A lot of folks dont think chickens have emotions...

[DuckLady]

Yes, start them out with Sesame Street or Funny Animal Videos.

That should give you good quality time with your diapered kids.

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
We were talking "chicken" last night, and DH told me how proud he was of me and my efforts, ideas, etc. with our first flock together. Told him to be glad that I was working on a quarantine "coop" and have ideas for a second one because some people bring their chickens indoors incase of emergency and a few kept them inside as pets and actually have chicken diapers for them. (I'd do it myself, in a heartbeat, if the situation arises). He would have laughed, until he realized I was serious!

Dawn

 

[thndrdancr]

David, I havent got any diapers because I was really thinking of paper training them. Would be MUCH neater in the long run and I hate changing diapers.

 

[hollyclyff]

I've been reading this thread, but haven't participated because I wasn't sure how to express my thoughts about the subject. But adoptedbyachicken did it for me. Thanks - I agree.

 

[Davaroo]

Yeah, ABAC's wasn't bad...another derivitive of the 'degree of emotion' concept. Functional and simple - works for me.

 

[harv681]

ClydeInHewitt, I live in suburbia as well but I take care to tuck my hens in their home for the evening. I am terrified that a roaming cat or whatever may get to them (someone nearby lets their kitty--appropriatly named "Sasquatch"--out at all hours). I allow the "girls" freedom during the day, but between 7 and 7:30pm, they start getting nervous and head for the coop.

 

[ivan3]

Chook observes fox bounding from cover and charging for it. Chook screams and makes a run for it.
Chook owner is cleaning coop when (spider/snake/rat) drops from rafter and plops down on their head. Owner screams and makes a run for it.

Same cephalochordate-vertebrate lineage, same shared tetrapod ancestor, same primary dopaminergic pathways (emotion). And quite a bit of conserved DNA shared between us (~30%).

The most telling difference (as has already been mentioned) is our ability to sit around later and make up overripe BS about just how scared we were so as not to think about just how scared we should have been. Whereas chooks react and get back to business. That being said, it is difficult to understand their chortling in unison (have heard this on monitor on several occasions) as being purely instinctual as it appears to be a response to indicate they are pleased to be safe, warm, well fed - to have `survived' another day, rather than a song that somehow increases the chances of survival itself.

The behavior of the chooks that resulted in my observing them much more closely occurred when they were still pullets, a couple of summers ago. One girl had caught a very large, hard shelled beetle (almost as big as her head). Usually, if one pullet had grabbed up something big and yummy (frog/toad/snake/vole) the chase was on and it got about as intense as a crowded buffet with only one steak left in one pan (behavioral parallels, anyone?).
However, as she worked away at pecking through the back of the bug, the two girls closest to her kept up their stripping of seeds from the grass nearby. Just when she managed to pull off one of the wing covers and stick her beak into the guts, the other two pullets rushed her and one managed to grab the partially eviscerated, but still struggling, insect, and the usual chase ensued.

I hypothesize that chooks are capable of at least rudimentary planning. In this instance: Conspiracy and malice aforethought.

To go one step further (off the deep end) it is frightening to note that we have been genetically engineering Gallus Domesticus for a Very Long Time, we eat them, we steal their eggs, we process them into this and that. Someday, someone is going to breed the wrong wrong chooks too close the the reactor over in Reform, MO. and we'll have a chook that can hold a grudge. At present there are ~28 billion chickens, but only ~6 billion humans - watch out!

Barg's Mrs. Nezbitt might only be the beginning...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17217

`henpecked? Would that be actually, or just a state of mind?'

 

[thndrdancr]

I have also seen my chickens reason extremely simple things out, i.e. how to jump on something they cant reach by means of using other things first.
Isnt that the use of simple tools in a very rudimentary fashion?

I did have one chick that would actually look at something she couldnt reach but wanted up on, then would look around to see what she could use to get there, before she EVER tried to get to the first place. Now if she had tried and wasnt able to make it, I can see how she would learn to use other items to achieve the height, but this particular chick rather knew her limits, or lack thereof. It was the darnest thing I have ever seen watching her figure it out, you could just see lil chickeny cognitive wheels aclickin.

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

Quote:
I’ve never heard that phrase before, I must be sheltered or something I guess.

I think all animals have emotions, I’m not sure what the extent of those emotions are; now that I’m thinking about it, maybe some animals have different emotions then we do, just like many animals have different or more acute senses, maybe they have emotions we don't even have a clue about.

Let’s face it, emotions are nothing more then chemical reactions in the brain to the physical world; even fish show emotion, otherwise they wouldn’t swim away from you, right?


No I'm not a vegitarian.
Just full of B.S.

... Madder 'an a wet settin' hen. I've been hearing it all my life.

 

[barg]

Quote:
ABAC's post did not in any way contradict my posts, and since you agree with it, I'm calling it victory for the emotions side, even if it wasn't ME that swayed your opinion.

ABAC' you must either be a Scorpio or a diplomat, Hats off to you!