Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Fawnpuppet]

So, here's a question for people to think about.

Was Mr Young right and battery hens are not proper chickens?
If he was right, given their breeding, the fact they are hatched in their millions in incubators, have never aquired the skills and knowledge that broody reared, free range chickens do, are never likely to reproduce naturally.
Could they ever learn how to be proper chickens, particulalry given they have such short life spans in which to learn given the opportunity?

Is someone who was/is severely abused (or, may I add with respect, those who are considered mentally handicapped/disabled) not considered a person? They may act and behave differently and never live a "normal" life, but does that make them considered any less of a person?
Of course, this question assumes anthropomorphic thinking.

As for me, I believe they are true chickens, even if they were put into an environment that was not conducive to learning what we consider proper chicken behaviors. At their core, they are chickens.
Could they learn true chicken behaviors? I don't believe they all have the ability to fully overcome what they learned. You are always going to see some of those traits. Some will be better than others and "recover" better, but on average, I don't personally believe they can learn a whole new set of skills. Why? I couldn't tell you. Genetics? Because they are animals and not "sophisticated" humans? Some other reason? A combination of all the above? I'm not sure.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Is someone who was/is severely abused (or, may I add with respect, those who are considered mentally handicapped/disabled) not considered a person? They may act and behave differently and never live a "normal" life, but does that make them considered any less of a person?
Of course, this question assumes anthropomorphic thinking.

As for me, I believe they are true chickens, even if they were put into an environment that was not conducive to learning what we consider proper chicken behaviors. At their core, they are chickens.
Could they learn true chicken behaviors? I don't believe they all have the ability to fully overcome what they learned. You are always going to see some of those traits. Some will be better than others and "recover" better, but on average, I don't personally believe they can learn a whole new set of skills. Why? I couldn't tell you. Genetics? Because they are animals and not "sophisticated" humans? Some other reason? A combination of all the above? I'm not sure.

This kind of mirrors my initial thoughts, but I think they could probably become "proper" chickens, but not probably over a span of generations. Not unlike people. Trauma in people is often cyclical. It may take some serious reeducation and a generation or two to break the cycle. I imagine it's possible for chickens to break the cycle with the help of older "proper" chickens to show them how. Feral cats can be reformed. Poorly socialized dogs. Maybe little chickens, too?

 

[Fawnpuppet]

This kind of mirrors my initial thoughts, but I think they could probably become "proper" chickens, but not probably over a span of generations. Not unlike people. Trauma in people is often cyclical. It may take some serious reeducation and a generation or two to break the cycle. I imagine it's possible for chickens to break the cycle with the help of older "proper" chickens to show them how. Feral cats can be reformed. Poorly socialized dogs. Maybe little chickens, too?

If we are looking at generations, yes, I agree that they can fairly easily learn non-battery hen behaviors. I was assuming just the one generation with no reproduction since that's what was mentioned in the initial question

 

[Shadrach]

Is someone who was/is severely abused (or, may I add with respect, those who are considered mentally handicapped/disabled) not considered a person? They may act and behave differently and never live a "normal" life, but does that make them considered any less of a person?
Of course, this question assumes anthropomorphic thinking.

As for me, I believe they are true chickens, even if they were put into an environment that was not conducive to learning what we consider proper chicken behaviors. At their core, they are chickens.
Could they learn true chicken behaviors? I don't believe they all have the ability to fully overcome what they learned. You are always going to see some of those traits. Some will be better than others and "recover" better, but on average, I don't personally believe they can learn a whole new set of skills. Why? I couldn't tell you. Genetics? Because they are animals and not "sophisticated" humans? Some other reason? A combination of all the above? I'm not sure.

This is what I would love to put to the test. I think it would take a couple of generations at least. There isn't anything to be done about the genetic factors unfortunatly. We've ruined that for them. But, behaviours, I think in the correct environment they would learn.

 

[DobieLover]

I don't personally believe they can learn a whole new set of skills. Why?

I think the reason 'Why' is that all creatures have windows of development. You miss the window to acquire a skill and you will likely never learn it properly if exposed to it later in life.
For language, both verbal and body, this has been shown to be true; also with social skills. I can attest to that with my nephew who is very socially awkward at 31 as he was never exposed to children his age until he entered kindergarten and by then he hadn't learned how to properly behave around others.
If the same could be said for these ex batts, I would think the ex batts integrated into a flock of "normal" chickens may be slightly better off recovering than those that are not. Offspring from those birds may express more typical chicken behaviors sooner having had "normal" chickens around to teach the ex batts.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I don't understand the 'never reproduce' part with the battery hens. Do you mean they will never brood? Or never stay still enough to be mounted?

 

[NatJ]

I don't understand the 'never reproduce' part with the battery hens. Do you mean they will never brood? Or never stay still enough to be mounted?

I assumed that was due to how they were being raised: the people did not want any chicks from those hens, so every egg was collected and got eaten by someone.

 

[sourland]

I assumed that was due to how they were being raised: the people did not want any chicks from those hens, so every egg was collected and got eaten by someone.

Hatcheries tend to want birds that produce eggs consistently - broody hens are generally culled from the flocks removing those genes. That being said, way back when I was a kid I helped out on an egg production farm and occasionally a leghorn would go broody. I wonder if that still happens with hatchery bred birds.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I assumed that was due to how they were being raised: the people did not want any chicks from those hens, so every egg was collected and got eaten by someone.

Ueah, but that part would be almost too easy to rectify in that case. Just don't collect every egg.

Hatcheries tend to want birds that produce eggs consistently - broody hens are generally culled from the flocks removing those genes. That being said, way back when I was a kid I helped out on an egg production farm and occasionally a leghorn would go broody. I wonder if that still happens with hatchery bred birds.

I have tons of hatchery birds go broody. Staying broody and not cooking the eggs by accident is a bit tougher though with them, especially the first year

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have never been exposed to Battery? hens.
Grandma and I just had Leghorns some white some brown. .
After moving out here. We had large Leghorns and Rhode Island reds growing up.