do chickens eat chickens?

[silver wolf]

do chickens eat chickens?

 

[MROO]

YES! If one is injured or acting sick or even has a spot of red that looks like blood, they'll peck it to death. Once unalived, they have absolutely no qualms about eating a dead flockmate, the little cannibals. It's our job to keep them well fed and healthy enough - and not bullying each other to death, that they don't have the opportunity to prove that point!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Yes. I know of one story where this person I knew was working in the chicken barns, and he saw this one chicken in this cage with this dead chicken. He removed the dead chicken and figured the live one needed a friend so he put another chicken in with it. Well, he quickly discovered why the other chicken was dead... That one chicken went right after the new one, immediately pecking it in the same spot the dead chicken had been injured in until it killed the new chicken and had gotten to its intestines.

Then there are some people who feed their chickens cooked chicken. I'm not one who does that, and thankfully my only cannibalistic behaviors of my chickens are egg eating and feather plucking. Chickens are some of the more cannibalistic creatures out there, so you do have to be mindful of them, especially if there's blood on any of your girls. (If they see blood, they'll peck at it, even to the point of pecking them to death.)

 

[Tired old Rooster]

Very much so.

 

[SkyAJK]

If they know that they are eating their own kind...would they eat that?

 

[tlcmurphy]

If they know that they are eating their own kind...would they eat that?

Yes, everyone likes chicken…

 

[Tired old Rooster]

If they know that they are eating their own kind...would they eat that?

Chooks don't have a human moral code. They will likely eat their own sister if she drops dead.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

Yes, everyone likes chicken…

If anything, they might eat their own sister and think, "WOW! That tastes like chicken"!

 

[SkyAJK]

Chooks don't have a human moral code. They will likely eat their own sister if she drops dead.

....that is the question isn't it...do they know the different?
I think if they know that is their own kind, they would not eat it.
I have a sick hen at the moment, she is beyond treatment..she still want to be with her flock, and I do let her be sometime of the day.

Mint is over 2 years old, sick and sit in the run quietly, her mother stand/sometimes sit next to her, and the rest of the flock close by. They all very quiet. I wonder if they know that she is dying or they just showing her support? Why do they do what they do?

My old rooster sat on eggs in the nestbox when the hens were not there. Why?

1 of my hens passed away, I put her out for the flock to say goodbye, the rooster pecked at her, the rest of the flock looked at her, some made noise, 1 screamed and walked away, the rest stood quietly for a little while and then walked away. Are they saying goodbye.

My old rooster passed away over a year now, 1 of the hens is still missing him. Whenever I call his name, she quickly turn around looking for him.

I think chickens know, so if they know they are eating their own kind, they would not. But that is my theory through observation of my flock, I have no scientific prove of that.

 

[CalebMS]

Definitely, I had a lavender Orpington, who killed and ate 3 of my hens