Chicken Empathy

[PouleChick]

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!

Oh my I properly had hairs standing up on the back of my neck reading that - how amazing

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Love all of these stories!
And to think that people JUST believe that animals don’t have emotions!!!!

 

[Shadrach]

Love all of these stories!
And to think that people JUST believe that animals don’t have emotions!!!!

Staggering isn't it.

 

[Shadrach]

If only more people 'adjusted' their view of chickens and related stories of their behaviour.
It doesn't matter if such people get accused a anthropomorphising, perhaps it's needed to offset the dogma.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

When I had to rehome 8 of my 10 chickens last year I kept my Cornish cross pullet Eleanor who I saved from slaughter and her Silkie friend. When I came back from rehoming the flock I let Eleanor out and she just started to walk around the run and call for her friends. You could tell by the look on her face that she was terrified and scared she wanted her flock back. Eleanor was clearly distressed and seemed to be crying for her flock. I couldn’t help but cry.

 

[PouleChick]

Eleanor was clearly distressed and seemed to be crying for her flock. I couldn’t help but cry.

Awwwww bless her.

 

[micstrachan]

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.

Wow, this is wonderful!

 

[micstrachan]

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

I will check them out!

 

[micstrachan]

When I had to rehome 8 of my 10 chickens last year I kept my Cornish cross pullet Eleanor who I saved from slaughter and her Silkie friend. When I came back from rethinking the flock I let Eleanor out and she just started to walk around the run and call for her friends. You could tell by the look on her face that she was terrified and scared she wanted her flock back. Eleanor was clearly distressed and seemed to be crying for her flock. I couldn’t help but cry.

Awww...

 

[anvia]

If only more people 'adjusted' their view of chickens and related stories of their behaviour.
It doesn't matter if such people get accused a anthropomorphising, perhaps it's needed to offset the dogma.

I think the accusation of anthropomorphising is a real red herring.... I don’t pretend to have a proven baseline behaviour set for chickens, but let’s be honest we’ve all watched them. We as humans can bond with them because we share behaviours, we have some of the same drives - food, water, companionship, ect... we are creatures that socially bond... we mourn those we care for, we are capable of selfish behaviour and altruistic behaviours.... sometimes we surprise ourselves, sometimes we are guilty of less than admirable behaviours... we commmunicate both verbally and non verbally, we have a complex social structure.... the shared traits are there.
Sciences don’t have all the data, nor the analysis - follow the money.... we don’t fully understand our animals, we are also scared to understand our animals as they are also our food and we humans are empathic & sympathetic, but we do share behaviour traits. Personally I don’t think we should be afraid of acknowledging that - This forum is evidence of that - we love our chickens because we share traits.
I honestly have no problem with the accusation of anthropomorphism, I see the shared traits, I understand the shared drives across the species.... but I also understand that my chickens know far more about being a chicken than I do, and I am not a chicken - nor are they people... no matter how often they invade the house!
But I can respect them for the intelligent emotional creatures that they obviously are.