinterpreted to their having an angry appearance.
Meh. Mine prefer dry days, but not enough to stay in their coop when it’s raining out, unless it’s really coming down. If it’s just lightly raining, they go about their scratching and pecking in the yard as usual.
I’m sure they’re not nearly as happy as a clam.
I think that goes without saying. Clams have much better waterproofing than hens.
I know mine get pretty attitudinal when wet. Grumpy for sure, never tried doing an anger assessment on one… 
or a pig in shit.
Maybe the saying originates from a certain technique for breaking a hen of “broodiness” (they want to sit on a clutch of eggs to the exclusion of anything else, and stop laying… can be undesirable) by holding them in a bucket of ice water to lower the body temperature. I have never had to try this, but I can imagine the hen would be pretty cranky by the time you’re done.
Or silly as a goose, I’m sure.
Might as well ask now: are geese so dumb that when it rains, they look upwards and drown?
I have an in-law about whom I often use that expression.
Is a wet hen madder than a mad hatter?
Perhaps it depends on the hen, but none of mine seem to get mad when they are wet. They will happily peck around in the rain and seem pretty much unfazed by it. On a related note, I have also heard the myth that chickens will drown if they look up when it’s raining (something about their being too stupid to tilt their heads back down before water fills their lungs), but I must have Einstein chickens because my will tilt their head up to get a quick drink, then go right back to pecking around in their scratch. I should add that we have quick draining soil so puddles don’t form unless the rain is very heavy. They could of course walk over to their watering hole, but I guess looking up to drink a few drops is easier.
I’ve never heard the phrase used like that. In British usage, calling someone a “wet hen” is to say that they are soppy, non-aggressive, and perhaps a little pathetic. Those who read Terry Pratchett will know that Magrat, the junior witch is often called a wet hen by her elders. Example
This makes sense. A hen is a stupid bird at best, and a wet hen especially pathetic.
Maybe “Madder than a wet hen” is an American attempt at irony.
Don’t know about geese, but have heard anecdotally that turkeys may do that. Having been around a few turkeys, I’d say they’re certainly brainless enough to do it…and if they don’t it’s probably just because it hasn’t occurred to them yet. Dumbest fowl in the universe, but they are good eating.
The chicken drinking thing is amazing.
It seems so logical, but offhand I can’t think of another animal that does that.
Seldom, you’re right, I think it was about turkeys I heard that. Now that I think of it, geese don’t seem so dumb at all. Don’t ask me how I get that opinion, though.
The Master speaks:
Are turkeys so stupid they will look up in the sky when it rains and drown?
Good cite. Prompts a question: You’re a Mod and all that, so are you the Royal Remembrancer of SD? Or are you the only one who bothers to use the indexes?
Also, I’d like to comment on that column (even while dreading deathly bolts of lightning from the Master): there’s not a single damn cite in it.
Shouldn’t what is usually required of the ganders apply to the Goose? (Serendipitous metaphor…).
Hens don’t seem to be happy when wet, but cats are still a LOT and I mean a LOT madder when they get wet
Ah, but you’re speaking here of the master, the source of wisdom…He doan need no steenking cites.
His post is his cite
SS
[running for cover…]
I’ve seen backyard lizards drink rain water this way too. And I’ve readthat pelicans drink by holding their mouths open and filling up their beaks with rain.