Raising chickens has become such a popular activity in recent years that it’s commonplace to see a flock pecking away in the backyard of the family home. The chicken is more than an egg-producing inhabitant of the coop – it’s an intelligent, friendly bird who can easily become a favorite pet. We may love them, but do they love us back, and do they even recognize their owners?
Chickens are able to recognize their owners. It’s an accepted fact that they can recognize over one hundred faces as well as individual members of their flock. Not only do they recognize people, but they can associate those people with positive or negative activities and will react accordingly.
Knowing that chickens can recognize human faces and are capable of emotional responses leads to many further questions. Just how smart is a chicken? Do they get attached to their owners, how do they respond to them, and what else do they recognize? Maybe there’s a lot more to our feathered friends than we realized.
Contents
Just How Smart Are Chickens?
Before we go into detail regarding chickens and how they relate to their owners (and others), we should look at whether they are intelligent enough to consciously behave in a certain way or are they acting instinctively to external stimuli such as food treats.
Some serious study has gone into finding answers to these questions. A detailed study showed that chickens were perceived to be not as intelligent as other birds, but this is not the case. They have cognitive and emotional intelligence equal to other birds and mammals and are capable of feeling boredom, frustration, and fear. On the positive side, they can experience happiness, affection, and even empathy for members of their flock.
Other aspects of intelligence include:
- Numerical cognizance – they have very basic arithmetic capability and can keep track of up to five numbers
- Time awareness – they may anticipate and forecast future events (such as feeding time)
- Complex social interaction – as in establishing a pecking order
- They are able to learn certain skills and develop abilities more quickly than a human child.
How Do Chickens Recognize Their Owners?
If you’re a hands-on owner and see your chickens daily, they’ll soon realize that you’re the bringer of good things like food, water, and treats. They recognize you in several ways:
- Contrary to popular belief, chickens, like most birds, have excellent eyesight, better in fact than humans. So they will certainly know their owners from their appearance, and if the research is correct, they have a preference for symmetrical female faces!
- Chickens will recognize and react to different voices, so if the owner repeats the same phrase or even a name when he approaches a particular chicken, it will soon respond to that voice and may even recognize its name.
- We know that chickens have a moderately well-developed sense of smell, so if the owner has a unique scent, that too will form part of the recognition process.
How Do Chickens React To Their Owners?
There is much debate regarding the behavior of chickens towards their owners and other people they recognize. Much of a chicken’s reaction will be based on past interactions and their perception of the person as the good guy, bringing food and comfort of some sort, or the bad guy who upsets their routine, scares them or hurts them in some way.
Chickens Do Show Affection
Most chicken owners will confirm that chickens can and do feel affection towards their owners. They will show this in several ways:
- They’ll come running up to you as soon as they see you and follow you around. This may be just because they want you to feed them, but this is not always the case.
- They’ll sit on your lap if you come down to their level and possibly rub their beaks on you.
- They will have definite sounds that they use when around you – these may be loud squawks or softer noises, but you’ll get to recognize them.
- They’ll squat down when you approach, which indicates that they’re happy to let you pick them up or pet them.
Some of these behaviors could be attributed to their desire to be fed, but that is discounting the information that proves that chickens have emotional intelligence, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.
Not All Chickens React The Same Way
If we accept that chickens have a complex social hierarchy, and the pecking order certainly provides evidence of that, then where does the owner fit in?
Aggression Shown By The Alpha Rooster
The owner may be loved by most of the chickens in the flock, but is he perceived as one of them, and where in the pecking order does he fit? If there is a rooster at the top of the pecking order, he may see the owner as a challenger. This could lead to aggressive behavior, including physical attacks, in an attempt to show dominance. The only way to solve the issue is to hold the bird gently down on the ground each time he attempts to dominate until he gives up and accepts his lower status.
Reaction From Ill-treated Chickens
If particular chickens have had a negative experience with humans, even if it isn’t the owner, they may not be able to trust him enough to make contact. They may well recognize him but won’t interact.
To get them to recognize you and bond with you will take time and patience:
- Spend as much time as you can afford in the run with the flock
- Talk to the birds so that they get to know your voice
- Don’t try to pick them up too soon, but stroke them when the opportunity arises
- Spoil them with food treats, calling them as you do.
Pretty soon, you’ll have most of the flock running to you when you appear, and you will feel the love.
Conclusion
While some chicken owners feel that the chickens’ behavior towards their owner is more cupboard love than genuine affection, there is no doubt that chickens are capable of recognizing their owner. They are intelligent enough, and studies have shown that they are capable of many emotions, including affection.
Having your birds recognize you has a positive spin-off for you as the owner. A happy and secure flock of chickens is more productive, and accepting you into the pecking order will assist in creating a stable, contented group. And as a bonus, it will give you a tremendous emotional boost!
