She is still alive to this day, and is currently two years old and some. She can't even roost with the rest of the chickens because they just peck her until she leaves. There was 7 inches of snow outside this winter and she was still outside.Īs if she didn't need further humiliation, she was beaten by a pullet that she challenged to a fight. During the winter, while the other chickens are enjoying the coop's protection, you will find her hiding under a bush. She has to sneak into the coop when the rest of my chickens are absent in order to eat. I say basically because if she doesn't play dead on the spot, she boots it out of there. If she dares to enter the coop to eat, she is basically chased out. She is treated by an outcast by my flock. Also younger hawks are kind of stupid, so that helped as well. She was saved by the fact that I was nearby and saw the hawk both times, and was able to scare it off. Rather than run away, she plays dead, and let's the hawk land on her and start ripping her feathers up. She has also been attacked by a juvenile hawk two times. Instead of running away, she just flops over and plays dead. The hen she grew up with died, so she's also really lonely, only one of my other chickens tolerate her. She's really small, so every other chicken I have likes to bully the shit out of her. Her only response when being threatened actually. However, I do have a hen who plays dead as a defense response. Compared to that, 'catalepsy' in chickens is much softer and can be broken with a slight movement or a loud sound. The fear response is a bit different - you can see it in some species of goats, for example - they go stiff if spooked, to the degree that they keep their posture for a bit, even when fallen to the ground. With the line I would suppose the brain is trying to decide which eye to use to look at the line or rather the blind spot where it starts, because if you draw the same line to the right or to the left you will get no such response at all. The same happens when you turn the chicken upside-down and keep it still - it just goes catatonic, not for the fear for its life but rather because its brain is not designed to work in this position, it just 'hangs up'. Hmm, from what I've read about that stuff, rather than fear-potentiated, it is closer to a brain function limitation.
0 kommentar(er)
