Imprinting question

Quote:
Yes my question IS specific...I certainly MEANT it to be speccific toward humans by chickens. Geese are known "imprinters" and will imprint i believe the first living animal as their leader if the mother is not present. At least this is what i've always been told, read, and have seen. My fathers emus always imprinted him and the one dog, would be with them no matter where. Whereas the adults would not go near him until they had been exposed to him for a long time, I have read both that chickens do imprint and then of course i've read that they dont as they are not a social animal. I disagree to them not being social as almost everyone on this forum knows, but the imprinting, I tend to believe that they do not imprint at hatching.

RE:
http://www.ehow.com/about_6503432_imprint-learning_.html

Imprint learning occurs in animals that have a genetic predisposition for certain cues to initiate learning and instinctual behaviors. A classic example is a hatchling bird that identifies the first organism it sees as its mother. It will observe, follow and mimic the behaviors of its perceived "mother" whether the adopted mentor is its actual mother or not.

"I tend to believe that they do not imprint at hatching."
Chickens are not as hardwired for immmediate, all or none imprinting like say a goose. A gosling will treat what it visually imprints on as a non-threat and potential leader but sound is even more important. If gosling can not see its parents or parents mixed with crowd of similar looking adults, then sound becomes most imporant. Sound is how relatives stay together in groups Canada guess where not all individuals from same family.

Chicken chicks are just as good at imprinting on sound.

I have raised many hen raised game chicken broods simultaneously and in close proximity. Hens can recognize their own chicks call even when it is still wet after hatching. By time hen leads brood off nest, for some that is less than 24 hours after hatching, all will respond only to her as mother.

The same can be done with human as parent but process is not as discrete as with waterfowl. Some of the apparent lack of imprinting may also be a result of the pervasive use of brooders where birds not stressed by not having a living animal to imprint on do better.

I agree with Centrarchid on the imprinting issue, as I have a rooster that I have absolutely no doubt is imprinted on me (to the point where it has actually become a fairly serious problem for me!). I am not talking about just following me for treats and wanting attention....I think there is a clear distinction.


My roo is about 14 months old, and is extremely imprinted on me....I hatched him from an egg after his mom got stepped on by a horse while he was pipping. I talked to him the whole time he was hatching from the egg (just as a mama hen begins clucking to her brood before they are hatched), and to this day if I make certain noises, he will respond. I literally cannot go anywhere without him (even if I try to run away from him while he is not looking, he picks up the cue and runs along with me) The problem this imprinting now seems to be causing is that he literally crows the second I leave him and crows all day until I am back and spending time with him. The second I let him out of the dog run he lives in, he runs up two steep flights of steps to my deck. When I go inside, he jumps up and down in front of my window and crows and bangs on the glass!! He does not crow at all when he is spending time with me...in fact, as I type this, he is sleeping in my lap on the deck, quiet as can be

I have tried introducing a few hens to him before (slow introduction, through chicken wire at first)...but even after a week and a half, it was basically a disaster...I am going to try again today now that he is a bit older. He is such a considerate roo...always finding me bugs, and making me nests....I am hoping he will be just as nice to some chicken ladies!Short of quitting my job and spending all my time rooster-sitting, I just don't know what to do!!

But yeah, I am a total believer in imprinting...Had I known this in advance, I probably would have done a few things differently...

you have to be their from the moment the pop out of the egg.

I know this is an old post but i was wondering the same thing. I hatched only 1 chick out of my last batch and we think he has imprinted on me and my daughter. He chirps really loud if he cant get to us and follows us everywhere! We tried to put him under a broody hen 2x and he wasnt having it. My daughter has even taught him to come, hand and hide. If he hasnt imprinted im curious as to what it would be called lol.

There have been a lot of interesting studies done on imprinting. Almost all animals imprint to one degree or another, including humans. Some animals imprint as newborns, but will not necessarily retain it forever if it's not reinforced, while others it will be for life. Some have a window of time to imprint, such as many wild song birds who will open their mouths as chicks to anyone/anything that may feed them, but then at around week old (give or take depending on species) will suddenly imprint on perhaps their mother, siblings, human or whatever is feeding them at the time. Some animals have delayed imprinting, such as parasitical birds, who don't imprint till they fledge and generally meet up with others of their own kind.

Anyways, your single chick is probably imprinted on you. I don't know enough about chicken imprinting to tell you if that is a lasting phase or something that can be changed in time with exposure to other chickens.

mimsy said:

There have been a lot of interesting studies done on imprinting.   Almost all animals imprint to one degree or another, including humans.  Some animals imprint as newborns, but will not necessarily retain it forever if it's not reinforced, while others it will be for life.  Some have a window of time to imprint, such as many wild song birds who will open their mouths as chicks to anyone/anything that may feed them, but then at around week old (give or take depending on species) will suddenly imprint on perhaps their mother, siblings, human or whatever is feeding them at the time.  Some animals have delayed imprinting, such as parasitical birds, who don't imprint till they fledge and generally meet up with others of their own kind.

Anyways, your single chick is probably imprinted on you.  I don't know enough about chicken imprinting to tell you if that is a lasting phase or something that can be changed in time with exposure to other chickens.

Click to expand...

Can be lasting. Hand reared chickens even when a decade old behave differently with me compared to brooder and hen reared.