BORED chickens?

[Davaroo]

Where do we get the notion that chickens get bored? You hear it a lot, people wanting to ensure they have "something to do."

It's not that I personally think they get bored, since I don't.
But I'm more interested to know why others expect that they are.

What do you think?

 

[trilyn]

Maybe it's because watching them in a run reminds us of a potential loss of freedom. Seeing anything penned up whether for their own good or not reminds me of jail, so I automatically assume they must be bored out of their mind. Then I smack myself and say it is an animal not a person and I get over it!! lol

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
This jail connection makes sense. Are you speaking from experience?

 

[Judy]

Don't know about trilyn, but I'd never tell....

My feeling is that they get -- something, unhappy, frustrated -- if kept in a small enough area that there is no vegetation and thus few or no bugs, plus no variation in scenery. I agree, bored is unlikely to be an accurate description, but I do think they feel some frustration at small dirt runs. Just not their natural environment. That's part of why the 87.12 sq ft works well, I think.

 

[patandchickens]

Seems to me one might just as well ask, "Where do we get this notion that chickens do NOT get bored?"

I mean, how do I know that YOU get bored, David? Only because a) you can tell me so (but a computer can say 'I'm bored', whereas someone who cannot speak English or cannot speak at all *can't* say so...); and because b) I choose to assume that you are sufficiently closely similar to me to be susceptible to similar feelings.

There is no special reason to draw the line at humans vs everybody else. Obviously one CAN if one WANTS to, but observational and biological evidence does not particularly support that as a special boundary.

If you prefer, we can all start saying that chickens "experience apparent stress and begin to engage in displacement activities which can become dysfunctional, if their options for normal behavioral expression become excessively limited".

I would need a post-it on my monitor to remember all that, though, and an acronym isn't going to be much shorter

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
I don't know that they DO NOT get bored - I expect they do not, based on observation with both them and many other animals. Experience teaches me they don't.

But, of course, that wasn't really my question. I'm more concerned with why people believe they get bored. Is it just people being nice?

I think at least part of it must be that. We are generally nice people here at BYC and that extends to our animals. We don't want our children or spouses or others we care about to become bored. Indeed, we cannot abide ourselves getting bored. It is nearly a crime in the modern age to have any moment in our day which is unfilled with "doing..." leaving us bored.
So we look out and see the chickens have "nothing to do," so we think they, too, must get bored.

Call it an extension of ourselves, if you will.

I also like the "jail" connection - I think there is some wonderful psychology behind that.

Im also wondering if there aren't people who want some deeper interaction, even entertainment from their critters, so they want to occupy them? Anyone think that?

 

[Preservation Acres]

If you keep them in a coop, give them a chance to free range, and you'll see how excited and energetic they get when they're free. If they get stimulation from being out, it's not hard to take the next step to assume that they get bored in a pen.

 

[Preservation Acres]

If you keep them in a coop, give them a chance to free range, and you'll see how excited and energetic they get when they're free. If they get stimulation from being out, it's not hard to take the next step to assume that they get bored in a pen.

 

[Preservation Acres]

Sorry for the double post. My computer just coughed.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Its okay!

Good point - they are birds that naturally "get around."