What's The "Smartest" Thing You've Seen a Chicken Do?

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In the link that above, one of the posters wondered what kind of research showed that chickens can count or have numerical abilities. There have been quite a few studies that support that birds have numerical abilities. Here is a link to info on a study that shows young chicks know the difference between "less" and "more." There is even a short video.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/apr/01/chicks-mathematics-arithmetic-sums
 
We have had over 100 views of this thread since just yesterday to total 4471 views and counting, but not a single smart chicken story added
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Maybe I will have to start training my chickens to provide more material for the thread.


Oh well, to satisfy my need for tales of clever chickens, I found another thread about a smart chicken and peanuts:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=42122
 
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I know, scratch 'n' peck, I love this thread! Our chickens are of course remarkably adept and intelligent, but I can't think of a darn thing at the moment. I'm sure I'll think of it when I go to bed
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One thing: our crazy rooster with a stubby tail always lets us know if the water tips over. He has a distinct crow for it, and even my husband (whose spare time does not revolve around chickens) knows what he means now.
 
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That's a good one. I would say your rooster is perfecting his human training techniques.

Here is a story of my own, I don't know if it demonstrates much chicken intelligence, but it is kind of interesting. My Cochin Colette is an internal layer who somehow lived with this condition for well over a year. She loves her treats and still likes to waddle around outside. Her belly is very distended, however, and because she has lost her feathers on her belly, the other chickens like to peck at it. I had to set up a kennel for her. Although she gets time to wander around out side of her kennel, I wanted to provide her with some mental stimulation when she needs to be in there alone. I put big mirror at the end of the kennel. For the fist few minutes she put up a squawk, and I figured she thought her reflection was another chicken. [ Even chimps who are presented with a mirror for the first time initially think their reflection is another chimp, and then over time they figure out they are looking at a reflection.] So I got into the kennel with Colette, and once she saw my reflection along side her reflection she calmed down right away. Now I am not saying that she experienced self recognition, but she seemed to have a "light bulb moment" in which she realized that her reflection in the mirror was not another chicken at least.

Here is a link to a mirror self-recognition experiment done with magpies: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2008/08/19-01.html
 
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I dont know if shes smart but i have a love hate relationship with one of my tera tints she loves to come inside and make herself cozy and i hate when the kids keep leaving the door open for her.
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I consider it "training"
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but I can be anywhere and shake the bag of
scraps and all the girls will come running!

And it always amazes me that at 7pm all the hens are in the back area
around the coops, and then at exactly 7:15 all the hens are in the coops for the night.

Lynne
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