The Hidden Lives of Chickens

[memegarden]

Apparently chickens have culture--they teach their chicks acquired knowledge. Article on chicken intelligence here; it's a pro-veganism site, so can be expected to be biased, but it cites its sources. Thanks to moderately_mad for the link.

Comments

anecdotal commentary

[corivax]

I grew up on a farm, and we had chickens at various times. Their apparent intelligence actually seemed to vary a lot. One thing I noticed is that we'd buy them as chicks in batches of two or three dozen, and raise them and keep them four or five years, and each "batch" seemed to be about the same intelligence level.

One group were quite definitely pets. They'd follow my brother and I about a mile to the bus stop, wander around pecking at things until the bus showed up, and then wander home. They'd meet us there when the bus dropped us off, and made a lot of noise when they saw it. They'd chase bits of string, cooperate to get out of their cages, gang up to chase dogs off the property (but not our working dogs, who didn't harrass them, just the neightbor dog who liked to chase them) and showed distinct idiosyncrasies. (One of them liked to eat ramps (a wild allium) so much her eggs took on a distinct garlicky flavor. This made for at least one batch of truly awful brownies.) They'd peer in the windows when the humans were making food

Re: anecdotal commentary

[jehannamama]

Yes, I agree and have found that it's the case - if they get a lot of interaction, as mine did when my kids and I would play with them when they were small, then they do bond and are pets and do seem much more intelligent even when they are raised from the nest by the hen, versus raised by hand in a cage

Re: anecdotal commentary

[singingnettle]

All psych experiments on any species they've done them indicate that brains need stimulation in order to develop intelligent behavior, so why not chickens?

Re: anecdotal commentary

[moderately_mad]

Okay, I'm adding you to my flist now. (Along with everyone else that responded to this post.) I am a sucker for people who know chickens.

[singingnettle]

Our mice had culture. We had one mouse who had the habit of putting her toys in her dish at night before she turned in, and she taught her young cage mates to do it, and they taught their cage mates after she died and we gave them new cage mates, and they taught the next young'uns, and soon we had a whole community of mice who cleaned up their rooms before they went to sleep. I bet they talked about mythical Grandma mouse, too.

[memegarden]

That's just adorable.

[moderately_mad]

Okay, I'm adding you to my flist now. (Along with everyone else that responded to this post.) I am a sucker for people who relate stories of observed animal culture.

I, myself, did not have good luck with mice. Maybe it was because they sensed they were being kept for snake food. They became cannibals despite having multiple water bottles, dens, food dishes, exercise wheels, etc. They had a large cage, healthy treats and frequent litter changes. I thought they'd breed nicely. They didn't.

I imagine they didn't talk about Grandmother-Mouse but, rather, Kali-Mouse.

I like your story better than mine :D

[memegarden]

I used to have a mouse named Probably Portnoy. He had a four-square checkerboard pattern on his back in white and dark grey. I made him labyrinths out of toilet paper tubes and tape.