Do chickens know their breed?

peemee said:

I am a veterinarian who sees birds professionally but have only had chickens for 2 years. I originally got a mixed group of brown egg layers ( 3 barred rocks, 3 australorps, 3 wyannottes, 1 dark cornish, 1 domineque and 1 buff orpington. Then ended up adding adult 2 RIR, ! buff orpington before my babies were laying. There is definitely a pecking order and i notice my older buff acts like the mom to most of them, the barred rocks hang together, the orpingtons seldom are together , and the RIR may be in the general area but not scratching together. I did get 1 lavender orpington and 3 americanas in February and they are definitely a clique. until just this week (its hot now) they have shoved themselves into the same nest box. that was fine til they got too big and so they split to 1 aa and orp and 2 aa. It is pretty funny. if they hear the macaw talk from the aviary in the morning, they run up the hill to see what goodies I am going to give them. uphill chicken running is hysterical

Peggy Sorensen
Payson, Az

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PrairieChickens said:

How's this for an odd couple? Chloe and Ducky are inseparable after being brooded together for just a couple of weeks. Long story short, because of their small size, Ducky and Chloe were the only two chicks left in the brooder after I graduated the rest of the brood to the bigger coop. They were brooded together for a week or two before I moved them to the big coop too, and by then, they were friends for life.

I have had several other cases of bonded chickens, usually two chicks who were brooded together away from any others, but one group of bonded chicks had 16 members that stuck together devotedly. Due to a couple of predator attacks, that group is down to 12, but it still sticks together like glue when they forage.

So far the ONLY case of "birds of a feather" I've had has been with my brown leghorns. Even though they weren't even from the same brood--one was months older than the others and from a totally different hatchery--they came together as they matured and started foraging and roosting together at the exclusion of the rest of the flock. The only non-leghorn they give the time of day to is my white rock rooster, Mars.

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aoxa said:

Yes I definitely notice this. The roosters are the exception, but the hens of the same breed tend to be closer than with hens of a different breed. 

It also has to do with who they were raised with as well. If you have a barred rock and a wyandotte and add more barred rocks to the flock, the barred rock will not abandon the wyandotte just because there are other birds that look like her. 

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