Inherited Temperament

[CountryMom]

Quote:
Experience can sure be a lot better than science in some cases. I will give you a real world experience and maybe you can just call it science instead.

Four foals from one stallion. All four foals from a different Mama. All colts were raised in the same situation with the same handling until they were 2 yrs old. Of the four two were colts (male) with one being sorrel and one being bay. The other two fillies (females) with one being sorrel and one being black. The sorrel colt is now 5 yrs old and a competing cutting horse like his sire with a great working mind and easy to be around. The sorrel filly has become a wonderful family and kid trail horse. The black filly has just been broke (she being the youngest of the four some) and is being trained by a young person. All three of these colts broke out without incident and have good minds and temperment. The mind set is that they want to please their rider/trainer/handler. Now the bay colt is busy working for a living on some very large cattle ranch. He didn't break out well and he even attacked several people between the ages of 1 and 2 (and I am afraid may still.) Mind you he was gelded before he was 1. I have been told he is a lazy real pain in the ..... you fill it in. The main difference in all of these foals......Mama's temperment. The bay colts Mama has issues. So guess what was passed on? Temperment. It isn't measured by a gene or anything tangleable that science can necessarily measure. The only thing he got were the best bloodlines of the entire lot. Sad really as I see that as worthless.

I could give you a number of stories like this that are real life experience. When you deal with as many animals as we have on a ranch you see it happen. Cattle, horses, barn cats, and now chickens I am sure I will see. Even our small hobby of guinea pigs. We sell off the ill tempered ones to keep the line kid friendly.

Science can tell you genetics like hair color/eye color and such. But it can't tell you what someone with experience could. Like how do I have a feeling I could get a black colt outof a sorrel mare and a bay stallion when neither has throw that? And how could I get a diluted tri colored guinea pig with 5 generations of intense color breeding to show? Genetic possibilities, but experience tells me yes or no. And in the end both have it's impossibles pop out. On paper doesn't give you experience though. Just like a degree without any work experience.

Ok, off my soap box. LOLOL

Ice enjoy your breeding program and watch out for ill tempered animals. Not a trait you can easily fix.

 

[seriousbill]

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There are hundrds upon hundreds of studies on temperament heritability in animals, but most of them, as far as I know, are on mammals, often lab rats or cattle. Temple Grandin of Colorado State U has done some of those with cattle and found temperament, especially traits associated with fearfulness, highly heritable. There is some evidence regarding aggressiveness vs docility in pigs too. At times, the heritability of behavior or behavior-related traits such as neurochemistry seems to be partly an assumption from which scientists proceed to study other things these days; for instance, there is a very recent study that examines the effects of particular neurotransmitters using high and low aggressive chicken strains." The results "provide evidence for different heritable serotonergic mediation of aggressive behaviors and stress coping in chickens." Dennis RL, Chen ZQ, Cheng HW Poult Sci. 2008 Apr;87(4):612-20.

So, based on the science, yes, behavior is partly heritable, but it is a complex set of traits that is based on the interaction of multiple genes. In spite of this, we do have the ability to study it. And we do have the ability as breeders to select for particular traits, such as low aggression.

 

[Smoky73]

I have noticed with my Light Brown Dutch flock that the agressiveness of the cockerels was inherited from the females. My cock bird is a sweetheart but always had terrible tempered sons. All I can determine is that the hens were always bossy girls, top of the pecking order, and they passed down that trait to the males?

 

[seriousbill]

It's possible that some of the genes governing aggression are sex-linked, but I don't know of any studies confirming that specifically. I think there may be some studies in mammals linking female aggression with mothering ability, though. So, I'd wonder this: do your best broodies throw more aggressive cockerels? What say you all?

 

[Iceblink]

seriousbill, I loved 'Animals in Translation!' I especially liked the part where she talked about the 'low fat' pigs being more skittish because of the lack of myelin around their nerves.

I can't imagine anyone would really do a study that in depth with chicken physiology though.

Speckled Hen, the nice temperament of your chickens is one of the reasons I especially want to get some of your eggs.......sadly it won't be for quite a while.

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks, iceblink! After this dang molting is done and I have my new man for the Delwares, everyone should be back into production, so just let me know.
Interesting idea, Janet, about the most broody hen producing the most aggressive cockerels. Hmm.

 

[seriousbill]

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Yeah, it's okay.

She can be a bit pompous at times, but her insights are valuable. I think her way of presenting animal perception and behavior along the lines of autism really helps me understand my parrots, and any insight you can have with a parrot is worth millions

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Yep, since there's a correlation with other species, it does make you wonder if it translates to chickens, yeah? Oh, I don't mean in some simple one-to-one way, but y'know, is there a connection?

 

[andorraclaim]

Thanks!

Quote:
There are hundrds upon hundreds of studies on temperament heritability in animals, but most of them, as far as I know, are on mammals, often lab rats or cattle. Temple Grandin of Colorado State U has done some of those with cattle and found temperament, especially traits associated with fearfulness, highly heritable. There is some evidence regarding aggressiveness vs docility in pigs too. At times, the heritability of behavior or behavior-related traits such as neurochemistry seems to be partly an assumption from which scientists proceed to study other things these days; for instance, there is a very recent study that examines the effects of particular neurotransmitters using high and low aggressive chicken strains." The results "provide evidence for different heritable serotonergic mediation of aggressive behaviors and stress coping in chickens." Dennis RL, Chen ZQ, Cheng HW Poult Sci. 2008 Apr;87(4):612-20.

So, based on the science, yes, behavior is partly heritable, but it is a complex set of traits that is based on the interaction of multiple genes. In spite of this, we do have the ability to study it. And we do have the ability as breeders to select for particular traits, such as low aggression.

 

[Kev]

Quote:
I would not be surprised if there were studies for the poultry egg and meat industry- perhaps something such as figuring out how to have hens that tolerate confinement well- with less feather picking, cannibalism etc? Book seems like it's a must-read.

 

[Kev]

Quote:
Have heard that one before, probably something to it.

I have a line I use for hatching and mothering my peafowl eggs and chicks. They are selected for wanting to go broody, willing to stay broody for a long time, with higher hatch rates..... and be 100% tolerant of me "bothering" them as I need to be able to reach under them to change eggs, candle eggs, check on the chicks etc. The hens do not even peck at me. Not even a protesting screech or anything.

The roosters from this line would be considered non-aggressive. The maturing cockerels won't even fight older hens(not of this line) that posture and try to fight back.

The odd thing is, relatively many of them in both sexes are on the nervous side while young. You would think they would turn out to be "nest banshees" but nope.. Generally they calm down once they mature, and I do try to select for those however, how they react to me while setting and as mothers trumps anything else..