Is a chicken capable of thinking this way????.........

[Sparrow]

I think that your chicken very well could have "faked" distress to get what she wanted. That type of behavioural response could easily be considered something she was conditioned to do. It's a cause-and-effect process, just like learning to fear something that hurts. In fact, chickens do have innately manipulative tendencies...every animal that has an advanced social network does. It's how they get along, and get what they want. Even ants have those types f processes, and I dare say chickens are far more intelligent than ants!

Animals communicate with each other through body language, we all see our chickens do it. I think she was communicating with you using body language. She knows that presenting herself that way makes you take care of her. Lower ranking chickens in a flock can intentionally look pitiful to pacify the dominant individuals and be allowed to eat or share space. You chicken is appar rently clever enough to make the connection with what works on you, too.

Brain size doesn't always indicate intelligence. Jumping spiders, for example, are widely accepted(by researchers and scientific leaders) to be about as intelligent as a mouse. They DESIGN complex stalk-and-capture plans for prey items that can last an entire day in order to catch their intended prey. They change their "plan" to fit each prey item and customize it to the location of it. Mice are incapable of this type of advanced cognitive thought. Jumping spiders do not even have a brain like ours.

Anyway, give the chicken a little more credit. She is adapting what she is born knowing how to do, to fit an entirely different species' behaviour. She is trying to figure out how to communicate with you. If you are bonded closely with an animal, often they will try to figure out how to communicate with you. Mine do it a lot. You just have to take the time to realize that's what they are doing, and you will likely see them in a slightly different light!

 

[Guitartists]

I moved her back to the coop today, after some major interior design work

LOL I moved the blue d'Uccle she likes so much and my other little bantam chicks out as well. They all seemed to stick together and she was perky and happy when I left. Tomorrow I will check and see how everyone is doing. They had a blast out in the temp run I set up for them, digging holes and eating bugs

I built them a tree branch perch today and filled a bunch of different things with straw for them to lay in..... I wish I had taken my camera with me! Spaghetti was in 7th heaven digging in a bucket full of straw.

I love the noises chickens make when they're happy

So cute! Everyone was getting along. Everybody found a spot on the perches or in Roxie's case, on the highest nesting box.

They all have such different personalities

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

Quote:
He was a great actor!

He sounds like a good pet. I think some animals are capable of higher thinking. Yes, running to a food bowl is instinct, but perhaps chickens will get used to a surrounding and not want to leave their "territory" . I believe chickens are smart. No matter how big their brains are.

 

[riley grapes]

This sure is something, its like a cartoon with these chickens sometimes, they peck some people when they won't peck others, they fake being sick to get the sweet stuff, what next, nearly getting hit by a car with one in it?! But the fact that she had been sick for real that one time when you took her in the first time kinda explains it, but after only one time is like teaching a dog to get the paper for you the first time. They may have brains the size of kidney beans, but you'd be surprised. Heck, we made it to the moon when they said t was impossible, why not this?

 

[dlhunicorn]

When I first got my silkies, and not knowing much at all, I would duly lock them in at nite and open the door in the morning when I got up...
My head hen was very social...a real cuddle bun and quite a character... she was very bossy and had her nose in all the birds business and constantly clucking at them to be here and not there etc. .... (I have since lost her to botulism after she got into a trash bag...never had a bird quite like her since

)
...anyhoo... one morning (kids on vacation) I slept really late...it was almost 11 when I woke up. I rushed out to let the birds out (they did have a very tiny little roofed run outside their coop)... well this hen rushed out , hiked her wings up (like we would on hips) and proceeded to give me the worst verbal bashing you can imagine. It was uncanny... I backed up and she proceeded to stalk me all the way to the door of my kitchen giving me what-for in no uncertain terms! Normally she would rush to me to get her special treats (she was my favorite and I spoiled her) but that day she refused to look at me the entire day.

 

[Guitartists]

LOL That's funny! My friends have a cat that scolds them whenever they leave for a vacation or anything more than a day. She refuses to let them touch her for days and growls at them when they look at her!

 

[wegotchickens]

Animals may have small brains, but I think the more they interact with us the more they use those brain cells and the higher their intelligence goes. And then you get the 'geniuses' that can do more than anyone believes possible.

I'm not surprised to hear of a chicken acting depressed, and wanting to hang with the babies.

DH loaded our run with playsand, hoping it would make it easier to clean it out. Our hens tried to go on strike, refusing to walk on it. I'd checked on them several times, wanting to let them out but not until they walked on the sand. The third time I went past was different. Thing One whined at me pitifully, standing on the ramp to the nesting area, wanting me to open the run so she could get out of there. I told her I'd let them out when they all walked to the door and ran back and forth like they usually do. They all watched me talking to T1. I turned and walked back to the house. As I got to the back steps I heard T1 bokking at me in a normal voice. I turned around and there they all were, pacing back and forth by the door. So I walked back there and let them out.

Did I win, or have I been 'trained'?

 

[Davaroo]

It's us, not them.

They do what they do - we give them the attributes we want to see in them. It's part of our "lesser creatures than we," response. Call it the Bambi Reflex if you prefer.

Me, personally, I'm all in favor of them. But I think we give them too much credit.

 

[Oblio13]

I have a neighbor who insists that her chickens "love" her. I asked what they'd do to her if she were only an inch tall, and it's been bugging her ever since.

 

[sred98]

Quote:
Oh that is just MEAN!!!

I think the same thing about my cat! LOL!

Shelly