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.

 

[LtDanFan]

I am fascinated by behavior. Maybe i am extremely fortunate, but all 3 of my males (2 roos and a drake) seem to be very calm and polite. The drake was brooded and raised among chickens as he was the lone survivor of a brooder fire which killed the 4 other ducklings we acquired at the same time as we did him.
My oldest roo (Russel Crow), has broken up hen fights, watched small squabbles with interest and crowed when he sees fit but not excessively and has treated the ladies he lives with respectfully, walking away when they rebuff him and mounting when they will allow.
For context, russel was the only boy among the pullets that survived in the first brooder group, the younger roo was also the only boy brooded among same aged pullets purchased at a later time and my drake (L’orange) did not set eyes on another duck until about 12 weeks or so of age because that’s when the ducklings ordered to keep him company were old enough to be outside full time.
I am getting ready to set a couple dozen hatching eggs in the incubator, so i will have more little data points, assuming that more than one will be male.
For reference, Russel is about 6 months old, the younger cockerel is about 4-5 months old and L’orange is 6 months. Maybe they will become jerks as they continue to mature but i hope not, i love them all.

 

[2 Acres]

Hi all
just thought to share this information about our rooster's behavioral traits as it may be useful to animal behavior studies or 'nature vs nurture' studies:

3 years ago we had only one egg hatching succesfully which turned out to be a Cream Legbar boy and we decided to keep him.
He grew up as only chick in a flock of adult hens with no other roosters (the eggs were bought), so he cannot have learned male behavior as there was no example.

This is the (male) behavior he is displaying:
- crowing (bizarrely, he also crows in the middle of the night when it's pitch dark)
- 'dancing' around hens
- mating (but not overly pushy, when a hen runs away he'll just leave it)
- calling hens when he finds food
- standing guard
- he has a special sound for when he sees non-threatening individuals like us or the cats
- I think he also maintains the pecking order by sometimes keeping lower-ranked individuals away from special treats and preferring the higher-ranked ladies
- very occassionally I have seen him breaking up fights between hens, but when there is a fight he will wait first as if he's not sure what to do
- we're not sure what he'll do when there is a serious threat: there is a bit of a joke going 'round our neighbours that when there is threat he would just yell:"Save yourselves!" before running away and leaving the flock.
- he is absolutely not aggressive and has never really made any attempt of attacking us or the cats. However: when we had to get a hen out of the night coop, he went berserk and that was the only time when we decided to stay out of his way.
- when we have to grab hens for whatever reason: we separate the hen to grab her. He makes a fuss about it, but doesn't attempt to get into the run. Almost as if he sees us as the alpha.
- he sometimes takes some hens into the spare coop during the day (not sure what they're doing there! )
- he tends to lead them away and into the safer area when there are dogs outside the run

Overall, the flock is very calm and there are hardly any fights and all hens look good. The hens wander around while he stands guard, so I guess he does a good job. And he is viable too; we've hatched eggs with him as father.

Maybe there is no such thing as 'learned' male behavior in chickens and is all behavior innate.
If anyone knows if this is the case, I would like to know too. I am very interested in animal behavior in general.

Cheers,

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Pretty bird... with ingrained positive traits. You've got a good roo.