Breed for personality?

[ChickenCanoe]

So I constantly see people breed for color traits. Does anyone breed for personality traits such as protectiveness or friendliness or handability?? Is there any research as far as passing personality traits? Thank you.

To answer that question, I think all one has to do is look at history. The ancestor of all breeds of chickens we have today is the Red Jungle Fowl. That domestication happened between five and ten thousand years ago.
All breeds have extremely unique characteristics, including temperament and personality.
They acquired those traits over time and they became known to be characteristics of the specific breeds. They don't all have the temperament of Jungle Fowl due to selective breeding. But it didn't happen overnight.
In one or two generations, one isn't going to change temperament but over time it happens. People work for decades to achieve the characteristics they are looking for. So one shouldn't expect repeatable, noticeable results in one or two generations.
I never breed a human aggressive because I believe the chances are his descendants will have a better chance of being human aggressive.
I've never been attacked by the breed I currently raise but their temperament is much like that of jungle fowl. They are aloof and just have no desire to have human contact.

 

[Wezdin]

I have a nice BSL rooster and have so far bred 3 cockerels from him, they were all very nice non-agressive roosters. This dosent mean it will always work, just my opinion.

 

[Amer]

Yes. I breed for personality. I couldn’t see a companion breed as people like different breeds as companions and each bird is an individual, but I have found that within breeds, aggression is hereditary above anything else, and my more friendly birds produce friendly offspring.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

Btw what breed is the bird in your avatar?? Beautiful

Swedish Flower Hen, a landrace breed from Sweden. I have 8 in the incubator due this next weekend. I thought about something else, there are some folks that are all about the egg production and they keep up with how many eggs a hen produces. That way they know their best producers and who to breed and raise young from for this next generation. That would take as long as seeing their personality...

 

[Shadrach]

As @ChickenCanoe writes, it takes many many generations to establish any breed characteristics that are not to do with appearance.
There are a few short term studies around that suggest that certain personality attributes may be passed through from generation to generation but the whole idea of breeding for personality is fraught with problems because of the many variables that may have an effect. Add to this no specific gene that governs personality has been identified and the enormity of the task starts to be apparent.
There are lots of unproven claims about character breeding.

 

[NHMountainMan]

Glad to see this question asked. Interesting that several have noted that the sire’s traits seem more likely to be passed down.
I wonder if they’ve noticed that the sire’s protective instinct/ flock guardian gets passed down as well?

 

[Shadrach]

Glad to see this question asked. Interesting that several have noted that the sire’s traits seem more likely to be passed down.
I wonder if they’ve noticed that the sire’s protective instinct/ flock guardian gets passed down as well?

It hasn't worked out that way here over a four generation period. The original senior male was close to perfect regarding behavior towards the flock and towards humans. His first son was and still is a disaster with the flock but okayish with people. The next son is better with the flock but has slight human aggression problems. His son hasn't had the opportunity to show what he's like because he has two senior males above him in rank.
When I've got through twenty or thirty generations all kept under similar conditions I might have a rather shaky theory.
The basic problem are, some people believe that the majority of personality traits are genetically determined while others believe that the environment plays the major role.
We haven't even got this one sorted with humans let alone chickens.

 

[NHMountainMan]

It hasn't worked out that way here over a four generation period. The original senior male was close to perfect regarding behavior towards the flock and towards humans. His first son was and still is a disaster with the flock but okayish with people. The next son is better with the flock but has slight human aggression problems. His son hasn't had the opportunity to show what he's like because he has two senior males above him in rank.
When I've got through twenty or thirty generations all kept under similar conditions I might have a rather shaky theory.
The basic problem are, some people believe that the majority of personality traits are genetically determined while others believe that the environment plays the major role.
We haven't even got this one sorted with humans let alone chickens.

So true. The nature vs nurture debate that’s been ongoing since at least Darwin.

 

[AllenK RGV]

So I constantly see people breed for color traits. Does anyone breed for personality traits such as protectiveness or friendliness or handability?? Is there any research as far as passing personality traits? Thank you.

Honestly for personality I would vote for Silkies. They are a decent chicken breed. I prefer other breeds but for companion chicken..... they get high marks.

 

[Shadrach]

Yes. I breed for personality. I couldn’t see a companion breed as people like different breeds as companions and each bird is an individual, but I have found that within breeds, aggression is hereditary above anything else, and my more friendly birds produce friendly offspring.

Some studies and some anecdotal evidence suggest with regard to human fear and the aggression that that may produce in chickens towards humans, game fowl and even recently domesticated jungle fowl show the least aggression towards humans.
This goes against the idea that breeding for human friendliness in chickens is having much success. It may even suggest that human attempts at breeding are producing the opposite effect and the modern domesticated chicken is more aggressive towards humans than it's ancestors.