Why are my birds so dumb?

[ChickenKeep01]

I think my Japanese Bantams are the world dumbest birds. My rooster couldn't figure out how to walk out of a open door and they can escape the padock they free range but they dont in why is this?

 

[LRH97]

I like to think of chickens as smart, but not very intelligent, if that makes sense. I mean take a mother hen for example. How to sit on her eggs, how often to turn them, how to teach the babies; that's all hard-wired into their not-so-big head. However, I've witnessed my birds do similar things to what you described. A few of them spend several minutes scaling the fence of their run trying to find the gate when we let them out to free range. You'd think they would catch on. I mean we do it every day. And there's always the classic case of a chicken hopping the fence, but can't, for the life of them, figure out how to hop it in the opposite direction to get back inside. They're just funny, not-so-bright, creatures!

 

[aart]

If you study bird behavior and spend some time observing with an open mind........that 'dumb' label may change.

 

[ChickenKeep01]

There one other thing my roosters been doing sometimes. He will be standing still calmly then for no reason that I can see he will jump up in the air as high a he can and start running then stop and act like he never did its what is he doing?

 

[aart]

There one other thing my roosters been doing sometimes. He will be standing still calmly then for no reason that I can see he will jump up in the air as high a he can and start running then stop and act like he never did its what is he doing?

Maybe he caught a bug?
How old is he?

 

[ChickenKeep01]

I don't know his exact age but he started mating late August

 

[Weehopper]

They are smart at "chicken" stuff, not human stuff. I think they do ok for a critter that has a brain the size of a pea.

 

[Newmamabear]

There one other thing my roosters been doing sometimes. He will be standing still calmly then for no reason that I can see he will jump up in the air as high a he can and start running then stop and act like he never did its what is he doing?

in my birdie brain I think he is trying to establish which hens are his. If that makes sense. Like he is trying to find which ones look up to him so are more submissive to him. Seeing which of the ladies are his.

 

[ChickenKeep01]

in my birdie brain I think he is trying to establish which hens are his. If that makes sense. Like he is trying to find which ones look up to him so are more submissive to him. Seeing which of the ladies are his.

that dose make sense but he was way out by himself with no hens near him

 

[Shezadandy]

Maybe he caught a bug?
How old is he?

x2 - mine do this when they're catching flies especially.