Maybe useful for any animal behavior scientists

[Jojosine]

They are not exclusive categories; innate, instinctive behaviour can be improved through learning from others.

This, for example, from Nicol https://www.amazon.com/Behavioural-Biology-Chickens-Christina-Nicol/dp/1780642504 :

“chickens often use their observation of conspecifics to guide their behaviour and avoid the cost of the trial and error of individual learning… as they get older, chicks rely more on their flock mates for social learning… as chicks become more independent, feeding influences shift towards a dual role for both social transmission and individual associative learning… groups of chicks containing a knowledgeable demonstrator developed more successful foraging behaviour than groups of chicks with a naïve demonstrator… having watched a trained demonstrator, naïve hens were better able to learn the behaviour they had just seen than naïve hens that had watched untrained demonstrators or no demonstrator.”

So a chick or chicken that gets the opportunity to observe a competent guide does better at a task than a chick or chicken that has to learn by their own trial and error or by observing an incompetent guide.

That is interesting indeed. I wonder if that is the reason Harvey is not aggressive to anyone because he hasn't had a demonstrator to learn aggressive behaviour from. Maybe he is also not very good at protecting the flock; although he herds them towards safety when there is a perceived threat, I doubt he can or would attack any predators. Luckily, here in the UK we don't have snakes or coyotes, just foxes and pine martens, but our flock is fenced off during the day and securely locked in at night.

 

[NatJ]

I wonder if that is the reason Harvey is not aggressive to anyone because he hasn't had a demonstrator to learn aggressive behaviour from.

Many, many cockerels and roosters "learn" aggressive behavior all by themselves, with no demonstrators.

I would say that more than half of the posts I see about aggressive cockerels are from flocks with no other males, so I might speculate that having other males around can reduce the rate of aggression toward people. (Or maybe people with multiple cockerels are more likely to butcher the troublesome males and less likely to make a post asking for advice. Or maybe the difference is really in which threads I notice, rather than how cockerels behave in either situation.)

 

[Finchbreeder]

I know that with my Quail, I breed for non aggressive males.
e.g. a sweet natured boy get the girls.
A nasty boy lives alone.
So this will affect behavior.
I know that my mother has found with her Budgies that the female chicks that stay with their parents for 7 weeks are better mum's than those she gets from people who take them away from the parents at 5 weeks.
In all birds that we have had - 1st time mums are not always competent - and 1st time dads do not always fill eggs.
A good hen can turn a failed cock into a success.
Witness - a pair of Budgies mum has in the nest box now.
This hen consistently produces 3 rounds of 5 chicks with different mates each year so far.
This year mum looked at a cock who she has had 3 chickens out of in 3yrs - and said "I wonder" - he and the consistent hen are raising all 5 chicks she told him to produce.