How smart is your chicken?

[henney]

Hi, this is my first year with chickens. I have five, three RHR's and two EE'rs. They are 20wks old and very tame. Henrietta, my RIR just started sneaking in the kitchen door behind me and grabbing Buster's dog food and turns around and runs back out the door real fast. She is the first one that's started laying, maybe the dog food has something to do with it? She is highest on the social ladder so the other girls just watch her and don't attempt to come in. The girls are fed laying pellets, fresh greens daily, with a occasional snack of grapes.

 

[debilorrah]

I think chickens are very smart in most respects and dumb as a box of rocks in others. I mean, they certainly know how to follow me around when I have the treat tray and completely ignore me when I don't....


edited by staff

 

[henney]

Yea, they do look at my hands a lot and where I'm heading for!

 

[gritsar]

I have some smart chickens. The ones that knock at the back door for treats and go to bed 15 minutes earlier than the others to get the choice spots on the roosts. Then I have the ones that are a few eggs short of a dozen, like the hen that insists on eating out of the dog's bowl at the same time as the dog is eating. The same dog that tried to eat her not an hour earlier.

 

[max13077]

I think my birds are smart when it comes to finding food while they're out free-ranging. Then again when it comes time to go night-night, a couple of them sleep right under everybody else on the roost...

 

[CarriBrown]

Mine are smart enough to know what a take out box looks like. They had Claim Jumper for breakfast this morning!

 

[jaybme]

Glad to hear most chickens are smarter than mine!

I honestly was rearranging my mental imagery of words like "chicken" (jeez, could they be any more frightened? of everything?) and "dumb" (they can't even peck at a worm- they miss!). These chicken seemed dumber than dirt, and gee, not too friendly after being hand raised and treated soooo sweetly.

My next chicks went out to join them a few weeks later, and suddenly the light dawned on me! These younger chickens were actually the norm. They could find the hen house, use the ramp I built, and actually could peck at any treat I gave them without missing by inches, and they did not run from me like I was a scary giant every time they saw me.

I guess my older chicks were mentally slow, or maybe even damaged, and I just did not have enough experience to realize it.

Now I understand my slow ones, and re-evaluated my chicken words again. But I am glad to know that not all chickens are as slow as mine!

 

[lorihadams]

Big Mama, one of my Barred Rocks, WILL NOT lay me an egg unless she has a treat first!

Spoiled rotten birds.......

Gotta love 'em though!

Lori

 

[HorseFeathers]

Our Red Sex-Link Rita is very smart, especially where food is concerned. I was outside eating a muffin. Rita was hopping and jumping to try to get it, so I extended my arm far away so as to save my muffn. Rita jumps on my arm, muffin falls in dirt, Rita eats muffin. She has since used this tactic SEVERAL times! Now THAT's brains.
Our SLW Vanda once used a similar tactic. I was eating a hot dog on the lawn while watching chicks. Only Vanda was out (we wanted tos ee if she'd be nice to the chicks). So she sidled up, pecking the ground EVER so casually. "Oh good girl Vanda, do you want to see the chicks?" Vanda glances at chicks. Then faster than the eye can see, she's got the hot dog and is running across the lawn to the other chickens like a little laced torpedo! I swear, she's their double agent...

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

My chickens are smart enough to know how to get inside and find there corn.... They also know when I leave the house so that they can get out of there run and rule the yard.