A bit like people.

Posted by lisa v (Gawler, Australia) on 27 July 2008 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

I live on a chicken farm (just in case you have'nt read my bio - NOT a battery chicken farm). We have about 240,000 chickens here. We are sent new chickens every couple of months. Usually it's all yellow chickens but sometimes the odd black one would slip in there. Say about 1 black one to every 1,000 yellow ones.
They found that the black ones got picked on by the yellow ones. They felt afraid of them or threatened by them or something because they looked different.
So they decided to try an experiment to see if they could get the yellow ones to accept the black ones. They put MORE black ones in, say 1 black one to every 100 yellow ones...and it worked.
They were no longer seen as a threat, the yellow ones got used to seeing the black ones and were'nt so startled by the sudden appearance of a chicken that looked different to the other chickens and none of them were picked on at all.
I don't know about you but I can see parallels with human behaviour here .

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Comments (17)

Kent from Sweden

How sweet it is. My father was a chicken farm with as many chickens as you but I can not remember that I have seen any black among them. So it was interesting to see. Although it might be different breeds. He has his in Denmark
Good picture

27 Jul 2008 5:54am

@Kent: Thank you Kent, that's interesting :)

Masoud Nahali from Tehran, Iran

extremely lovely

27 Jul 2008 6:57am

@Masoud Nahali: Thank you masoud

jess from Australia

thats a pretty amazing story! So much like the human race.
LOVE this little chick!!

27 Jul 2008 8:00am

@jess: Glad you liked it Jess.

Matt Sutton from Sydney, Australia

gorgeous !!

27 Jul 2008 8:23am

@Matt Sutton: cheers matt :)

Kylie Greenan from Richmond, Australia

Sooo cute this little chick, I love the little expression on its face, priceless.

27 Jul 2008 9:46am

Baz from Teglia, United Kingdom

Very interesting caption!

27 Jul 2008 3:47pm

gbe from kansas city, United States

touching photo. and, absolutely fascinating description. the parallels with human behavior seem clear, although i doubt we're as tolerant as chickens - i don't think 1:100 would be a low enough ratio.

27 Jul 2008 4:52pm

@gbe: Mmm, you have a point there.

Kelela from Upland, United States

Sweet image and great caption/description. Interesting to learn about their behavior. Nice job.

27 Jul 2008 6:13pm

danthro from Suburbia, United States

wow, it's kind of like the story of the ugly duckling! cool. and what a cute little chicken, love how soft it looks. used to have a pet chicken for a while when i was a kid (just one hen and one rooster), they're fun but a bit mischievous sometimes :).

27 Jul 2008 9:59pm

@danthro: I used to work with roosters..dreadful things :D

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, United States

so adorable! what a great feeling to hold it in your hand -- life is so amazing! great shot!

28 Jul 2008 2:14am

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, United States

and i just read your description -- simply fascinating... animal and human psyche must correlate. (!) now wouldn't that be a shocker! :)

28 Jul 2008 2:16am

@dj.tigersprout: indeed ;)

Tamara from Fort Myers, FL, United States

So adorable! I am glad he's not going to be picked on anymore! :)

28 Jul 2008 2:07pm

Sasmito from Jakarta, Indonesia

What an innocent creature. Sweet image and priceless description. Thank you

29 Jul 2008 8:21am

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

What's a battery chicken farm? So, chickens are just like humans --can't stand those that are different.

31 Jul 2008 10:04pm

@Twelvebit: Yes, sadly, just like humans. Actually my partner just explained to me that we can't be a battery chicken farm even if we wanted to because we don't do egg production. We used to run a farm that did egg production, but we currently run one which produces meat birds..for eating. Battery chickens are those (in egg production only) which are kept in tiny cages for their whole life instead of roaming free in sheds or outside. On the egg farm we used to run they roamed in sheds and on the one we currently run they do too.

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

That's good to hear, because I detest these factory farms that restrict the movement of animals, and then, in this country at least, inject them full of all kinds of drugs, from growth hormones to antibiotics. I refuse to buy any products of animals that have been injected with drugs and/or penned in cages.

31 Jul 2008 11:22pm

@Twelvebit: I feel the same way. I recently watched the english chef Jamie Oliver's special program on chickens and eggs and will NEVER buy cage eggs again, it was just horrific. I knew before then that it was'nt good conditions but it really brought it home to me. In australia they are not injected with growth hormones.

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

In australia they are not injected with growth hormones

I don't think there is another developed country in the entire world with a government like ours here in the US that has so thoroughly sold out its food supply and the interests of its people to the big corporate interests. Our government won't even allow small cattle producers to test their own cattle for Mad Cow disease --solely because the big corporate interests are afraid that consumers will then demand the same assurances from them. So much for the notion of "free markets" and "competition." And what we allow these factory farms to do to animals has no place in any society that pretends to call itself civilized.

5 Aug 2008 5:02am

Magda from Vancouver, Canada

love the story behind this photo! cute chick! :)

17 Aug 2008 2:40am

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