Hey there Annie I did not think you were being critical and I am familiar with anthropomorphising.
I think that sometimes we can mistake anthropomorphising with the use of human characteristics as a description of an action. Putting a human characteristic on the action gives people the ability to imagine the action.
For instance while Dusty might be described as “whinging” she isn’t whinging, she is vocalising that she is going to lay an egg but ‘whinging’ aids in the imagination/description of how that action appears.
If I can, I agree that chickens would not deliberately misbehave or cause a fuss just because they want attention but ‘misbehave’ or ‘cause a fuss’ are also human characteristics that we use to describe their actions.
I do, however, believe that they understand action/reaction or cause/effect and have learnt that some of their actions result in the appearance of a human and possibly because we are well trained, food or free range.
Dusty was whinging [] that she was going to lay an egg this morning and KiKi was honking in response. Now that Dusty has quietly settled onto the nest box to actually do the deed, KiKi is quietly pottering around the run. None of that was for my benefit and was simply chickens being chickens and what I need to do is work out a way to allow them to be chickens without annoying the humans.
The girls do not free range in the morning except on the weekend. However, at the risk of sounding silly, I do believe they know when it is the weekend because of the environmental sounds around them. Fewer cars, quieter streets, different noises from inside the human house means that they get to free range around 10-10:30am and use their action [vocalising] to achieve a reaction [free ranging].
On a week day free range is nearly always started at 4pm and they start vocalising around 3-3:15pm until they are let out.
Sometimes they get their days wrong and vocalise at 10ish for a while during the week and then actually settle for the day and start up again around 3pm.
I see this in Chimee [cat] also. She loves being in her outside run and during the week, starts doing a little dance around the 4pm mark because she is going to go outside and ‘asks’ to do just that. However, again by using environmental triggers, she seems to know when it is the weekend and starts doing her little dance in the morning.
I doubt that I will ever be able to ‘keep KiKi quiet’ per say because she is just doing what the other girls do with the difference that she is louder. But, hopefully, I can come up with a ‘distraction’.
If the planned addition of more space does not help, I am considering separation and using the ‘hospital’ coop for those times her vocalising may be annoying others.
I am actually enjoying the discussion, thoughts and differing opinions around chicken behaviour.
Edited to add: I thought I should add here that we are a very routine household, may be moreso than others and many things are done at around the same time every day or on the same day every week etc.
I believe our animals have picked up on this routine and use it as their ‘clock’.
Hey Fancy I think I need to have “Beautiful Pictures, as per usual” as a macro or copy and paste because yep, once again, you have shared some beautiful pics!
I don't know whether I mentioned this before, but I went "NO! Don't!" (in my growly dog command voice and with a finger up) to one of my big girls when she was going to leap on my little girls, and she stopped and looked at me, and didn't leap on the little girl. I found it quite interesting. I doubt I'd be able to deter them from eating or something they thought more important.I am still working on the "NO" ... they haven't quite cottoned on to that yet. !!!but I think they will.
Yes, it was my "leave it!" tone that she got, and she responded to. The thing is, with birds, they aren't supposed to respond to being growled at (I did it automatically and without thinking). To get them to do things you want, you just are supposed to let them, and then reinforce it when (if) they do it. I was surprised that she stopped. I expect it was as you say, she just reacted to my tone and went "oh, okaay"
I agree that he will... When I was young I lived in 2 places on 2 very busy roads. One place was right next to the traffic lights and it was a major highway used by trucks. I slept ok in my bedroom at the front of the house. I also lived in a flat which backed onto the train track and I adjusted to the trains and didn't even notice them. (visitors would go "what's THAT?" and I'd go "What?") It really is possible to adjust to noises and learn to ignore them completely.
