Okay, so maybe velociraptors *could* learn to open doors...

[cluckitall]

Well. My opinion of chicken intelligence just went way, way up. I so tried to get a picture of this for you guys!!! but my crummy cellphone camera in the low light just wouldn't manage it. Anyway, you know how when your hanging metal feeder starts getting too low you have to give it a good solid jiggle to get the feed to slide out where the hens can get it? Well, my larger partridge rock has figured out the trick -- and has figured out, moreover, that simply batting the base of the feeder around does no good at all.

No, she reaches up, grabs the top lip of the feed container with her beak, and gives a pretty impressive yank! She'll do this three or four times till the feed starts coming out the sides. The others, when she starts this, all back up and wait till she's done, then rush in and start feeding again.

Suddenly I'm very glad she's only one-sixth my height. And no teeth.... Maybe I'll make popcorn and watch Jurassic Park again.

What's the smartest thing you've ever seen your chickens do?

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

I'm worried my barred rocks are smarter than me
When animals are hungry instinct will make them smart

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I've got a batch of Leghorns that have figured out how to unhook one of the three pins that allows the pan to hang on the bottom of the bucket that contains the feed (tube feeder). If they are doing it by accident then they are having that accident every time the feeder runs low because it has become very consistent. Just the birds in that one tractor, not any in the other eight tractors.

Finally bent the pins a bit more sharply to discourage that behavior.

Chickens are not as stupid as we sometimes seem to think. They are just smart in a way different than we are accustomed to.

 

[cluckitall]

A.T., I never thought they were stupid per se -- just you know, chickens.

But yeah, that was a level of problem-solving I didn't expect to see! Now I'm curious to see what they'll do next

 

[cluckitall]

Just the birds in that one tractor, not any in the other eight tractors.

If the other ones start doing it, don't tell me The idea of chicken telepathy scares me!

 

[cluckitall]

Actually, being hungry kicks my "get food NOW" instincts into high gear too!

 

[chickenzoo]

It was getting hot in my feed room slash chick room so I needed something to keep the chickens out but let in air. I bought one of those magnetic screens to go over the doorway. Well that lasted a few days....then the chickens learned if they made a mad dash they could push through it.
So I broke down and got a screen door. That lasted a day. Came out to find a big hole in the corner of the screen and a bunch of guilty chickens hiding in the feed room. Apparently they convinced poor dumb Poppy, my one eyed huge Orphington rooster that is... Well... Mentally slow... To bust thru the door so they could follow thru the hole. As I approached they all scattered....except for Poppy, he was clueless. So needless to say the screen door now has hardware cloth....

 

[cluckitall]

Oh my gosh!! Now those are some seriously determined hens! And conniving... I hope mine don't ever get that organized!

 

[onedoodle3]

If my little flock gets that smart, I'm in BIG trouble!!!

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

Haha! I've got a few ducks that have "learned" how to tell me when they are hungry. They come and sit by me, start nibbling at the ground, and wait. If I don't give them food after that, the repeat it until I do. They do that every morning, and sometimes during the day.