Chickens Have Cognitive Abilities

CHOE Studies prove chickens do have cognitive abilities! Includes test results, expert opinions, and our featured video showing how smart chickens really are and how easy it is to train them. Watch the video below: Chick Training.

Chickens have cognitive abilities

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Chickens have Cognitive Abilities
By Rev. Penny Dean/Chicken Heaven On Earth Studies
Dec. 2011
Studies indicate that chicken cognitive abilities are far more advanced than previously thought. CHOE Tests were conducted from March 2006-March 2011

Bird's tested in CHOE Study Chickens have cognitive abilities
  • 50 hens were tested daily during this period
  • 25 roosters were tested daily during this period
No animals were harmed in any way during testing
No drugs or chemical alterations were performed on the chickens
Chickens trained easily using positive reinforcement
Chickens were trained using positive reinforcement (praise and food for positive behavior) and the word "no" for negative behavior.
The chickens in these tests were observed 24 hours a day. Studies indicate that chickens have exhibited advanced Cognitive Capabilities. See results below.

CHOE Test Results on Chicken Cognitive Abilities

Results of Testing:
Observations of Chicken Cognitive Abilities at CHOE:
Studies at Chicken Heaven On Earth have indicated that chickens do have cognitive abilities. Out of a group of 30 hens, 12 roosters, and 10 baby chicks which were observed over a five year period-all of them demonstrated advanced cognitive abilities equivalent to those of small children with some adult characteristics.

  • Have family structures and hierarchies
  • Systematically check boundaries
  • Systematically check every angle when trying to jump to a higher perch
  • Baby chicks were taught tricks (climb the ladder, peek-a-boo, play dead, give a kiss) in less than five minutes and they retained this knowledge to repeat the tricks on command until adulthood
  • 25 and 12 rooster's were taught to go to bed on command
  • 10 hens were paper potty trained and 5 roosters were trained to go to the door when they needed to potty
  • All of the chickens tried to imitate sounds of speech although they were limited by the inability to pronounce consonants due to the shape of their beaks
  • 12 Roosters were trained to crow after 9:00 in the morning
  • All of the chickens demonstrated the ability to imitate voice inflections (questioning tone, laughing, sad, angry)
  • All of the chickens were taught (in a group) to say "something good" if they wanted a snack. Those who did not say it did not get a snack and the next time they were asked if they wanted something good they clearly tried to say the words and received the snacks. After that every time they wanted a snack they would come to the door and say, "something good?" in a questioning tone of voice.
  • Chickens appear to have the intelligence level of small children.
  • Chickens have some social instincts seen in children and adults

Today's Verse

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6     

Featured Video: Chick Training

Expert Opinions About Chicken Cognitive Abilities

Expert Opinions
  • "]t is now clear that birds have cognitive capacities equivalent to those of mammals, even primates.”

Rogers LJ, The Development of Brain and Behaviour in the Chicken (Wallingford, Oxon, U.K.: CABI Publishing, 1995, p. 217). Rogers LJ, The Development of Brain and Behaviour in the Chicken 
(Wallingford, Oxon, U.K.: CABI Publishing, 1995, p. 217).“Dr. Joy Mench, Professor and Director of the Center for Animal Welfare at the Univ. of Calif. at Davis states,\:
  •  ‘Chickens show sophisticated social behavior….That’s what a pecking order is all about. They can recognize more than a hundred other chickens and remember them. They have more than thirty types of vocalizations.’”

Specter M, “The Extremist,” The New Yorker, April 14, 2003, p. 64. 
  • "When in their natural surroundings, not confined to factory farms, chickens form complex social hierarchies, also known as "pecking orders," and every chicken knows his or her place on the social ladder, remembering the faces and ranks of more than 100 other birds. Scientists agree that chickens' complex social structures and good memories are undeniable signs of advanced intelligence comparable to that of mammals." Peta.Org 
Chickens worry about the future. article by  Jennifer Vegas of Discovery News article proves chickens anticipate rewards and exhibit cognitive abilities. Biophysics group proved chicken intelligence with colored buttons and show that chickens will wait for a larger reward which shows obvious cognitive abilities.
  • "Abeyesinghe, a member of the Biophysics Group at the UK's Silsoe Research Institute, and her colleagues tested hens with coloured buttons.

    When the birds pecked on one of the buttons, they received a food reward.

    If the chicken waited 2 to 3 seconds, it received a small amount of food. If the bird held out for 22 seconds, it received a "jackpot" that paid out with much more to eat.

    "In their natural environment it may pay to get food while you can, before someone else does," says Abeyesinghe.

    "But counter to this, we found that when a much larger food reward was delivered for the jackpot condition, hens chose it over 90% of the time, ruling out that they have absolutely no awareness of the near future."  Peta.org

The Hidden Lives of Chickens

The Hidden lives of Chickens. Peta.org"
Scientists agree chickens have complex social structures and good  memories.
  • "When in their natural surroundings, not confined to factory farms, chickens form complex social hierarchies, also known as "pecking orders," and every chicken knows his or her place on the social ladder, remembering the faces and ranks of more than 100 other birds. Scientists agree that chickens' complex social structures and good memories are undeniable signs of advanced intelligence comparable to that of mammals." Peta.Org

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