AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Could the little chookie be depressed because it's siblings died a tragic death and is starving itself? Or was he always on the small side?

I will say a prayer...

Hi PP,

I'm a little skeptical attributing emotions to birds. I can imagine happy when they get fed, not happy when they don't and fright when they hear a loud noise, that's about all I attribute to my chooks. The 3 plymouths were all developing around the same rate and I haven't noticed it going off it's feed since the other 2 died, particularly as the two white ones have always been in the same pen, so I don't think it's pining. I do think it has been sick for a while and I just haven't noticed.

ww

Hello, Mr. wickedwing ,

I recently read that chooks have the same intelligence as dogs and cats and even some primates as they are cognitively advanced. They can solve complex problems, communicate with over 30 types of vocalisations, they form friendships with each other in complex social structures, can recognise one another, feel one another's pain, take care and nurture their off spring and show distress if their chicks are endangered and have eggcellent memories. They have distinct individual personalities and mostly respect their hierarchical positions in their pecking order. Don't underestimate their intelligence.

Hope you sick chook is getting better and stronger.

And the chicken that authored that paper was?


OK, if you happen to track down that info again I would be interested to read it. Thanks PP.

Here you go, for your perusal ...

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used ... ckens.aspx

http://www.chickenindustry.com/cfi/intelligence/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ani ... ence-expan

Hello wickedwings I will put my two pennith worth in here.
First example:
I had a large pen that housed 1 cockerel and 5 hens (all Plymouth Rock) the cockerel was about 10 or 11 months old at the time. I went out one morning to find 4 dead hens in the pen the cockerel was lying at the entrance to the coop and much the worse for wear but still alive, in the nest box was the 5th hen who was broody and still alive and sat tight on her eggs. On inspection the cockerel had a damaged eye and limped on one leg, it seems that he had keep the fox a bay. Although there was no sign off any other damage he would only lay there making no attempt to move, over the next week or so I would sit with him at different times and hand feed him as best I could, not a lot changed although there was some improvement. After about 2 weeks the eggs hatched and the hen brought the chicks out from the nest, well from that point on the cockerel started to improve in leeps and bounds ande within a few days he was a doting father looking after his kids. He ended up being blind in the damaged eye and had a permanant limp.
Two years later not long after your rocks hatched the fox again got into the pen and I lost the lot.

Second example:
I had a young pair off bantams the cockerel had been sick a couple of times but came good again on both occasions, on the third time I found him dead in the pen one morning. The pullet was lying quietly beside him and would not move until I picked him up for removal.

I don't believe anyone who says that chooks don't display emotion and don't have feelings towards one another, you have only to sit and watch them to see what's going on.

Back to the rooster in the first example, he turned out to be my best right hand man. When they were let out to wander around the paddock I would go out late afternoon with a bucket of scratch mix and head for the pen with them all following. On odd occasions one or two off the hens would be missing, I would just sit down on a milk crate that was kept in the pen for that purpose and sit and watch. After a bit of a scratch the rooster would count the hens and realise some were missing, he would start crowing in the direction that they had been. If the missing hens didn't turn up he would head off at a run (limp and all) back to where they were. I would just sit and watch and before to long the missing girls could be seen running at full speed back towards the pen with the rooster behind.
Once back in the pen the hens would mingle with the others scratching for seed and keeping a low profile and now doubt thinking they had got away with ignoring the boss. How wrong they would be, he would scratch around getting his breath back then wander over to the offenders one at a time and give them a couple of hard pecks to the back of the head just to remind them who was boss.

I have had my little say now so I will leave you to ponder on whether chooks have emotions or not.

Hi Lazy,
Thanks for the detailed response, apparently I have a lot more to observe about chicken social structures and the associated anthropomorphism.

and PP,
Thanks for the links, I'll check those out later.

ww

Last May we had a really freezing cold snap in Victoria, Boss Chookie was only 6 months old when she caught a cold, and nearly her death. We started her on medication but she wasn't improving. Mr. Rooster would get really distressed when we tried to isolated her and would crow non stop so we moved her back in with him as the Alektorophbic neighbours complained about the noise.

One day when she was gravely ill she and Mr. Rooster had dug and hole and lay side by side motionless and deathly quiet for hours with The Pretty One just standing and watching. It was like they had made a death pact, a sort of Romeo and Juliet of chickens. We thought that they were going to die together.

My mum found her cold and limp a corner of the coop the next morning and brought her into the house to warm her up by the fire and feed her some steak on her lap. She got in trouble because someone told her that Boss Chookie was only a chook and she shouldn't have brought her in the house, mum said that she couldn't leave her to die.

We recently gave Boss Chookie's chicks away(they were 8 weeks old). My mum took them away to give to someone who had lost their chooks on Black Saturday and Boss Chookie has been making sad clucking noises, and hiding and burying her eggs, I think she is scared that they will be taken away from her too. Mr. Rooster has been attacking my mum whenever she is near The Lavender Gang's hutch. He has been going for he weak point, the knee that she injured.

There are more to a chooks psyche that people think. Talk to your chooks and listen to them...