Stupid Chicken?

[thndrdancr]

I think any animal that can learn their name has some sort of intelligence. My first chickens that I kept in the house at night and on very cold winter days (like today) when in town, all knew their names, certain commands, like "time for bed", "get down", "up", "NO" and probably about 20 different words or commands. I had a dog that was not as smart as a few of my chickens have been.

The little silkie I mentioned, I would love to breed her but she is terrified of roosters. She knows her name, learned the rules of the house, never ever pooed in her sleeping box when sleeping (she will "hold" her poo), and is also a wonderful setting hen and a good mom for foster babies. She comes running when I call her name and definitely knows it.
In fact, Lily, Fussy, Red, and Dash all know their names. My other chickens that I havent spent the time with and I just basically threw in the coop when we moved to the country definitely have a much harder time "figuring things out".
Another instance, my town girls I brought out had a dif pen than the "country" group. The door is in the middle of the side for the town girls. Anyone knows the silly things want to gather in a corner. Well my intown girls had it figured out when I let them out to free range on how to get out within about 4 days, just by watching me come and go and by me gently herding them around the door that opens inward.
The country group always would go in the girls pen to see what they had missed, then couldnt figure out how to get out again. I would have to chase them, willy nilly, around and around the darned thing. It took them about two months to get it figured out that the have to go AROUND the door to get out, and not just pace in the corner. I was amazed. Even if they got out on their own five or six times, they still didnt "get it".
My in town girls who had much more human contact would do it about twice and then had it down pat.

 

[prancie]

Half of our yard is fenced for our big dogs and the other half is for the chickens to free range in. As it is getting colder and foraging not as rich as in the summer I wanted them to go in the dogs' yard (sans dogs) to forage one day. They know the dogs are usually in that yard and would not set one foot inside the fence no matter how many treats i tossed in. I had nearly given up when my husband, in plain view of the chickens, loaded the 3 dogs into our SUV and drove off to take them for a run somewhere else. After the car left, the chickens went happily into the dogs' yard and foraged there for several hours. It was uncanny! I decided that though they are not the smartest creatures ever, they are not the stupidest either.

 

[Miss Sebright]

I find chickens to be extreamly intelegent. I had a Silver Sebright (She recently pasted away.) That knew her name, came when called, hid when she thought she was in trouble, knew every type of packageing food could come in, hopped up the stairs if she wanted outside, pooped in the shower, and learned to manipulate me when she wanted something.

 

[flakey chick]

Oooh, I thought of another good example. My girls have learned the squirrel calls for ground and air predators. It took a long while living outdoors. At first I couldn't even get them to understand that dogs and hawks were to be avoided.

 

[RocketDad]

My hens 5 hens all know their names. We have one that is decidedly -um- "less intellectual" than the others. She got lost one day trying to get back to the henyard from being outside. She was so scared she hardly left the coop for 2 days.

 

[JP33]

Quote:
Yep, I have a dumb one also, Cindy. She is very sweet & nestled in my neck the first day I got her, but dumb as a stump compared to my other ones. My wife says I am being mean calling her slow, while at the same time hysterically laughing at Cindy for going in circles trying to figure out how to get into the coop, when all the others (7) have been on the roost for at least 4-5 minutes & two doors, (one huge side door) is open! She does get in, um, eventually.


...JP

 

[rirluvr]

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[Daidohead]

All of my ladies know the sound of a shovel and know what shovels mean....worms. If I drag the shovel on the ground behind me I have 2 EE's that will actually hop on and ride it to where the digging is to be done.

I moved the door to the chicken run 6' farther down the same wall and it took all of my ladies over 4 hours to figure out what happened to their door. They spent hours trying to push through the wire at the old location. It took days before they automaticaly went to the new location.

5 of 8 of my chickens know their name, they respond to ; No ( when they range too far ), Git in there (Mid-day lock-up in their run ),and Bedtime( nightly lock-up )

They never cease to entertain.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I saw in a book about strange research or something like that where a study had been done and they determined that chickens preferred beautiful people. They used photos and a computer. I don't rmemebr exactly how they went about the experiment, but it basically turned out that the chickens selected "attractive" people in photographs" more than unatractive.

 

[jenjscott]

I noticed a new one today. One of my BO roosters was following my dog around the yard. The dog stopped and picked up a pecan and cracked it, ate some of it and left the shelliest part, then moved on to another one. The rooster stood and waited while the dog chewed the first nut, then when she moved to the next one, he moved in and cleaned up the first one, then stood there and waited for the next one.