Dumb chickens?

[billygoat162]

I've definitely noticed that some chickens are unusually smart, and some are just plain dumb. I think it varies a lot within breeds, but some breeds are generally smarter than others and some are generally dumber. My Buff Orpingtons and Welsummers generally seem smarter.

I had a mystery hen that was supposed to be a RIR but looked like a red Leghorn, and it was basically a cricket inside a chicken's body. It would wander the yard squawking and laying eggs in random places. It routinely got itself stuck in tight spots (between fences, between nesting boxes, etc), broke the other hen's eggs, and never quite figured out hardware cloth or chicken wire. I also had a Black Australorp that would get defeated by bushes and hardware cloth almost daily and squawk up a storm until I showed it how to get out. It would literally get stuck inside of bushes and not be able to find its way out.

As amusing as the dumber ones can be, the noise gets old pretty quick, and if you live in a city like I do the noisy ones have to go. All my "special" chickens have found new homes.

 

[bald Rooster]

I have a 6 foot 3/4 inc. pvc pipe at my coop I call it my chicken stick.I tap the ground with it were I do not want the chickens to go. All my chickens understand the stick.
I have learned chickens are a little slow moving and if you rush them, they get confused and fly every were, But if you slowly tap wait and move slow they will go in the door!
Once in a while with older hens I bump them,they know I will not harm them.
I also use this stick to herd them in from free ranging or to get them out of the bushes.

 

[bald Rooster]

 

[MickeysChicks]

Watching the girls free ranging yesterday afternoon I noticed Brahma Mama (smartest chicken I've ever owned) chasing the SLW back from the woods, yep she wandered off again. About an hour later I went back out and did a head count because I have 5 month olds experiencing their first free range day. Counted twice, 18 chickens, whose missing...yep SLW....I swear Brahma Mama looked at me , shook her head and headed to the woods, sure enough here she comes a couple of minutes later chasing the SLW , who somehow managed to get herself stuck in the fence that runs around the garden shed and the coops. Meanwhile the rest of the flock hangs out in the yard between the house and the coop and manage to successfully negotiate the pathway and the double wide opening in the fence without getting stuck! I think Brahma Mama will be glad when the 3 month old rooster can take over chasing wayward hens! Right now he's still growing with his girls in the baby coop.

 

[Roxanne c.28]

Leaves me to ponder whether the chickens were stupid to wander off and get eaten or if the chicken keeper was stupid for letting them.

How rude.

 

[mertzy1963]

I have 3 GLW and 3 Buff Orpingtons........My GLW,s look after everybody, they are the last ones in the coop at night, and they wait for me to come out in the morning to open the door, they are the first ones out the door......none of my girls act dumb......love watching them all......

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

No, Wyandottes are not particularly stupid, if you can accurately use that word to describe chicken behavior. It is what it is, mainly being the way chicken brains are wired to have linear thought processes. Kind of the way some people think.

If a chicken wishes to get from point A to point B and there's a barrier in the way but they can see through it, their need to get beyond it supersedes their ability to recognize at the same time that they need to find a way to go around it. Kind of the way some people think.

I have 2 runs separated by about 6-8',
accessed by 2 pop doors at opposite ends of 16' coop.
Birds frequently pace the fence of one run when wanting to go into the other.
Some 'get it' and go back thru coop, other just pace and fuss....SMH.

X2 to both. case in point.... tonight the flock was out in the yard with me just before roost time. One girl made her way into the coop, roosted and decided to call the rest in to join her. Because her call was coming through the window on the door at the front of the coop the flick all gathered at the door. The door into the run was wide open and less than two feet to the left, and the pop door is three chicken steps from there, but all they knew was they wanted to go in on a direct route to where their flock mate was calling from....so there they stood, clucking among themselves looking up at the coop door waitiing for it to open.

 

[Poppylu]

We have 4 Wyandotte bantams that are about 2 months old. They took a lot of coaxing to climb the ramp to sleep in their coop when we first moved them outside. The kids tried walking them up the ramp and we ended up keeping them in with an evening snack of rolled oats. Now they tuck themselves in at dusk. They do not strike me as silly chickens but the one other chicken we have is a Barnevelder bantam who was from the beginning, more clever and a curious than the Wyans. That said, the Wyans are making nice pets cos they're so chill.

 

[aart]

How rude.

@Roxanne c.28 Read the posts following the one you quoted...it is explained.

 

[azygous]

Leaves me to ponder whether the chickens were stupid to wander off and get eaten or if the chicken keeper was stupid for letting them.

This was an attempt to inject irony and humor into the discussion. Not intended to be taken literally.