Do Chickens Cleanse Their Own Gene Pool?

[dinosaw]

We know about pecking order aggression from chickens and bullying too, sometimes a territorial guarding of feeders can seem like an attempt to starve newcomers when it is in fact about status, territory and feeding rights. However on two occasions I have witnessed what had to be deliberate attempts to starve/drive away an existing member of the flock. At the time these incidents happened there seemed no reason behind what was a huge show of aggression towards an existing flock member but it later transpired that both birds had problems that the chickens had obviously picked up on well before I did. One involved the entire flock attacking a Skyline whenever it came near, the other was a deliberate attempt to starve one third of a Pekin trio by the other 2. In the first case it became apparent a few weeks later that the bird had severe neurological problems, she was seeing predators that weren't there and behaving very oddly, quite disturbing to watch, eventually I had no choice but to cull her. The second instance took a lot longer to figure out as the bird was only 6 months old and seemed healthy, however she proved in time to be completely infertile, I can only presume that her hatch mates had detected this. Any experience of similar behaviour?

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Dinosaw. No I haven't experienced this. We have a completely infertile Gold Laced Wyandotte called Margo. She is 4 years old now and has never laid. The other two don't bother her at all. Obviously her genes won't be transferred.

We have a lovely TNN who is picked on for no reason at all. We had a thoroughly mad TNN hen constantly squawking that had to be despatched because she was attacking everyone else. Her genes won't be transferred, but it wasn't her siblings who saw to that.

 

[Marigold]

It's well known that some dogs can sense or smell cancer in humans, or predict epileptic fits, in fact some dogs have been trained as assistance dogs to do just this. It's therefore quite possible that other species may indeed have the capacity to sense illness in others, one of their survival skills perhaps. In chickens this often leads to pecking, especially if the injury is obvious and blood is shed of course. However I don't think this always manifests as aggression to the weaker bird. We know that hens try to keep up appearances when sick, for fear of being bullied, but many people on here tell stories of a hen keeping company with a sick friend, as if to reassure her.

 

[dinosaw]

Thanks for the replies, interesting that neither of you have experienced it. I mention it as it was very distinct from what happens with a normal illness in a bird where the others either leave them alone or go and sit with them and equally it was very different from normal bullying too. With regards to hens showing sympathy we had a blue pekin who used to behave like a little nurse to the others, whenever any hen fell ill she would sit with them for hours on end, quite sweet to watch her.