Hypothetically-- Could you make a super friendly chicken breed?

[GCrumb]

@Amelise I think @Shadrach's point is more that 'friendly' is a hard to define trait. If you select new-hatched chicks for approaching you, you'll get the bold ones, and at puberty they may become decidedly unfriendly but still bold, behavior that gets called 'aggressive.' But if you select from adults for 'friendliness' you'll have seleted for birds that become 'friendly' if raised the way the ones you chose were raised, and you'll be selecting in part for husbandry practices.

Even so, I I think in the practical this would actually be pretty easy to do, considering the success of similar projects with other species. Of course if you develp a line of birds very likely to be friendly when kept in a suburban coop and regularly subjected to friendly human company they may not be friendly if kept in battery cages or completely free-ranged, but that's probably okay.

I think it might work out better if you start with a breed that's already said to be friendly and try to make a super-friendly line. Some people might want your 'Supersweet Salmon Favorelles' bloodline for its own sake, but other Favorelles breeders might want them to improve temperament in their flock.

 

[Amelise]

@Amelise I think @Shadrach's point is more that 'friendly' is a hard to define trait. If you select new-hatched chicks for approaching you, you'll get the bold ones, and at puberty they may become decidedly unfriendly but still bold, behavior that gets called 'aggressive.' But if you select from adults for 'friendliness' you'll have seleted for birds that become 'friendly' if raised the way the ones you chose were raised, and you'll be selecting in part for husbandry practices.

I see. So birds that are more likely to be friendly than friendly from birth. (It would probably be more difficult, but I wonder if selecting chickens that are bold at birth and also “friendly” in adulthood would create more of the desired outcome?

Even so, I I think in the practical this would actually be pretty easy to do, considering the success of similar projects with other species. Of course if you develp a line of birds very likely to be friendly when kept in a suburban coop and regularly subjected to friendly human company they may not be friendly if kept in battery cages or completely free-ranged, but that's probably okay.

Right, I was thinking of a backyard or homestead setting. I raise my birds half cooped and half free range and I know a lot of other breeders and hobbyists keep their birds that way too. I was not really thinking of them in a factory or farm setting (more “pet” or fancy birds).

I think it might work out better if you start with a breed that's already said to be friendly and try to make a super-friendly line. Some people might want your 'Supersweet Salmon Favorelles' bloodline for its own sake, but other Favorelles breeders might want them to improve temperament in their flock.

I like that idea!

I love Ameraucanas. Although they have a good potential to be friendly, they can be kind of jumpy and have a tendency to not like being handled. I guess that wouldn’t be the right breed to use in this hypothetical project though.

 

[GCrumb]

I see. So birds that are more likely to be friendly than friendly from birth. (It would probably be more difficult, but I wonder if selecting chickens that are bold at birth and also “friendly” in adulthood would create more of the desired outcome?

I think you could look at temperament-testing stuff like the 'Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test' and adapt it to chickens. Test at a few days old, test again at puberty, test again at full maturity. Maybe some times in between. You might learn if the responses tend to change, and how much, and in what direction.

Right, I was thinking of a backyard or homestead setting. I raise my birds half cooped and half free range and I know a lot of other breeders and hobbyists keep their birds that way too. I was not really thinking of them in a factory or farm setting (more “pet” or fancy birds).

Makes sense to me! My own little half-imaginary chicken project is also about breeding birds that suit backyard keepers who want layers that are pets and/or yard ornaments. I've been looking at breeds that have reputations for being mediocre layers but laying 'til they're close to dying of old age, a trait that's not commercial-egg-production-valuable but solves a pet-chicken problem. I favour some who are inferior foragers because they don't wander far, which is much better for people with small yards.

I love Ameraucanas. Although they have a good potential to be friendly, they can be kind of jumpy and have a tendency to not like being handled. I guess that wouldn’t be the right breed to use in this hypothetical project though.

I say work with the breed you love. Funny, my blue amerucanas are ridiculously friendly. I'm pretty sure it's just because they were handled every day from hatch and lived in a small backyard run. I bought them from a very nice young couple who'd petted them a lot. They used to come out of the henhouse expecting a goodnight cuddle when one went to lock them in for the night, which was a cute nuisance.

 

[NatJ]

By choosing the only snuggliest and least skittish of personalities, would one be able to eventually create a consistently friendly chicken? (with even consistently friendly roosters?) Would I have to worry about killing their survival instincts? Or could I get them to be friendly with humans but wary of predators?

I have had some Old English Game Bantams that were the first to fly into the trees if a dog chased them, but they were also among the first to come be friendly with people, or to investigate a new "scary" thing (bedding, food, rake, etc.) If I picked them up, they tended to be calm, rather than struggling and sqawking like some other chickens did.

So based on my experience, yes it might be possible to get some chickens with all the traits you want.

I got the Old English Game Bantams from Ideal Poultry. I do not know whether ones from other hatcheries would have different temperaments. I had one each of several different colors. Only some of them were noticeably friendly, but I couldn't tell whether there was any link between color and behavior, or if it was just random among the ones I got.

i'm wondering if could I create a super friendly chicken breed? (i'm aware there already are friendly chicken breeds, but i'm thinking about friendly chickens that produce consistently friendly offspring. Also, i'm not just thinking about chickens that are simply docile enough to manage, but chickens that are personable and would love to be around people.)

You might start by getting chicks of quite a few breeds and paying attention as they grow up, to see what traits you like or don't like.

Here are a number of differences I have seen in chickens:
--Does the chicken approach the person who usually takes care of it?
--Does the chicken approach a strange person?
--How does the chicken react to an unfamiliar object? (rake, pile of bedding, piece of cabbage, etc.) Some are more scared than others, and some settle down and investigate faster than others.
--When you pick up the chicken, is it calm or does it struggle and squawk? This may be different if you corner it and grab during the daytime, vs. grabbing off the roost at night.
--How quickly does the chicken get used to things? (Much calmer the 10th time you pick it up, decides the lawn mower is fine after the first month of summer, runs to eat every new food you throw in, vs. still freaking out every time.)

Those differences do not always go together in predictable sets. I have seen them mixed and matched in many combinations.

Personally, I like chickens that are calm when handled, don't panic too much about new objects, and rapidly learn which things are safe to eat or non-threatening. Your top priorities might be very different than mine.

If I was to go about it, would it be best to not socialize them as much as chicks, and wait to see which ones are naturally friendly, without any training, or would I try to make them as friendly as possible and just choose the friendliest ones?

You could do it either way. You will just get different results.

I have noticed: if I pick up a chick once every two weeks (maybe to check whether they need a larger legband), some will struggle frantically and peep loudly while some will not. When I tracked this with some chicks (made notes each time), there were some consistent patterns. Certain ones always struggled, certain ones were always calm, certain ones struggled the first few times but improved with time (they learned or got used to it).

If I were also to strive for a certain feather color or another external feature like that, would I work on it before I try to encourage the friendliness, after I’ve already got a lot of freindly ones, or just during the process?

The more traits you try to work on, the less progress you are likely to make on each one. But it would not be hard to get some basic points consistent.

For the basic color, you could just start with that color. For example, if you want buff, you could start with birds of several buff breeds and breed from the friendliest of each. Or you could work with just black. Or whatever other color you like.

You could also start with feathered legs or clean legs, crests or no crests, blue eggs or brown eggs, or whatever other traits interest you.

If all the chickens in your flock are consistent for a certain trait, then usually the offspring will have that trait too, without you having to pay any special attention to it (of course there are some exceptions: traits that never breed true, or recessive genes that pop up in later generations.)

 

[DarJones]

I've seen selection against aggression work. It seems to me that there are three aspects to the desired outcome. First to have a "friendly" chicken presumably meaning one that has little or no fear of humans. The second is to have a "non-aggressive" chicken meaning one that does not show aggression toward humans. Third to have a non-flighty chicken meaning one that does not spook if a leaf blows across the yard. Roosters that are very friendly when small can turn into the most aggressive birds in the yard as they reach puberty.

In a very real way, you are asking to breed against a chicken's basic nature. By nature, they have a pecking order that determines who is at the top and who is at the bottom. When breeding for "friendly" chickens, I suspect most of your best prospects will be at the bottom of the pecking order. One thing you might use for selection criteria is to watch to see which hen is at the top and which is at the bottom. Breed from the lowest on the pecking order.

I've noted unusually friendly behavior in Brown Leghorns which is in a way antithetical as they are very flighty. Silver Laced Wyandottes tend to be stand-offish. They don't want to be handled, will accept some petting if rewards are offered, and readily acclimate to humans being in their space. Perhaps most important is that SLW's tend not to be flighty. Roosters will sometimes show aggression at puberty.

I have seen very high aggressiveness from roosters of Barred Rocks and Dominiques. I've seen calm behavior (not flighty) and low aggression from Orpingtons and Australorps.