How do hens feel?

[doggielove]

How do you think hens feel when we take their eggs? Everytime I take eggs out of the nesting box, I have one Orpington that runs over to check it out. I get the feeling that she's wondering where her egg went. Am I crazy? What do you think?

 

[lazypifarm]

I think they're certainly interested in the eggs, especially the ones who like to go broody, like cochins, silkies and orpingtons. I don't think you can really ascribe human emotions to them, though. Their tiny bird brains are just not complex enough to handle a wide range of emotions, like ours are. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying they don't feel - just that like a Peter Pan fairy, they're just not big enough to hold more than one emotion at a time, hahaha! So perhaps momentary puzzlement, or anxiety, or chicken-rage (which EXISTS, ask me about the time I tried to take a newborn chick from a cochin.) But I think their emotions over us taking their eggs passes quite quickly. They are, after all, highly distractable.

 

[doggielove]

Thanks, lazypifarm. That makes a lot of sense....and makes me feel not so guilty.