Are chickens dumb?

Hi there!

You raise an interesting topic, in fact I think you are sort of raising TWO topics - (1) Are chickens dumb/intelligent and (2) Do they have feelings? I am sure the responses you get here will be quite varied, and I can only offer my own thoughts based on the behaviours my chickens exhibit...

1) I do think chickens have a degree of intelligence. They can problem solve. I had a broody hen who wanted so badly to access her nest box, a big round drum which is flipped on it's side and filled with hay. It has two accesses cut into the front of it, and I covered them with a square piece of metal. Whilst she couldn't see directly into the nest, and nor could she push her way past the metal, she DID find a way in! I watched her move around the drum, to the left, and the right and the left again. She noticed that the top of the metal did not sit flush to the top of the drum, and what she did next amazed me. She jumped up on top of the drum, walked along the top of it to where there was a gap of about 6 inches between the drum and the metal sheeting, and dropped herself down into the crack, landing in the nest box from above! I don't know about you, but I think that exhibits some degree of intellect?

2) I think there is a difference between having feelings and having automatic responses to certain scenarios. For example, if I pick up my hen and my rooster chases after me, he is having a response to the situation - he perceives a threat and acts accordingly. If a predator attack takes three or four birds out of the flock, the remaining survivors will hide to protect themselves - again, an automatic response to impending danger.

That being said....

I have lost birds from illness in my flock before, and for several days following the event other birds have reacted in ways that I can only describe as 'depressed and lost.' Some people might suggest that this is one of the automatic response I noted above, but I personally believe they are exhibiting 'feelings.' I have hatched chicks and seen a Momma Hen love them like a human Mother loves her child. Yes, she feeds them and keeps them warm - no doubt a natural response. But they way she coos and purrs to them? To me, that suggests feelings.

So, to your original situation....Is your hen going to be upset if she does not get to hatch any eggs? Again, I can only offer my personal opinion.

I have broken several broody hens, and I believe that whilst they do experience a fluctuation in hormones, they are not 'upset' per se. It would be easy to say 'they were distressed because they couldn't have babies" but I think that would be me projecting my feelings of disappointment at not being able to allow them to hatch chicks onto the hen. I do think, however, that if I allowed the hen to hatch chicks and then took them away from her, she would experience a good deal of emotional distress.

It's a fine line I guess, and I could be accused of being too empathetic with my birds. But to a degree, I believe that they do have feelings, and I definitely think there is a certain degree of intelligence there. They are certainly not running around blindly - mine seem to have definite plans and agendas!

Thanks for raising such an interesting subject!

- Krista

 

Hmmm, I think when someone asks "Why we care" about our chickens it is a sign that they don't relate to animals/birds on the same level that we do. I can fully appreciate that some people raise birds purely for meat purposes, and even that some want to honour their bird's lives by culling them for meat (as the bird's final gift to them). However, for myself personally, my chickens (as well as my cats) are more than 'just birds and animals' to me. Right or wrong I do tend to baby my animals. They get the best I can afford to give them, they are always treated humanely, and more than that: they bring me no end of joy. When things are tough and life is not going my way, my chickens and my cats are always there - not demanding anything from me but my love and attention - and they can bring a smile to my face with their antics on even the worst of days.

To have, or not to have chicks - that is the question! To me, it just comes down to resources. If I have a spare pen available, that's a plus. If I can afford to feed and look after them (because let's face it, the babies take a lot of work!), that's in the hen's favour too. Right now I have just dissuaded one girl from being broody, purely because it is simply way too hot here to be raising chicks at the moment. My designated chick pen is within the main coop and we are in late Spring here. We are expecting 106F tomorrow, and hotter the day after that! I don't want my girls sitting in a tin coop, in a hot nest box, in that sort of weather. But again, if conditions are optimal, I will hatch chicks.

I think if you can get hold of some fertile eggs, that would be ideal. Day old chicks would be my second choice, only because you are not guaranteed that she will accept them as her own. She might well adopt them willingly, but I have heard of some hens who have rejected chicks they did not hatch. Either way, I wish you all the very best, and would love it if you would keep us up to date with any potential chicks (preferably with little fuzzle-butt pictures!)

- Krista

 

I am decidedly an anti-anthropomorphist...I don't think animals have human emotions like depression and sadness so I don't attribute them to animals.

But they do have fear, hunger and reproductive instincts/behaviors/responses, they can learn and are sensitive to our feelings/behaviors and you can modify a chickens behavior by your behaviors/actions. Being aware of your own emotions and behaviors is essential to avoid projecting them onto an animal and having that animal react in a negative way.

When you call an chickens 'name' to give them treats, they are all going to learn to come running because they know you have food, not because they know their name. It's not like just the one whose name you called comes and the rest stay back because their names weren't called.

If you are afraid of the rooster attacking you, he will feel that fear and react by attacking you....it's not that the rooster 'hates' you, he is reacting to your fear and actions.
If you stay calm and confident, that rooster is much less likely to be alarmed and react in a negative way.

Chickens do not like their environment changed and may appear 'upset' of 'angry', but they are just responding with fear to their territory being changed because it may indicate an threat to their survival. Us reacting to their 'upset' by becoming upset ourselves can exacerbate the chickens fear response.

Breaking a broody can appear to upset them because we are blocking them from acting upon their instinctual behavior, but if you're calm and consistent and provide safety and food, they will usually quickly adapt. Allowing a broody to sit on non fertile eggs for weeks at a time may appear to appease her, but it can be detrimental to their health if they are not eating, drinking and exercising enough....or she may just give up eventually and resume her usual chickeny behaviors of eating, foraging and roosting with the flock.

If you killed half the flock, there might be a fear reaction because flock numbers represent safety, there might be some ruckusing with the change in the pecking order...but I agree that they would quickly accept the new norm of fewer flock members and focus on the food available and who got the best spot on the roosts.

Just my thoughts.

 

I really enjoy discussions about chicken behavior. We can all agree they're extremely fascinating creatures.

Of course chickens don't possess human emotions. They are chickens. But they certainly have emotions. As for knowing their names, what aart says is certainly true. They will key on certain words and sounds and associate them with things they desire and respond accodingly. But a few individuals do respond to their names - come when called.

I have an EE, emotionally needy in her chickeny way, who hides from the flock and she will come when called. She's physically crippled from bursitis (probably a symptom of the lymphotic leucosis my flock is infected with), and she will creep out from under the coop when she hears her name, just far enough for me to bend down and pick her up. She always comes when I call her. Always. Like a dog.

 

Their intelligence seems most apparent when it comes to finding food and reducing energy expenditures when free-range kept. They also have a very broad range of vocalizations, a lot more than the 30+ typically cited. They are also very flexible in terms of behavior which means they can operate through learning, not just instinct. I can even demonstrate culture with some free-range flocks where older members cause younger members to behave in a particular manner based on the older animals experience.

Considerable breed related differences also constrain mental performance of some relative to others. The stupid assessment most likely to be made with confined birds in simple environments.

I have all sorts of fun trying to see just what he birds can learn to do. In some ways they are decidedly crow like.

 

When you compare them to other animals chickens are very "dumb". They can learn, but it seems more often than not they react or behave based more on instinct than anything else. Several of my birds have decided to roost in a small tree next to their coop. This was no big deal until it got really cold, windy, and wet. Now I'm worried they'll freeze when the weather is bad. I can tell they're cold as they jump down and huddle in the ample shelter just as soon as there is any morning light. I keep trying to convince them to use the coop, but some just don't get it. I think I'm just going to cut the tree down and see if that works.

Compare this to my pig. He's incredibly intelligent, and is constantly figuring out how things work. When the weather got cold (it happend really fast this year, it dropped from the 60s to single digits in a week or so) he moved all his bedding out of the wind and under the shelter. He stacked the hay and made a nice little bed. I've even seen him remove any bedding that happens to get wet.

 

Yesterday morning I looked out my back window and saw a Hawk eating on one of my RIR hens, my wife went and hollered at it while I was getting my rifle so it got lucky. I have 6 other girls and they stayed hidden in the brush until I got my outdoor clothes on and spent the rest of the day with my rifle hoping the hawk would come back. The girls came out from the brush and hung close to me until they went in the coop. Today they just kind of hung around the area the RIR was killed and made low calls, so I think that they do feel something. I also talk to my girls alot they are very good listeners, about my problems or I talk to them about plans to make their coop and run better for them, I'm not crazy but I love my girls and I get something from talking to them also. So I believe what you are saying about the chickens intelligence and feelings.