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Sparrow, 3\/22\/25 (photo by Janet Barocco)<\/em><\/p>\n My wife Janet and I started keeping chickens 14 years ago; we currently have four. Since we eat eggs, we figured we should take some responsibility for how those eggs come to us (I went vegetarian at age 20 once I realized the cruelty and suffering involved in producing the hamburgers I devoured). We wanted to see whether we could obtain eggs ethically and in a way that gave us more connection with our food. And, as bird lovers, we wanted to get to know some hens.<\/p>\n Lately, with egg prices soaring, there\u2019s widespread interest in keeping chickens as a way of saving money. That was not our purpose, and raising hens hasn\u2019t lowered our food bills\u2014though they do give us plenty of lovely eggs. We invested in a secure chicken house and a covered run big enough to give our girls space to scratch and dust-bathe when it\u2019s raining (on most days, we let them roam everywhere in our backyard except the vegetable garden, which they would happily destroy if they could). We feed them the best organic chicken feed. And we take them to the vet if required (one of our sweetest hens ever, Silvie, needed a hernia operation, a significant expense; that happened a year ago, and she\u2019s fine now). We haven\u2019t tried to calculate how much each egg costs us, but it\u2019s more than a pittance.<\/p>\n There\u2019s both good and sad to report from our years of living with hens. But we\u2019re still at it and still learning.<\/p>\n One of the biggest payoffs of our hen hobby is the experience of living with alien creatures. Chickens aren\u2019t much like dogs or cats. Birds have brains that are organized differently from mammalian brains, and birds see colors we can\u2019t register. Chickens communicate vocally with about 25 different calls, screams, whines, cackles, purrs, and clucks. Janet and I spend a lot of time trying to understand what our hens are thinking and feeling, and we\u2019ve learned a little about what motivates them.<\/p>\n Food<\/em> is certainly at or near the top of the list. Chickens display extraordinary enthusiasm for food and are vigorously competitive whenever any treat is on offer. Their motto: eat fast and ask questions later.<\/p>\n Reproduction<\/em> sometimes takes top priority in the hen brain. We don\u2019t keep roosters, since we live within city limits and an ordinance forbids them. Nevertheless, we have outlaw neighbors with roosters, and we are reminded daily that the male of the Gallus gallus domesticus<\/em> species can indeed make a lot of noise. Roosters are required for fertile eggs, but in the absence of males, hens lay anyway. Some of our hens go broody occasionally, spending a couple of weeks sitting in their nest trying to incubate eggs that aren\u2019t there, because we\u2019ve collected them and put them in our refrigerator. Broody hens need special care, as they tend not to eat enough to keep themselves healthy. The hens often squat for us, as they would for a rooster wishing to copulate; when they do, we give them a backrub to partially fulfill their instinctive need\u2014and to take advantage of a receptive moment when we can pet them or pick them up.<\/p>\n Curiosity<\/em> may be proverbially associated with cats, but we\u2019ve found that chickens are perpetually inquisitive. They spend a large portion of each day exploring every corner of our yard, scratching in the dirt and digging holes. What\u2019s down there? Who knows what might turn up?<\/p>\n Cleanliness<\/em> requires effort. Sometimes chickens and other birds roll around in the dust as a way of discouraging mites and other pests (spa day!); afterward they shake their feathers in satisfaction. Feather maintenance is always a priority, and time must be devoted daily to preening. The versatile and sensitive beak must be cleaned occasionally by carefully wiping it on a hard surface (or our pants). Chickens and humans have very different ideas about cleanliness, but hens do care about it in their own way.<\/p>\n Affection<\/em> might not be the strongest chicken motivator, but it certainly deserves to be listed. At first, we thought our chickens\u2019 seeming enjoyment of human cuddles was merely a clever way of begging for more food treats. But long-term observation has shown us that some hens are just as affectionate as any dog or cat, and that food is not a strategic goal of cuddles. One of our hens, Lulu (more about her below) demands at least one cuddling session every day, and will sit in your lap for half an hour or more, soaking up love and offering all the hugs she can give, considering that she has wings rather than arms. Silvie is a cuddler too, but less demanding in that regard than Lulu. The hens\u2019 affection for one another is a little more complicated, as we\u2019re about to see.<\/p>\n Stella: avian elegance 4\/22\/2025 (Photo by Janet Barocco)<\/em><\/p>\n Chickens are highly social creatures and instinctively establish a pecking order: one hen occasionally pecks others on the back of the head (often when everyone is eating) to show her dominance.<\/p>\n Lulu is at the top of the social ladder, and she\u2019s a big, loud, confident hen. Friends have asked us whether chickens have individual personalities; the best answer is an introduction to Lulu. She is bossy around the other hens and demanding toward us. If she wants treats or cuddles, she lets us know by screaming\u2014sometimes for minutes at a time\u2014and, unfortunately, she\u2019s as loud as any rooster. Being the top hen comes with perks, but duties as well. It\u2019s up to Lulu to keep social order, watch for danger, and manage relations with the humans.<\/p>\n Stella and Sparrow\u2014of rare designer breeds, while Lulu and Silvie are Orpingtons\u2014are smaller, lower in the order, and relatively quieter and more skittish. Whenever Lulu is close by, they must be wary of a peck. But they\u2019re not constantly bullied and seem to be happy, well-adjusted hens. They know the order and get their needs met within it. Sparrow is a cute comedian, always evoking chuckles from us humans. Stella is a self-reliant, industrious, elegant loner; she\u2019s the smallest of our hens and has a scratchy voice but lays big pastel green eggs.<\/p>\n Some of our clearest insights into chicken social behavior come at dusk, as the hens enter their house and choose a spot on the perch. Who gets to sleep where, and next to whom? The lineup is different every night, and each night there are several tense minutes of jockeying. Sparrow seems to love snuggling up against big, fluffy Lulu, despite the prospect of a peck. Stella likes ascending the henhouse ladder last, and, though low in the hierarchy, usually gets her choice of sleeping spot. Always-agreeable Silvie (our vet called her \u201ca very personable chicken\u201d) just takes whatever space is available.<\/p>\n The whole gang: Stella, Lulu (front, naturally), Silvie, and Sparrow, 4\/22\/2025 (photo by Janet Barocco)<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been astounded to learn the degree to which chicken evolution has been hijacked by humans. Genes matter, and for thousands of years people have been wittingly or unwittingly selecting chickens for humanly desirable traits.<\/p>\n Often, chickens pay a price. Humans want eggs; so, they breed hens that lay up to 300 of them a year\u2014an astonishing feat. Laying an egg is no small matter. It literally takes a lot out of you. While wild relatives of the domestic chicken can live 20 years, most commercial hens live short lives, often (when they\u2019re not killed for meat) perishing after two to five years. And while they\u2019re pumping out those eggs, they can easily suffer from nutritional deficiencies and bone problems.<\/p>\n People have also bred chickens for size, feather and egg color, and behavior (I\u2019ll refrain from discussing the commercial chicken meat industry, which has its own breeding priorities). Indeed, breeding has created more extreme varieties of chicken than of any other animal species except Canis lupus familiaris <\/em>(dog).<\/em> All our most affectionate hens have been Orpingtons of one sort or another: no accident, as most Orpingtons tend to be friendly.<\/p>\n Is it right for one species to interfere so much with the evolution of another? Not many humans seem interested in entertaining the question. One could conclude that chickens have benefitted from their relationship with people: Gallus gallus<\/em> is by far the most numerous bird species (there are nearly 30 billion of them). So, humans have contributed to chickens\u2019 evolutionary success. But that success depends entirely on chickens\u2019 continued utility to a capricious ape whose overall activities are wrecking the biosphere. My advice: if you love feathered creatures, keeping chickens can teach you a lot about them, but you\u2019ll do far more for this broad class of animals by creating or restoring habitat for wild birds.<\/p>\n In 14 years, we have gotten to know 10 hens and can recall each one (Janet has painted individual portraits of most of them). We\u2019ve witnessed sad deaths, but also beautiful lives. Chickens are smart, emotional animals. They can decimate local insect populations, but they are resilient and courageous. They deserve our respect.<\/p>\n Oh, did I mention the poop? There\u2019s lots of it. Everywhere. Every day. It\u2019s good for the compost pile and the garden.<\/p>\n Andrew Lawler, Why the Chicken Crossed the World<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Sy Montgomery, What the Chicken Knows<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Melissa Coughey, How to Speak Chicken<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Theodore Xenophon Barber, The Human Nature of Birds<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Gail Damerow, Storey\u2019s Guide to Raising Chickens<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Page Smith and Charles Daniel, The Chicken Book<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Alice Walker, The Chicken Chronicles<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Joseph Barber, The Chicken: A Natural History<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Clea Danaan, The Way of the Hen: Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n www.backyardchickens.com<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Motivates a Chicken?<\/h3>\n
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<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Politics of Hens<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nGenerous Teachers<\/h3>\n
Recommended reading:<\/h3>\n