Colorblind?

[HenneePennee]

I'm wondering if chickens are colorblind. What brings this to mind is an interesting thing that is occurring in my flock. I used milk crates as laying baskets, half full of pinestraw. I have 12 of these crates mounted on the back wall of my coop. All but one of the crates are black. The one that is red is the hot spot. The majority of my eggs come from that red crate. I'm thinking of moving it around to see if it is the location, or the color. What are your thoughts? Weird huh?

 

[Imp]

No, chickens are not colorblind, in fact they can see more colors than people. They seem to be attracted to the color red.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=super-chicken-vision-10-02-26

Imp

 

[CindyG]

My yard shoes are red clogs...recently, one little Silkie has taken to "charging" them. Will have to try going out in some other colour, hmmm?!

 

[33yardbirds]

All birds see color very well. That is why the males are so gaudy and colorful, to attract the attention of the girls.

 

[TheMainException]

That is so interesting! I'm glad someone asked this question. When I went to Lowes to buy paint, the best out door paint I could find for cheap that I didn't need to get mixed other than white was "barn red" so I bought it...now I'm glad I did. They don't seem to be terribly attracted to their coop regardless of its red color though since they took to sleeping on it a few weeks ago. (stopped that as fast as I could)