Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[HiEverybirdy]

The result and maybe the intention of these herding movements to hens and cockerels of another group is to drive them away from; reverse herding.
On the few occasions I've seen the herding fail and the hen get close to the other tribes hens, a hen fight is the usual outcome. I think from the roosters perspective, it's easier to prevent such scraps taking place than if is to break them up.

Maybe, but I've watched Stilton diffuse hen conflict many times, and the wing dropping for Peck is more casual. It's also happening when other hens aren't nearby.

For instance, when Stilton's hens are napping, Stilton might join Peck out in the orchard because his hens are being boring.

It's usually a quick wing drop, which Peck sidesteps, then another wing drop and sidestep, and they go their separate ways. It reads like the beginnings of flirtation, but I'll keep watching.

Who's watching whom?

 

[Shadrach]

What effect do the coops have on the formation of tribes or flocks as opposed to more wild-type (whatever that means in modern chicken societies) chickens?

I don't know. It didn't make any difference in ten years of Catalonia as pictures to come at some point later; I've got thousands to look through
All this most recent topic, flock, tribe, could even wedge in the term borrowed from the crows, murder.

It's things like the above that I set out to observe when when I first met Major (the rooster in my avatar) I spent nine years doing it. My work was outside and most of the day I would have chickens in view.
Suddenly, being of a slightly obsessive nature , there was so much to learn.
I've seen a lot of stuff I haven't really understood. Unfortunately when I first set about this learning process I didn't have a camera, or any idea that one day what I had observed would be of interest to anyone bar the clinically insane.
I found the clinically insane on the internet, here and on other sites.

 

[Shadrach]

I know that. I hope I'm not coming over as if I thought you were.

I am wondering what is the largest number of adult males you've had in one flock at one time though, because almost all your comments seem to relate to the 1-roo flock.

The Marans group had the most males when I started. There were four adult males.
Most adult males from all the groups is nine.
Most males, roosters and cockerels, sixteen.

 

[Shadrach]

For me a tribe is a group that is governed by a common set of rules (laws) and norms; would have rites and rituals that mark membership of the tribe, and rites of passage for joining the tribe; it would be exclusionary of other tribes except by treaty.

You've got humans down to a T there. So, we're tribal, all that wigs and gowns stuff, 18th birthday, language and dialect, treaties...
Yup that's us sure enough so we are tribal.

 

[Perris]

The Marans group had the most males when I started. There were four adult males.

To be sure I've understood you correctly, so that's 4 adult males living together in one group / coop?

Most adult males from all the groups is nine.

And that's 9 adults males living in several (how many?) different groups?

 

[Shadrach]

But I thought your main reason for wanting to use the word tribe is to shake up what other people think when they hear the word flock in order to have them think differently about chicken welfare.

I use the word tribe because what I've observed and so have the studies if you read them carefully and do the math, is tribal behaviour. While the presentation of it may not be as elaborate as the humans, it's there.

 

[Shadrach]

To be sure I've understood you correctly, so that's 4 adult males living together in one group / coop?

Yes.

And that's 9 adults males living in several (how many?) different groups?

Four groups.

 

[Shadrach]

These may help. This is close to the chicken population and tribe membership when I left Catalonia.
I didn't gather them all up from one happy family and glue them in position to make them tribal for the photo shoot.

The most tribes I've had was five, one of which was a pair of rescued Red Sex Link hens.

 

[Shadrach]

Got most of it in the screenshot.
There have been a lot of changes in the past 50 years but my uncles farm was inside the heavy line. The red dots are a best as I can recall, where the free ranger coops were.
A lot of those houses weren't there when I was a lad. The free rangers did wander off the farm from time to time. The river chess bisects the part of the farm on the left and I never saw a free ranger on the other side of the river.
Interesting looking at it now. I haven't been there for years.
I can't remember what mix of breeds the tribes were but they were related at some point and at another point my uncle brought in a trio from a friend of his. Over time they sort of mixed up and at one point there were only two tribes.

 

[Vulpes vulpes]

Let's put some facts and figures to this. Incidentally, they are called flocks in the academic literature, so that is the term I will use.
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https://www.researchgate.net/public...wl_Gallus_gallus_in_Dudwa_National_Park_India


besides friendships, which can exist between hens, between roos, and between hens and roos, this observation has temporal application to do with reproduction
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41336-5

and located them away from each other, creating separate territories

my roos share one territory, without fighting over it or hens. Hens choose roos remember, not vice verse.

Exactly. A lot.


My tree roosting pullets sleep apart from one another about 20' up in the same evergreen bushy conifer and they have to pick their way to their roost spots. They've been doing this without predatory incident since early summer. My tree roosting cockerel roosts alone about 9' up on the highest branches that will hold his weight, in a much smaller evergreen spineless holly. All of them spend their days with the rest of the flock, and are fully integrated members. The flock members who roost in coops do not consistently roost in a specific coop or with specific other birds. Most of them go to roost on their own, look in to see who's already there, decide whether or not to join them and / or move on to the coop next door. Occasionally they will change their minds and exit after someone else has entered and a squabble ensued. It all settles down by sundown, usually. Occasionally a cockerel or roo will emerge in the morning with a minor wound; there are 10 of them in those 4 coops overnight.

I've read that study several times and feel that, while very useful, it sadly lacks a lot of context that would help us make more informed deductions. How many of those flocks were actually several tribes that were together incidentally due to resource availability? The flock of 20 was observed in winter, which is the dry season for most places in southeast Asia. Were they actually just congregating around a source of fresh water or another rare resource? Do domestic "flocks" only stay in the same space because that's where the food is? I wonder if chickens' social behavior changes based on distribution of resources, including but not limited to shelter, water, and food. Feral cats are usually solitary, but will form colonies around stable sources of food (like well-meaning people feeding them). I could easily see both the "flock" and "tribe" configuration being equally "natural," just existing within different contexts.