Chicken Empathy

[micstrachan]

Please share your stories/experiences where you witnessed chickens having empathy or at least sympathy.

Here’s mine:
My NHR, Rusty, had fallen ill and would stay back and rest in the run while the others free ranged. My top hen, Margo, a Brown Leghorn, was found shoulder-to-shoulder with Rusty, keeping her company instead of running around with the rest of the flock. Margo would also stay down and sleep beside Rusty when she was too weak to get up to the roost. Margo did this every night until Rusty passed, and that very night was back up on the roost with the others.
As sad as the situation was, it was fascinating to watch, and permanently changed my view on the cognitive abilities of chickens.

 

[HuskerHens18]

I'm sorry about your loss

I have several, but I'll just share this one.

My King Rooster, King Zachary, is a fantastic rooster. When my Super Blue hen went broody in 105°F weather and made herself deathly sick, she could not stand up to reach the feeder.

Now, when Zachary makes his adorable clucking noises, every hen in earshot will run to him to see what he's showing them.

This Hen was sitting under the feeder, not eating because she had no strength. I was about to pull her out of the flock until Zachary stood OVER her, took a few pieces of crumble food in his beak, and dropped it on the coop floor in front of her. He did this over and over until she wouldn't eat anymore. He never made a sound, so the other hens ignored them. He brought her back to health without my intervention at all. It was the sweetest chicken love story I've ever witnessed!

 

[ChickNanny13]

 

[CannedMonster]

I have twelve 5-6 week old chicks right now.
I let them out of their enclosed run for a little free ranging with supervision about an hour before sunset.
My 7 large fowl chickens generally ignore the chicks, even the rooster.
My 7 bantams too, except Cricket, a red Cochin pullet.
Cricket is only about 4 months old but she is very curious and interested in the chicks.
She always comes over as soon as she sees that they’re out.
She will peck them if they get too rowdy but never in a mean way.
She will stay alongside them as they eat the grass and play and explore.
She stays with them until she feels the need to go roost for the night.

I find this very interesting behavior for such a young pullet that doesn’t lay yet.
She seems to understand they’re chicks and that they need supervision.
Her behavior towards the chicks is completely different from all of my other birds.

 

[CannedMonster]

I'm sorry about your loss

I have several, but I'll just share this one.

My King Rooster, King Zachary, is a fantastic rooster. When my Super Blue hen went broody in 105°F weather and made herself deathly sick, she could not stand up to reach the feeder.

Now, when Zachary makes his adorable clucking noises, every hen in earshot will run to him to see what he's showing them.

This Hen was sitting under the feeder, not eating because she had no strength. I was about to pull her out of the flock until Zachary stood OVER her, took a few pieces of crumble food in his beak, and dropped it on the coop floor in front of her. He did this over and over until she wouldn't eat anymore. He never made a sound, so the other hens ignored them. He brought her back to health without my intervention at all. It was the sweetest chicken love story I've ever witnessed!

That is utterly fantastic!
I love it!
Chickens are amazing.

 

[micstrachan]

I'm sorry about your loss

I have several, but I'll just share this one.

My King Rooster, King Zachary, is a fantastic rooster. When my Super Blue hen went broody in 105°F weather and made herself deathly sick, she could not stand up to reach the feeder.

Now, when Zachary makes his adorable clucking noises, every hen in earshot will run to him to see what he's showing them.

This Hen was sitting under the feeder, not eating because she had no strength. I was about to pull her out of the flock until Zachary stood OVER her, took a few pieces of crumble food in his beak, and dropped it on the coop floor in front of her. He did this over and over until she wouldn't eat anymore. He never made a sound, so the other hens ignored them. He brought her back to health without my intervention at all. It was the sweetest chicken love story I've ever witnessed!

I love this love story!!!

 

[micstrachan]

I have twelve 5-6 week old chicks right now.
I let them out of their enclosed run for a little free ranging with supervision about an hour before sunset.
My 7 large fowl chickens generally ignore the chicks, even the rooster.
My 7 bantams too, except Cricket, a red Cochin pullet.
Cricket is only about 4 months old but she is very curious and interested in the chicks.
She always comes over as soon as she sees that they’re out.
She will peck them if they get too rowdy but never in a mean way.
She will stay alongside them as they eat the grass and play and explore.
She stays with them until she feels the need to go roost for the night.

I find this very interesting behavior for such a young pullet that doesn’t lay yet.
She seems to understand they’re chicks and that they need supervision.
Her behavior towards the chicks is completely different from all of my other birds.

Adorable!

 

[PouleChick]

Amazing stories!

She seems to understand they’re chicks and that they need supervision.

Sounds like you have an amazing mummy hen in the making there!

 

[anvia]

We have quite a few ex battery hens ex intensively commercially farmed. We have some older girls who are real characters, they hang out with the purebreeds but basically run rings around them they are top of the pecking order and they spend the day ruling their empire with a wing of iron and doing whatever they please. They are collectively nicknamed “The Ginger Mafia”.
Two weeks ago we took on some more ex commercial hens, these were clearly previously caged, scared of the sky, sore feet, not used to walking even to food, they didn’t recognise food or water, totally naive to predators, just laid where they stood ect... and we started hen rehab very gently inside a barn (the scared of the sky thing is overwhelming for them at first and they must learn to drink asap).
We quickly became aware that our existing ex commercials were breaking quarantine and getting into the newbies barn, and we assumed they we just being their usual cheeky selves and breaking and entering to nick the newbies food & boss them around, so we paid a bit more attention to what was going on - principally to try to stop them getting in as the new hens are supposed to be in quarantine!, then there’s the issue of predators... bullying by the mafia ect....

Instead what we found was that one of the old ex batts (Amber) was actually determinedly breaking in to gently guide and teach the newbies how to be chickens? She gradually started to bring more of “ The Mafia” with her and together they were teaching the newbies to drink, scratch, eat, nest, ect... they’ve now even learned an alarm response and when to take cover - that’s something that usually takes us months, but this time after only two weeks we have the new flock free ranging & foraging!
The old ex batts visit the new flock constantly, but they haven’t moved in, nor are they exhibiting any dominance, they simply seem to visit, mingle about, do chicken stuff, have a chat and then go back to ruling their empire of pure breeds.
We’ve never ever seen these “ladies” be nice before! we usually have to curtail their dominance as they can be quite mean - yet they have been amazing in caring and helping our new ex batts.
It’s really made me wonder...Do they have long enough memories? Do they remember leaving the factory farm? It’s really been very surprising and touching watching them with the new hens and they’ve done a brilliant job of chicken rehab. But it’s really made me question what our old ex commercials remember going through and their determination to “help” these new hens has been extraordinary. We’ve rehomed many ex batts over the years, but we’ve never seen this before.

 

[Shadrach]

Please share your stories/experiences where you witnessed chickens having empathy or at least sympathy.

Here’s mine:
My NHR, Rusty, had fallen ill and would stay back and rest in the run while the others free ranged. My top hen, Margo, a Brown Leghorn, was found shoulder-to-shoulder with Rusty, keeping her company instead of running around with the rest of the flock. Margo would also stay down and sleep beside Rusty when she was too weak to get up to the roost. Margo did this every night until Rusty passed, and that very night was back up on the roost with the others.
As sad as the situation was, it was fascinating to watch, and permanently changed my view on the cognitive abilities of chickens.

If you have the time some of the stories in my signature are observations on chicken empathy. They're a bit sad.