Welcome back to the blog! Now, it is finally time for the final extension of the post(s) on chicken behavior – sleep. To be honest, this is one of my favorite aspects of chicken behavior, especially because it is generally tends to be incredibly predictable in my opinion and not very difficult to understand.
Simply put, a chicken’s internal clock is incredibly sharp. Avian species and other wild animals just have a powerful instinct regarding sleep schedules in general – something that most humans are sorely lacking in. It seems like an evolutionary advantage to control sleep in order to wake up when necessary. Regardless, as the stereotype goes, a chicken will wake up at the break of dawn and let out a “cock-a-doodle-doo”. That stereotype exists for good reason because for the most part, it is almost always true. Certain alarms (shown right), weather vanes, and use of the phrase (“cock-a-doodle-doo”) itself to signal the morning sun rising all carry good reasons for any resemblance to roosters and act as examples of how this trademark chicken behavior has influenced the culture of humans. However, what is sometimes overlooked is the fact that roosters exercise their powerful voices throughout almost the entire day, not just in the morning. Because I have had very little exposure to fully grown roosters, I am not completely aware of why this behavior exists. Perhaps it is to announce a rooster’s existence or to call to the rest of the chickens in the flock.
Back to the topic at hand – chickens will sleep early and wake up early, always. It could even be said that they are “early birds”. Anyway, as mentioned in a previous post, chickens become increasingly vulnerable the darker it gets as the relative strengths of their senses are dulled and fear of the unknown begins to set in. As a result, once the sun begins to go down, they will attempt to return to whatever location they have collectively established, or agreed upon, as their home. Because of the timing/precision, the behavior is almost that of some NPC characters with fixed schedules in video games. Chickens are also very light sleepers. Many humans would be envious of their abilities to sleep and wake up at a moments notice in order to ward off danger. If only our abilities could be as balanced! It is almost as if they are able to keep an eye out for predators – talk about multitasking. Their light sleep patterns also serve to raise further questions regarding whether or not they dream, and if so, what types of dreams do they have?
Fun fact – chickens actually have three eyelids (shown left)! Do not be alarmed if their eyes look clouded over by a film or shady like a zombie for the eyelids are simply at work. The eye of the chicken itself is actually still mostly visible, so the function of the eyelid may simply be to provide an extra layer of protection from unwanted material, literally.
As with most animals, the younger they are, the more vulnerable they are as well. Chicks can be rather tame and easy to manually put to sleep (shown right), especially if they are comfortable with their owner. Often times, a chick will spontaneously fall asleep while resting in a hand or any other soft or warm location for that matter. Sometimes, they will even do the head nod motion that most people are familiar with doing at one point or another in their lives.
We should all take a lesson from our avian friends – try to have a healthy and consistent sleep schedule that fits you best in order to maximize performance!
As always, thank you for reading this blog post. Stay tuned and look forward to the next one!