Do chickens know their breed?

[Oh My Homestead]

I have read through so many of the comments and wondered what is wrong with my chickens? The only segregation that happens in our coop is the hens and ducks. We too have 7 different breeds of hens and they are all laying with one another and do everything mostly as a herd rather than separate. There is only one group that goes a different direction, the babies that we adopted about 8 weeks after our original 29. They however are starting to do everything with the group and are even laying in separate areas mingled with the other hens. Thanks for posting this question, I will have to keep an eye out for this in the future but currently 23 of the 29 that I have from the original (6 were hand raised for a friend and then we adopted another 6) are very mingled in their groups....

 

[Urchin]

We've only had chicks since April. The egg layers (RIRs, black and gold sex links, Australorps, and Wyandottes) were in a brooder together and the silkies had their own for about four weeks. When they all were in the larger brooder my father built, they separated by egg layers and silkies. A raccoon killed eight of my nine silkies not long after we moved them out to the coop and chicken yard. I was worried about the silkie chick since he just kind of wandered around lost, not really being part of the flock. Luckily the breeder still had a few chicks two weeks younger than it for sale. Now we have three younger silkies in with them and there's really not much segregation right now. The little splash follows one of the gold sex links around, the little white follows around the oldest silkie, and the oldest and little blue silkies flock with the egg layers sometimes, and with the other silkies sometimes. At night it's one big pile of chickens. Even the egg layer chicks don't roost yet.

We also have six silkie and three cochin chicks in the brooder right now. There's no segregation right now between, but I wonder if there will be once they're old enough to be integrated in the flock. And I wonder since they're being raised together if those nine will stick together or separate into little silkie and cochin cliques, mingle with the rest of the flock or what.

 

[liamthechicken]

Mine are racist!

I have
4 Warrens, 1 RIR Cockerel and 1 Bluebell. All the others will not eat at the same time as her and I have had to make a second perch as they won't sleep together! I did have 3 Bluebells but one was being picked on constantly and my neighbour rehoused her with his ducks and they're happy. Polly was a Bluebell and even in her last days they wouldn't talk or eat together.

Not even the 3 Blubells ever stuck together! These chickens!

 

[KristineY]

I tend to think it is a color recognition. I added two white Leghorn pullets to our flock which includes an "oops" White Plymouth Rock rooster and the little Leghorns tend to stay with him during the day and roost with him at night. The partridge EE although raised with a white EE and a Buff Orp sticks to herself.

 

[Jaymee777]

There might be something to it. Out of 48 chickens these guys hang out a lot!

 

[MNickoloff]

We are new to chickens, started this Spring. We have 2 EE's, 2 barred rocks, and 2 silkies. All of them pair up, but the silkies are inseparable. One barred rock (the only female) hangs out with them a lot too. I was wondering if it was a bottom of the pecking order kind of thing.

 

[4Jewels]

Yes! We have 20 chickens, and the 3 Reds hang out together, the 5 barred rocks seem to always be in a cluster, and so on... We have 2-5 chickens of 6 breeds, and they are always wandering in groups according to breed. Another funny thing is we added 3 Ameraucanas and 3 Speckled Sussex this year, and those six are a tight-knit group. They are 3 months old and are like a group of teenagers refusing to "hang out" with the older girls.

 

[jgarreth]

Mine are the same way...I have 4 EE and they pretty much hang out all together. I have 6 red sex links that all hang together. Funny how that works. I will say that I have 3 Chihuahuas and 2 other kinds of dogs and the Chihuahuas prefer each other to the others.

 

[1QueenBee]

I have noticed in my flock that like breeds do seem to hang out more together, though some will hang out with the others. I have some new chicks I got on Memorial Day, but not counting them I have 4 Red Stars, 3 Silver Leghorns, and 4 EEs. One of my leghorns is rather independent and she varies between hanging out with the reds or the EEs, or just by herself...very seldom hangs with the other leghorns. I do think they also go by color - two of my EEs are very similarly colored and another is similar but with a black head and the other one is white...the white one has always been somewhat left out, except that the black-headed one will often hang with her instead of the others. Very interesting indeed!

 

[el pollo rey]

I don't see this in my free range flock at all , I breed red and black sex links and have three free range Roos the Roos seem to gather the ones they like and the groups seem to stick with the perspective rooster it's not color related at all red black and barred all mixed in groups with their Roos ,,,,