What if there was a magic potion to get our chickens to love us?

[azygous]

@Fancy1234 you must be a chicken whisperer. Your chickens have bonded with you. I don't know exactly how chicken love translates, but I have ten hens and one rooster that demand affection and cuddles. If I sit down, I instantly have five hens crowding onto my lap. Even the rooster will fall asleep in my lap.

They wouldn't do it unless they were getting a payoff from it. Oxytocin stimulation in humans makes us feel warm and fuzzy and even euphoric. When mesotocin is triggered in chickens, we don't know how it makes them feel, but it's a good guess it may be something similar.

 

[azygous]

I want to add something interesting to this thread. I don't know the full implications, but in the future, it may be forthcoming. For now, I'm adding this information so we have it. This past summer, I lost three hens, and all three were not fans of their chicken keeper.

Petey was an EE, around five. Oreo was a Black sex-link, about the same age. And Summer was a Cuckoo Marans, age seven. I'm pretty sure all died of reproductive issues.

Often over the years, I've regretted not being able to befriend and tame some of my chickens. I have been aware that those of my chickens that are most friendly and enjoy being handled would probably receive early intervention for illness because of the frequent handling, even though I've developed an "eye" for any chicken that seems to be acting "off". And as it has turned out, three of the four hens in my flock that wouldn't tolerate being touched would end up dying in close succession.

Violet, a five-year old EE is now the only hen left that loathes me. Yes, it's not too strong a word for how this hen behaves if I need to pick her up and look her over. Picture a wild bobcat, flailing feet and wings, screeching uninterrupted the entire time until I set her down. When I'm in the run and Violet sees me approaching, she maneuvers to position herself as far away as she can possibly get, and when it involves passing by me at a choke point, she moves at lightening speed. The rest of the time, Violet is invisible or makes herself seem so. Violet, you're next up, it would seem.

Of course, this isn't enough to reach any conclusions, but there does seem to be a connection between oxytocin/mesotocin and longevity, at least in my chickens. I'm thinking of those hens of mine that reached eleven, twelve, and nearly fourteen years.

Makes you wonder, huh?

 

[Sally PB]

Makes you wonder, huh?

Yes, it certainly does! Thank you for the update.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I want to add something interesting to this thread. I don't know the full implications, but in the future, it may be forthcoming. For now, I'm adding this information so we have it. This past summer, I lost three hens, and all three were not fans of their chicken keeper.

Petey was an EE, around five. Oreo was a Black sex-link, about the same age. And Summer was a Cuckoo Marans, age seven. I'm pretty sure all died of reproductive issues.

Often over the years, I've regretted not being able to befriend and tame some of my chickens. I have been aware that those of my chickens that are most friendly and enjoy being handled would probably receive early intervention for illness because of the frequent handling, even though I've developed an "eye" for any chicken that seems to be acting "off". And as it has turned out, three of the four hens in my flock that wouldn't tolerate being touched would end up dying in close succession.

Violet, a five-year old EE is now the only hen left that loathes me. Yes, it's not too strong a word for how this hen behaves if I need to pick her up and look her over. Picture a wild bobcat, flailing feet and wings, screeching uninterrupted the entire time until I set her down. When I'm in the run and Violet sees me approaching, she maneuvers to position herself as far away as she can possibly get, and when it involves passing by me at a choke point, she moves at lightening speed. The rest of the time, Violet is invisible or makes herself seem so. Violet, you're next up, it would seem.

Of course, this isn't enough to reach any conclusions, but there does seem to be a connection between oxytocin/mesotocin and longevity, at least in my chickens. I'm thinking of those hens of mine that reached eleven, twelve, and nearly fourteen years.

Makes you wonder, huh?

I think your theory is very interesting and plausible. I dont know if the info i will add below has implications either, but will state it just in case. A couple of years ago I first began to have increasing flock losses as many hens reached 5-6 years of age. I consoled myself with the fact that at least my favorites weren't dying. I have lost older favorites since then, but not until they reached 7-8 years of age. (I realize you consider ages 5-8 still fairly young, and i DID too, but have sadly concluded that prolonged and extreme summer heat waves will continue to take out most of my older hens long before they reach ages 13-14 that some of your hens achieved. I concluded this after suddenly losing two top-favorite, seemingly perfectly healthy 8-year-old hens to heat stroke this past summer. Our mutually adoring human/chicken bond wasn't enough to extend their lives any further.) Idk if strong oxytocin/mesotocin bonds play a role in allowing most all of my friendly, favorite hens to enjoy comparatively longer lives than the aloof ones I rarely catch sight of as they go about their busy chicken days. But I still have over 200 chickens (once had over 300), all hens are allowed to live out their natural lives even after egg-laying decreases, and I have seen a clear pattern regarding longer life spans for almost all of my favorites. (The exception has been my red sexlinks. Though I've always adored my very friendly ISA Brown hens, almost all seem doomed to a lifespan of 3ish years due to the high physical toll that daily egg laying takes on their bodies. A mutually strong human/chicken bond has not been able to overcome that fact either.)

One of the things I have yet to really think through and discuss is how chickens may be able to evolve emotionally, much as humans do, and I believe this emotional development is aided by this interesting hormone, mesotocin in birds and oxytocin in humans.

I believe I have clearly witnessed/experienced that. (Chickens evolving emotionally.) After reading this thread, your related article, and knowing that you name all your chicks very soon after you bring them home, I had already intended to mention the following here even before your latest post. I never can think of enough good names for all my chickens, and that even includes some of my favorites. (I have lots of chickens that think their names are "Hey Girl.") But I have seen without exception that once I give formerly shy chickens names and then begin greeting them by name whenever i see them, those chickens eventually begin approaching me instead of running away whenever I am outside, and they begin to make direct eye eye contact with me too. One of the first examples where I noticed this was with a white leghorn hen. She lived her first four years nameless, shy and aloof. But by age four she had outlived all her leghorn siblings and still continued to lay perfectly formed jumbo eggs 5-6 times a week. I decided she deserved a name and so gave her one. Slowly but surely as the weeks passed, she began to bebop toward me with her huge floppy comb, then would stop and stand directly in front of my path. I had no doubt she wanted to hear me tell her yet again how awesome I thought she and her big white eggs were! She passed away two years ago at age 6+. Though exceptional genes surely must have played a role in her reaching a comparatively ancient age for her breed in my climate, I can't help but consider that our oxytocin/mesotocin bond may also have contributed. Pictured below at age 5+ and going strong while in the midst of enduring a week of Texas's all-time record low temperatures. In this photo, this formerly extremely aloof hen was casually sauntering by very close to where I was standing so that I could as always admire and acknowledge her awesomeness. I'm sure the only reason she didn't completely halt was because the temp was 0 degrees and she was cold!

Sometimes when I first begin greeting a chicken with her new name, I clearly observe the eye pinning that @My Very First 6 Chickens mentioned earlier in this thread. Some of those chickens have looked quizzically up at me with pupils that rapidly increase then decrease in size (eye pinning), as if that chicken was asking, "Are you talking to me? You've noticed ME?!" From my observations, I now feel sure that when I name my birds and then follow up by acknowledging them by their names, most of them will quickly become friendlier as associated oxytocin/mesotocin bonds begin to form. After all, we form oxytocin bonds with other people we know as well as the mammalian pets and animal companions we share our lives with, so why would similiar bonds not occur with chickens and other birds too?

I can take my observations even further as of this year's past chick hatching season. I don't take photos of all my beautiful chickens nearly as much as I should for posterity and personal memories, made worse by the fact that many never allow me to get close in the first place. But the fact my chickens photo sessions are fairly rare led to the following obvious, very recent observation too.

This year I home-hatched 30 new pullets, and haven't yet thought of good names for Even One of them. However, I did/do have a bird of questionable gender that resulted in me recently taking lots of pictures of that specific teen-aged bird. At first she/he was very aloof, and I could only take a few pictures from afar. But now, at age 21 weeks old, that chicken regularly approaches and stays nearby, to the point i have concluded it now thinks it is a fashion model. It also makes no protests and quickly relaxes when I pick it up to more closely examine its feathers. It became obvious to me that the chicken has enjoyed and responded to my special direct attention, and as a result is now very trusting and docile. At that same time, there was another new pullet, slightly older, that i think has extremely adorable full muffs and beard. I had attempted to take pictures of that pullet for weeks, but she ran away every single time I approached, and I didn't have even one picture of her. But after spending considerable time (hours actually) trying to get good photos of the questionable gender chicken as well as the second muffed and bearded pullet, miss fluffy-face no longer flees in my presence either. She is still somewhat shy, but nowadays also takes the initiative to sometimes approach and linger underneath my feet, and she makes direct eye contact while ocassionally eye-pinning too.

One of the things I have yet to really think through and discuss is how chickens may be able to evolve emotionally, much as humans do, and I believe this emotional development is aided by this interesting hormone, mesotocin in birds and oxytocin in humans.

Referring again to your words within an earlier post on this thread, I don't know if you and others agree, but the three specific examples I've described definitely seem like developing/deepening mutual emotional evolvement to me. And hmm, after writing this post, the "Hey Girl" below will officially be named Fluffy-face (Fluffy), which should further strengthen our bond. One new pullet named, and therefore, one new oxytoxin/mesotocin bond further evolving, twenty-nine more to go.

 

[azygous]

Thanks for adding such valuable anecdotes to this thread and helping bolstering my theories, even though the theories are in their infancy.

I may spend most of my time on the Emergencies Forum but the Behaviors Forum is my favorite. So much unexplored territory!

Since you brought up the importance of names, I agree that names can be as important to the individual chicken as it is for us to name them. Just this week, I was amazed to discover that I have at least seven or eight hens, in addition to my two roosters, that respond to their names being uttered, not only by looking up at me, but by actually vocally responding. It's been a convenience during molt to have them verify by voice who they are when my little friends haven't been exactly looking like themselves.

But, you really nailed it when you said you've observed your chickens turning into richer versions of themselves because they know they have a name. It is true of people, using their name in conversation strengthens the connection, it also seems to be true with our animals. Going back to my original research on the role of mesotocin in bird flocks, vocalization is an important part of the bonding process. So our chickens learning and hearing their names would make sense that it strengthens our bond with them, and the bond keeps deepening.

So, we're proving here, if nothing else, that naming our chickens is not a silly thing to do.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I want to add something interesting to this thread. I don't know the full implications, but in the future, it may be forthcoming. For now, I'm adding this information so we have it. This past summer, I lost three hens, and all three were not fans of their chicken keeper.

Petey was an EE, around five. Oreo was a Black sex-link, about the same age. And Summer was a Cuckoo Marans, age seven. I'm pretty sure all died of reproductive issues.

Often over the years, I've regretted not being able to befriend and tame some of my chickens. I have been aware that those of my chickens that are most friendly and enjoy being handled would probably receive early intervention for illness because of the frequent handling, even though I've developed an "eye" for any chicken that seems to be acting "off". And as it has turned out, three of the four hens in my flock that wouldn't tolerate being touched would end up dying in close succession.

Violet, a five-year old EE is now the only hen left that loathes me. Yes, it's not too strong a word for how this hen behaves if I need to pick her up and look her over. Picture a wild bobcat, flailing feet and wings, screeching uninterrupted the entire time until I set her down. When I'm in the run and Violet sees me approaching, she maneuvers to position herself as far away as she can possibly get, and when it involves passing by me at a choke point, she moves at lightening speed. The rest of the time, Violet is invisible or makes herself seem so. Violet, you're next up, it would seem.

Of course, this isn't enough to reach any conclusions, but there does seem to be a connection between oxytocin/mesotocin and longevity, at least in my chickens. I'm thinking of those hens of mine that reached eleven, twelve, and nearly fourteen years.

Makes you wonder, huh?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

My 5 GLW's will be 3 yrs in this May. I have had the utmost pleasure of spending every single day with them since. Rain is the only thing that has kept me from letting them out. In the past 3 months i started a job that has me coming home after dark. I will always go check the chooks when i get home. I stick my head in the hen house hole and make sure i head count. The girls have been sleeping in the nest boxes with curtains so I cant see all of them. So, i say names. I say names and i will get a response. Its a very short 2 words but its all I need to hear to know they are ok. Each hen has a unique voice. Like i said before, I have spent my first 2 years with these hens all day and can approach my resting flock, look at a hen, say her name, and when she looks at me, when i hold the stare, she will make a tiny double noise that when she says it, makes her back half of her body do a small movement that i have come know as a sign or response of contentment. The entire interaction is me looking at said hen, saying her name, hold eye contact, and wait for that little double noise and the rise of her back half. I love chickens.

 

[azygous]

I hear chickens are becoming therapy animals now. 'Bout time.

 

[NanaK]

I hear chickens are becoming therapy animals now. 'Bout time.

Yes, 'bout time more people took notice!

My chickens have acted as therapy animals for me for a long time.
They are very good at it too!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

i never handled my chickens when i got them. They were so tiny and fragile, i didnt want to hurt them. Also, they didnt want to be picked up and i respected that. Soooo, i know my chickens gravitate towards me in general, but give me a hard time when wanting to pick them up. So i chase them. I chase them in a small circle round and round. Chased chicken will chat while running round and round the flock with me chasing arms outstretched saying come here chicken, come come come. This makes me laugh as they dodge in and out of the small flock trying to get mixed up in the mix of chickens. Its a very small circle they run around. Almost like they enjoy this little activity. Its ring around the rosie is really what it is. i have a couple hens that will run a couple feet and then give me and let me pick them up. Thats when i snuggle them and get all up in the fluff! Its been cold and these gals are warm!!