Are my chicks always going to love me ?

[Huskeriowa]

It could be a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees possibly? The issue people have with your statements is not your expertise in farming. I believe all here respect that vocation. The issue is the 'tone' of your retort. I would think that possibly you could take a step back and reread your post and possibly see where the irritation is coming from. For that matter if you cant then no harm done. I would guess that you would consider your opinion on any subject to be belittled if someone indicated you were a 'newby'. I will reread the posts but I am fairly certain I didn't see anyone flame your opinion in a demeaning way and turn around claiming that they didn't just flame your opinion.


I am glad you are finding the thread amusing. Not sure though how your words are 'picked to pieces' when they are direct quotes from you. Not much gray area there if ya know what I mean.

Best regards

 

[speckledhen]

Speckled Hen...... you should know better. We've crossed swords in the past, and I thought that you were a little more temperate....guess I was wrong.

Know better how? I know my experience-you do not. I do know when I am being talked down to and dismissed. I don't care if you do that to me because I know what I know, but for you to be rude to the rest of our membership just because of their affection for their birds doesn't sit well with me.

I do not recall ever having one exchange with you, ever, Angela, so when we supposedly "crossed swords", I have no idea. If we ever did have words, it was a very long time ago, so you obviously know that I am not one of the newbies you seem to be sneering at here. Why would you even go there? So you don't think animals love-just back away from the thread, for goodness sake. Don't be nasty about it. Dez said she wasn't talking about livestock here anyway.


Dez, I'm sorry this thread keeps trying to veer off track. Again, here was my answer to you that I fear was lost back there:

Quote:
Dez, to answer your original question, probably. They will most likely always be friendly toward you, except maybe a cockerel who is feeling his hormones and has a tendency toward aggression. Sometimes, even a skittish chick will turn into a more friendly youngster as she approaches laying age and her hormones kick in.​

 

[Wildflower_VA]

Okee Dokee, whatever works for you.....
Decades of research and animal science is all wrong. All the chickens, ducks and whatever, love their owners.

Decades of research on HUMAN love can reach no consensus. You can say that a mother's love for her newborn child always happens, but we know that some mothers never bond with the child of their own flesh and some do horrible things to them, even kill them. Love and affection is what it is--to the recipient and to the giver. There's just some things that research and science can't pin down in a study.

I am a mature, pragmatic, farm-raised woman; do not consider myself an emotional romantic, but while raising my six chicks in a brooder in my house, I can say I fell in 'love' with those chicks and can see their individual personalities come out. I can only use the words we know as humans to describe emotions, but I have seen the 'affection' some of the chicks have towards one another and I have witnessed the emotions of the Top Chick when one of the flock was missing.

When they were eight weeks old, I had them out foraging in the woods. A neighbor's young beagle dog came into my yard and scared and scattered the flock. Top Chick drew the dog away from the other five and I went after them to get the dog away. By then the other five had went deep into my woods to cover. Top Chick helped me look for quite a while, making the most mournful sounds. If it had any hands, it would have been wringing them.

About two hours later, I found four of the missing. When I enticed them out of the woods, Top Chick came up at top speed and went to each and checked them out and immediately whirled around with the mournful sound and started looking for the missing one. I'm pretty sure chickens can't count, but Top Chick knew his favorite was still missing. I continued to look for her until near dark. When I went into the run to give them their treat and fill the feeders, Top chick was still very agitated. He wouldn't eat and he kept approaching me, trying to get out the gate. I have never seen him act like that before or since, except the two days that chicken was missing.

On the second day after she went missing, I woke up to a lot of noise coming from the chicken run. ALL the chickens were by the fence carrying on, so I went out to see what the problem was. On the outside of the fence was the missing pullet. When I got her back inside the run, every one of her siblings checked her out and gathered around her like the long lost part of the flock she was.

I know people think chickens are stupid, but I have seen too much that proves this wrong. I know that we cannot apply human emotions to animals, but their capacity for emotions and how they express them is there if you care to look for them. How we accept what we get back from our chickens for treating them well is up to us. All feelings are based on our perception and reception of them. If I get warm, fuzzy feelings from interacting with my chickens, then that is a valid feeling for me.

Some humans have a problem accepting love, affection and emotions. Life is hard enough as it is without giving and receiving love and affection wherever we can find it. Having someone or 'something' to love is a wonderful feeling.​

 

[Dez]

Quote:
Dez, to answer your original question, probably. They will most likely always be friendly toward you, except maybe a cockerel who is feeling his hormones and has a tendency toward aggression. Sometimes, even a skittish chick will turn into a more friendly youngster as she approaches laying age and her hormones kick in.
.

Thank you for the answer, it is the type of reply I was looking for.

I had no idea my question was going to cause such a heated debate!

 

[DuckLady]

Okee dokee......

OP I am glad you found your answer from an seasoned and respected BYC expert.

I will go ahead and close this up now.

Thank you all for your participation