Do Chickens Discriminate by Breed / Characteristics / Color

[lizo97]

I have 2 age groups of pullets. My older group of pullets (almost 3 months) consist of 2 EE, 2 RIR, and 1 Blue Australorp. I added 2 more -- another Blue Australorp and a Barnevelder who were besties before I added them. Recently I added some more younger pullets -- 3 Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rocks, and 1 Lavender Orpington. Recently the Barnevelder who has been joining up with the black Australorps. That made me wonder if it was joining them because they look similar? I then realized my EE (who look the same) are best friends, my 2 RIR are best friends, and the new Blue Australorp has started hanging around the other Blue Australorp. Do chickens like to hang around others that look the same? It's so interesting that the best friends (Barnevelder and Blue Australorp) split up and are hanging around chickens that are the same color. Coincidence?

 

[centrarchid]

In my setting not by characters listed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

From my experience, no. They will form cliques. From what I've seen that's based on personality a lot more than feather color. Often if they are raised together they tend to hang together.

 

[Folly's place]

Friendships and family feeling happen out there, for various reasons known only to the birds involved. I think temperament is a factor, as is flockmate status.individual appearances, maybe sometimes, but not the most important.
Mary

 

[Eggstatic ChickyDoo]

Maybe someone with more experience can weigh in, but I think it may have more to do with the personality traits of the breeds. Mine clump by who's adventurous/quiet/etc.

 

[Oncoming Storm]

I’m not sure. I have several different age groups and breeds in my flock. I do think looks play into it a bit since my two naked neck boys are inseparable. I also had a silkie boy and girl loose in the flock and they started out in different cliques. However, they slowly joined together and became a pair. When I had more white chickens they would group up and same with the greys. There can be age group differences and most of the time the young ones will stay together until they can blend with the flock. Right now I have a batch of a few month olds three turkens, a white leghorn, and a duck. Yes the duck still hangs out with them. They stick together and go their own way. Same with the couple month old silkies I got. They stick together and don’t mix much yet. Now when I had several game birds of all different breeds (Ayam cemani, leghorn, barred rock RIR cross) they all stayed together. Unfortunately they all disappeared together too. So, in the end I think many things come into play. Age, looks, attitudes, number of Roos (I have more roosters than I should but I can’t get rid of them don’t judge me) ((the Roos can often split up cliques when they recruit their hens)) and physical limitations. For example my silkies can’t roost with the other birds because they can’t really fly.

 

[centrarchid]

Unless I force things, groups hatched and raised together for the first couple weeks or so stay together and avoid other groups, regardless of how the groups compare in terms of age. The members of the groups need not be related and members of other groups can be full-siblings yet group takes precedence over kinship. This pattern conserved until end of juvenile stage at about 20 weeks. Groups larger than about 30 individuals tend to break up easily and represent end of spectrum I have not done much to explore.