Chicken behaviour observation

All the pullets and hens at my place go in together for the winter. They mingle and mostly get along.

I have found some breeds tend to kind of hang together, but they are often hatch mates so I explain it by that. I have never really seen definate lines drawn before this year.

I had 1 WhAm pullet hatched in a very early hatch with some PChants and PChant crosses. She has always been a bit skittery and crazy. The breed, I find, can be a little high strung when uncomfortable and I saw that in her everyday.

I got some other WhAms from the states and hatched a few more of my own. I didn't put them into the main coop until a few weeks ago so the 4 pullets I kept from there had nothing to do with the older BlWhAm or the crazy WhAm. Now you would not know the difference. All 6 of them hang together where ever they are. Just a pretty little cream coloured group. I don't know if it is because of their personalities, as they do get picked on a bit, or the colour difference of them. It is very interesting. The older pullet is so happy now and not crazy anymore. Actually they are all very friendly now and come over when I sit out there to see what is up.

Mine are like that too! We call them the snobs, they have their own private coop and no one else is welcome in or near it. They always hang out together, even when they have free range with the rest of the chickens. Pretty little things they are.

Very cute and very interesting. This is also interesting, because I have thought about something that I was going to bring up, over and over and over, but just never got around to it. So now that you have brought it up, I am going to bring it up, smiling.

Chickens do not have a mirror. How do they know what they look like? How do they know that they are buff, black, blue, wheaten, purple, green, whatever....how do birds of a feather stick together.

As you have said, it appears that different breeds have a hankering to hang out together, in little groups.

Of course they can see others that look similar to each other. But really??? How do they know what they look like so they can mingle and hang out with their mirror imaged counterparts. Boggles my mind for surely and have wondered about this and how it could be.

I have thought about this so much, that it has thought about me

I have thought then that maybe different breeds, varieties, whatever, maybe have the same smell. Chickens probably have a very keen sense of smell. What else could it be? They can't look at themselves and think "oh you look like I do, think I'll hang out with ya". So. for surely, how do they know.

Things to ponder on this day. But hey.....I saw some stars out this morning, lots of stars, I didn't see any fog, so maybe this will be a good day for the sun to shine. It has been horrible rainy crappy weather (well except for day before yesterday, but was so freakin' cold out, I really didn't have an inkling to go outside) and it would be nice to have sunshine again. Guess I can go out and ponder a whole lotta chicken stuff, and this may be on my pondering list. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Birds of a feather...

I've noticed it with my silkies. The other birds seem to mix freely, where the silkies seem to move about as a group.

I love going into the coop and night and seeing all the same breeds nicely arranged in little groups together on the roosts. I like to think they have the same accents so recognize one another by the way they speak. But that's just me.

I love old nursery rhymes and sayings and noticed right from when I started farming that most of them are absolutely right.

Birds of a feather - for sure!