Welcome back to the blog! Previously, some spicy Middle Ages drama was discussed along with the mammalian (humans included) sex-determination system with which most are familiar. “But what about other animals, though?” Glad you asked! Without further ado, let’s jump right on into it! Note: this post is already lengthy enough as it is, so it will only cover some of the major systems at play here.

Perhaps one of the most interesting cases is exhibited in reptiles, chiefly alligators and some turtles. After eggs are laid, at a critical time, or stage in development, sex will be determined by an external environmental (not gene-related) factor – temperature (see the right-side figure)! Imagine if humans were like this…I wonder if FL would be scary. As an aside, turtles make great pets if you’re like me – devoid of all emotion. Just kidding – they really bring low risk, medium reward to those seeking long, long-term companionship!

Next up is the tropical clownfish, a sequential hermaphrodite. A hermaphrodite is defined as an organism that has both male and female reproductive capabilities. Here comes the “sequential” part…all of them begin life as a male but will gradually switch teams to side with the females! Ew, traitors! If the alpha female goes bye-bye, then the leading male next in line will take over to mate with its following male. Simple, right? Needless to say, this would also be weird in humans. And I know what you’re wondering: “okay, but what about Marlin from Finding Nemo“. Yes, Nemo’s mother, the dominant female is gone, and there are no males more dominant than Marlin, so there’s no denying that it’s undoubtedly true! All of it! 100%. Perhaps one of your favorite childhood memories is now ruined, tainted forever. I speak the truth and you have been enlightened if you have read things that you cannot unread. You’re welcome. It’s okay, I know how you feel, my parents didn’t tell me either :(, but don’t worry, you’ll recover from this. No regrets. Moving on…

Finally, since I started this blog with my chicken stories, it’ll end where it all began. The chicken situation is a variation on the mammalian theme, or maybe it’s actually the other way around, who knows! Oh, the joys of scientific inquiry, right? Regardless, this time, the chick’s (not slang) sex is determined by the mother. The sex chromosomes are Z and W; males are ZZ while females are ZW. With this reversal of the mammalian system, there is still a 50/50 chance for either male/female, but sex is already predetermined prior to fertilization of the egg! Watch a video summary for more info here.

By the way, speaking of chromosomes, here’s a fun fact to satisfy the curious – chickens have 78 chromosomes, or 39 pairs, as opposed to humans’ 46 chromosomes, or 23 pairs! Although chickens have more chromosomes by the numbers, it does not necessarily mean anything in terms of intelligence or complexity. In fact, humans have a similar amount of genes and nucleotide base pairs (genome size) as many other animals. The chromosome count of an organism does not have much bearing, correlation, or weight over the intelligence/complexity nor does it necessarily have any observable, direct effect on the organism’s gene count or genome size. It is simply a figure that indicates how that species internally organizes its genes. What distinguishes humans from the rest, then? Have other organisms simply not reached their full, true potential? Why? More questions breed more answers. I’ll save the trouble of writing about gene regulation by saying “that’s a topic for…probably never”, but feel free to ponder or research if you don’t already know and are still wondering. Thankfully, this is where that conversation ends, phew. What’s next, “which came first, the chicken or the egg”?!

There are also other reproductive oddities and animal societies! Consider the monotremes (egg-laying mammals like the platypus or echidna), plants, lactating pigeons, “stabby” snails (look away children), wolbachia inhabited mosquitoes, fatherless bee/ant hierarchies, praying mantis mating, and the exclusively parthenogenetic (reproduction without any fertilization), all-female (major loss for the males I guess) New Mexico whiptail species (personally I prefer to refer to them as the sorority lizards because it just sounds cooler) among others; unfortunately, this post is nearing its end.

Human chromosomes are as dense as a tennis ball packed with 40 kilometers of string. Even with so much genetic information, somehow, the body simply knows what to do with it all to make us who we are, so let’s appreciate life a little more! I hope that you enjoyed reading and learned something new! I likely will not post here again for a very long time. Thank you to all of my readers – take care.

Welcome back to the blog! In the previous post, there was a brief introduction and discussion regarding some of the molecular components within the general genome – using humans as an example. This post will continue to expand on the topic.

Since all of this post’s readers are human, it would not be a terrible idea to lay the foundation with the sex determination system operating within mammals – the XY system. This, of course, refers to the two sex chromosomes, or final pair of chromosomes in the set of 23 pairs in the genome. For those unaware, the X chromosome (named according to its shape when duplicated) is the larger one, two of which are present in biological females. In contrast, males only have one X (not to be confused with “ex”) with the other sex chromosome in the pair being the Y chromosome (refer to the previous blog post for an additional figure).

After reaching proper sexual maturity, an individual’s genome is split, or segregated, into exactly two halves that are non-identical to each other’s makeup but still equal in the number of chromosomes. This occurs during gametogenesis, or the production of gametes – the egg and sperm sex cells that combine through fertilization to form a zygote/fertilized egg. These cells are referred to as haploid cells as opposed to diploid cells due to the fact that they only have half (23 in this case) of the total number of chromosomes (46). In all mammals, one chromosome in any given pair of chromosomes is inherited from the mother and the other in the pair is inherited from the father, so genetically speaking, humans are technically a genetic combination of one half of each biological parent; after all, 23 + 23 = 46! Because females only hold X chromosomes, it is impossible for them to give anything else while a male can “give” either his X or Y chromosome to the child through a sperm cell, as illustrated in the punnett square to the left. Fun fact: this is why the male is actually the one to unintentionally determine the sex of a child. This is also why King Henry VIII of England, lacking this knowledge, blamed his wives for not bearing any sons. Nice going, Clown Henry, and thanks dad, I guess!

What’s more is that although rare, it is possible to have a viable trisomy disorder with sex chromosomes – viable indicating that the individual can live with the genetic disorder and trisomy indicating that there are two copies of a single chromosome, leading to three in the intended “pair” and a total of 47 chromosomes in the entire genome rather than 46. In this case, the following trisomy cases involving sex chromosomes could exist: XXX, XXY, and XYY. A set including YYY, even if it exists, will not give rise to viable offspring. Neither will YY. Notice how all viable individuals’ combinations must have at least one X chromosome! Thanks, mom! Often times, it only takes a small genetic change to observe a significant phenotypical (physical) change, as evidenced here! Lastly, although not the primary topic of this blog post, it is important to note that particular conditions known as sex-linked traits like colorblindness are influenced by such differences resulting from humans’ sex chromosomes.

In addition to what has been discussed here, there are many more biochemical mechanisms and “reproductive oddities” out there in the world. However, this blog post will not dive any deeper into this topic than it already has, at least for the moment. As always, thanks for reading, stay tuned, and take care until next time!

Welcome back to the blog! This post will begin to examine how one of the most significant defining traits of any animal – sex – is determined on a molecular level. Although it may seem better simply to observe physical features and/or behavioral characteristics of an animal in question, it is easier said than done because there can be some grey area and inconsistencies that may not be immediately apparent among different types of animals, especially for ones other than humans and avian species exhibiting explicit differences between sexes (also known as sexual dimorphism) in particular. After all, every organism on Earth shares the same exact genetic language (the ACGT of DNA) and has the same fundamental cellular processes (DNA replication/synthesis in addition to cell growth and division), so as long as the means are available, examining the genome of an animal is arguably more effective and reliable for sex identification in many cases.

Before taking a look at anything in particular, there is a pinch of basic, fundamental background terminology that should first be gone over. For the sake of visualization, the karyotype of an “average” (in this case – no detectable genetic mutations present that result in a chromosomal disorder) human male is provided to the left. A karyotype refers both to a depiction of an individual’s collection of chromosomes and the method by which the depiction can be obtained. The numbering of the chromosomes is generally dependent upon their relative size in comparison to the rest of the chromosomes. This karyotype is stained in such a way that it produces color for contrasting purposes. Additionally, most people know what a chromosome is – a structure that DNA forms when it is condensed for certain specific processes that are out of the scope of this post at the moment. Humans naturally have 46 total chromosomes, or 23 pairs. The final two chromosomes in humans are known as sex chromosomes (as opposed to the other 44 autosomal ones) and are of particular interest for this (and the next) post; as their name implies, together, they determine the biological sex of a person. The differentiation between male and female is significant, so it does make sense that there is a clear name dedicated to this pair.

This post only scratches the surface as not all of the intended content would fit, so this topic will be split into an overflow post following this one! As a preview, the next post will touch on the intriguing and complex sex-determination systems found in humans and other types of animals. Until next time, feel free to theorize about it all. Thanks for reading, and take care!

Hello again! This post is a continuation of my previous post discussing birds invading my garage in hopes of establishing a nation of their own, so feel free to check out part one. The story did not end where I left off!

As previously implied, the newly hatched birds are especially vulnerable. After all, they do not have any feathers and are even unable to open their own eyes. This can be exploited early on in their development to trick them into responding to humans mimicking call sounds of the parents until they finally open their eyes and realize that they were completely tricked, backstabbed, and quite possibly, bamboozled. “Bazinga”, if you will. I swear I had them under my control during the first half of their childhoods. Smaller, backyard birds in general tend to develop at a rapid pace. Eventually, they’ll grow fuzz on their heads. It looks kind of like that one photo of Einstein sticking his tongue out – I expect most people to know exactly what I am talking about right now.

Momma and Papa Birdies were not the only ones to visit, however! Long story short, a larger predator bird threw one of the babies out of the nest and my father and I chose to nurse it for a day before returning it to the nest (picture not included, apologies). Man, I really need to ask Dad for those recordings, huh.

For better or for worse, the hole was sealed when we had our garage door system completely redone. Was this the end of my avian adventures? Nope!

There was also another family of birds directly outside the garage, but they came along much later than the original family – long after the hole was sealed. These birds were chilling in our holiday wreath which is arguably a very clever location for their traditionally stylized nest – a nest that indicated a different species of bird in addition to the blue-colored eggs! Every time I returned home late at night, I could always see the bird watching me with paranoid eyes as I drove by into the garage. We set up a camera to watch over this nest as well, but in the end, it did not turn out as well as the other family because of some parental neglect and premature test flights from babies who were not yet ready to leave the nest, much less fly back up to it (image above).

I wonder how many generations have passed since I last saw them! Wherever they are, I hope that all of them are living their best lives. Can I blame the birds for invading the garage? It was an interesting experience, so no; the weather was quite cold at the time and there must have been many dangerous creepy crawlies outside! In the end, we’re all just little birds trying to spread our wings in this world, right?

Feel free to take a look at this video of the first family of birds (in garage). Without further ado, I hope you enjoy! Things like this are cute unless you are the parent of course.

And so the tale of two bird families staying at my house comes to a conclusion. Well, I definitely prefer this scenario over having bats all over my residency hall – a completely different story for another time. Thanks for reading, and stay safe until next time.

Welcome back to the blog! All of these posts have been about chickens, so I decided that it is time to break the tradition and instead discuss my experience with a different bird. With that being said, let’s just jump right on into it.

In my family’s garage, we have a shelf with tools, bottles, and other such objects. One day, as I reached for gloves, I noticed a spherically-shaped amalgamation of twigs with a hole at the front. Inside, two black eyes stared straight into my soul. Talk about a jumpscare. I must have activated the “thing’s” fight-or-flight response as well, because it rocketed straight toward my face but thankfully was only aiming to escape rather than assault. I peered closer to the nest and saw tan-colored eggs, but the bird started aggressively calling for backup, so I decided to retreat before being confronted by the Avian Avengers or whatever. I wondered, “how did the bird enter?” After a thorough examination, we found a hole in the corner of the garage door – barely large enough for a small bird to squeeze through freely.

It only took a couple of weeks for the eggs to hatch! One flock, or batch, tends to have four or five eggs, and from observations it seemed that the success rate, at least for hatching, was significantly high. Sometimes there may also be an extra egg thrown in there from other brood parasites, but that’s a different topic of discussion for another time. Just as a PSA, the babies are very ugly-cute, but trying to handle them may not be the best decision. Not only are the babies sensitive, but it will also frighten the parents if caught red-handed, and though I am not positive, it may also cause the parents to either reject certain children or abandon the nest entirely in which case – game over.

I am almost positive that this type of bird was a wren of sorts – perhaps resembling the one displayed on the right. I have also always been interested in observing wildlife; eventually, we set a remote motion-sensing camera up, but it was not appreciated in the slightest. After a few days, we found seemingly random pieces of poo all over our front porch and garage floor. The recordings showed that after being fed, the hungry child would instinctively do a 180. You may know where this is going, but the parent bird would gently take the fecal waste from the baby as it was being ejected and deposit it somewhere in our garage to annoy us – I kid you not, this is not a joke. Some people may think that is disgusting, but I honestly thought it was intriguing. For those wondering, yes, I would absolutely include the footage in this post (for scientific purposes of course and nothing else), but I would have to dig deeper in the file archives for them. Those things – they made us cover our camera with newspaper out of sheer fear! They did not even pay rent! Regardless, this was a reminder that the behavior of seemingly simpler organisms can actually be quite interesting and perhaps somewhat rewarding to observe at times. If only I had been able to record footage of what happened outside of the garage!

As always, thanks for reading, take care, and stay tuned for the next post!

Welcome back! After an apparent death at the hands of “the end of the fall semester”, this blog has been retrieved from the depths of my bookmarks, dusted off (figuratively), and subsequently resurrected. Rejoice, for the series lives on, returning for the new year and rescued from eternal slumber – at least for now!

Anyways, I am sure that many people can relate when I say that I randomly remember random memories. One such memory is of my high school classmate being so-called hypnotized at a school event by an entertainer. That is what helped to create the idea of this post. Most of the general population is aware of the existence of hypnosis and may consider it to be a cheap attempt at mind control. Less know about its specific mechanisms and (potential) psychologically therapeutic effects, and even less have heard anything about “chicken hypnosis”.

So how does chicken hypnosis work? As for one method to perform this “ritual”, humanely restrain the chicken on the ground, firmly draw a foot-long straight line (or motion it with a single finger) extending away from the front of the chicken’s beak, and almost as if admitting defeat, the avian will cease its struggling, lie down, and stay there – completely still – for an extended period of time. Eventually, the chicken will “wake” itself up without the need for much help or any revival/resuscitation. It is crazy how it quits and suddenly gives up – almost like magic, right?

Honestly, it seemed fake and silly to me at first until I saw it. Believe it or not, chicken hypnosis even has its own Wikipedia page with additional information (including other “techniques”), so feel free to take a look at it in your spare time. Now, it definitely looks real to me but, I am still oddly intrigued as to how it actually works at all to begin with. It is said that the chicken behaves this way and plays dead, similarly to a possum, as an instinctual defense mechanism known as tonic immobility. Furthermore, with proper care and handling, hypnosis can also be used to conveniently examine certain areas of the chicken’s body without it throwing a problematic fit as a chaotic freak. I have never tried hypnotizing any of my chickens, and I unfortunately no longer have the opportunity to either, so I do not have any personal evidence – only YouTube videos. I may have accidentally done something similar to a sleepy or shocked chicken. If I could try it on problematic chicks, I would (respectfully). Perhaps I could train or condition one to bow down to me as its master, who knows.

Thanks for reading this blog post! Is chicken hypnosis real, or are the chickens just paid actors? Is it a forbidden art? Was this post clickbait (hint: no)? Feel free to share your thoughts down in the comments below, and look forward to the next entry.

Welcome back to the blog! Thanksgiving season is upon us, and Thanksgiving Day is quickly approaching; on that note, I have unfortunately never raised turkeys. However, I have raised ducks and wanted to feature them as a surprise Thanksgiving special for the audience! It’s simply the next best thing, right? Many readers may have been wondering if I have ever raised other animals as pets. This post in particular is specifically aimed at addressing my experience(s) with raising ducks in comparison to my chicken experience.

The most striking differences between chickens and ducks will appear to manifest themselves on their physical bodies as they grow and begin to mature. Though I have forgotten the growth rates of each bird, from outward appearances alone, adult chickens tend to exhibit a more drastic change from their juvenile counterparts. Even immediately after hatching from within an egg, some key identifying features are their heads, necks, feathers (main body and wings), and legs. For example, duck bills are flatter, longer, and wider on a horizontal plane for aquatic feeding while the beak of a chicken is more suited to eat grains and precisely peck at possible food. The latter’s beak is what many will think of when mentioning a traditional “bird”. In addition, a duck’s neck is (almost awkwardly) long at maturity; in contrast, chickens do not have much of a neck at all. Furthermore, duck feathers have special oil(s) in them that allow the duck to float comfortably on the surface of bodies of water for prolonged periods of time without drowning or damaging their bodies. Along with this are the duck’s feet which are webbed. It is self explanatory that webbed feet are better for swimming while the “claw”-like feet of chickens are effective at destroying a garden. Of course, ducks and chickens also differ in organ anatomy, but that is complicated. Ask dad, he probably knows.

Ducks also have different needs and behaviors, go figure! The small group of ducks I had generally got along well despite being of different species. They often grouped themselves by species but were still able to coexist. In terms of environment, ducks must have water at almost all times. They love to do everything in it from eating to playing and everything in between – you name it! After developing older, ducks will be near impossible to catch when they are in the water. On land, it is a different story. Ducks on land are a more tolerable version of fish out of water. They survive and live well, but they can be incredibly clumsy at times (especially on inclines) – stumbling and wobbling. On the other hand, chickens boast incredible agility skills on land and as mentioned in a previous post, will avoid water at most costs. The overall level of agreeableness is higher in chickens than it is in ducks. For one, many species of domestic (cannot or do not fly) ducks are rather jittery and will avoid being handled by humans. Much to the chagrin of one of my larger ducks, I bought a leash from the store and managed to attach it to a harness on the duck (shown right). In the end, chickens are more tolerant overall; it is important to note though that drakes do not call all day like roosters do, so that is a plus! What takes away from that positive quality is that ducks will almost never return to the coop at night. I once made the mistake of keeping the ducks out in the open (not the coop) for the entire night, and it did not end well at all to say the least. It led to tragic and gruesome consequences, and I learned my lesson the hard way for the first time through this downfall. To this day, I am still unsure as to what specific predator had caused that unfortunate event.

Lastly, duck eggs carry different qualities than chicken eggs, obviously. Ducks tend to lay less eggs every year when compared to chickens, and ducks are much less consistent in their various schedules/intervals and on/off seasons. I have not hatched duck eggs, but I have eaten them. Not only do duck eggs tend to be larger, but they also contain more fat in them than chicken eggs. Personally, I enjoy the quality of duck eggs more than chicken eggs due to the extra fluffy texture (because of the fat) in the yolk when hard boiled. With this being said, the egg white may be harder at times.

Well, this is it – the end. Again, it has been a pleasure to write the posts and read all of the comments. I do not anticipate writing about chickens or on this blog in the near future. Personally, it is a bittersweet sensation for me. Regardless, I hope that you have learned much about chickens in general; for the last time, thank you and stay safe!

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!

Welcome back to the blog! The “parts” of the blog within the overarching series can be confusing at times, so just know that this is a continuation of the previous post on chicken behavior. It is time to pick up where I left off last time.

Chickens, though not the most exquisitely exotic, divine, or pristine of birds (keep in mind they are related descendants of the Tyrannosaurus rex), still love to stay pretty and pretty clean regardless. I imagine that they would be completely obsessed with posting on famous social media platforms such as Instagram if they ever gained the ability to use it. Moving on, for example, aside from the regular preening behavior after I pretend to lift the them up and down like dumbbells, I would often catch a chicken doing yoga after roosting for long periods of time. I have only seen one form/technique of chicken yoga, and it is a simple stretch of a leg and wing on the same, or corresponding, side. It’s almost like a dumb Fortnite emote in real time. Every single occurrence, I would say “do it again so that I can get it on camera”, but they would always look at me weirdly and turn away affectionately to continue mowing the lawn or whatever.

With regards to their feathers, chickens like to preen them – as previously mentioned – and most of all avoid contact with water. Chickens only use water for one thing: drinking. Like a stereotypical feline, all of the chickens that I have observed thus far absolutely tend to avoid water on their feathers, especially during heavy rain when it is the worst. Fortunately, the feathers will provide shelter from the elements; however, this does not mean that it is okay for them to be in a place like a swimming pool. That is a bad idea. They will drown after a relatively short period of time afloat.

 

Lastly, they also like to take dust baths – akin to a pig rolling around in mud! Here, the chickens will lie down and shimmy about in a motion similar to a dog scratching an itch. Though it may be hard to relate to such dusty behavior, take a lesson from the hens – never forget that you need to take care of yourself (if you do not yet already)!

Note: be careful when handling chickens as it is very possible for them to carry pathogens from all that time they spend in the fields’ dirt.

Thank you for reading this blog post, and hopefully I was able to share some interesting experiences in this entry. Join me next time for more! Stay tuned and look forward to it.

Welcome back to the blog! This is the fourth entry in the extra series/seventh overall. The post this time around is a continuation of the one on chicken behavior. Although not the most intelligent animal, their somewhat complex social behavior and ability to be learn still deserves to be recognized. After a couple of years of channeling my inner Jane Goodall (chicken style), I have made some simple observations that, in the end, likely pale in comparison to formal research on the subject; nevertheless, they are still worth noting.

First, these social birds have distinct personalities and generally get along alright. However, there is one exception: food. Being small-brained organisms, chickens go crazy for food (especially when hungry). If hand fed something like a grasshopper (dead or alive), they will push and shove over each other in order to be the first in line to eat. After a chicken secures it, they will then selfishly chase each other around in an exciting game of cat and mouse. When all is said and done, they will likely be too busy being jealous (if they are capable of even feeling such emotions) to notice or realize the fact that five minutes ago, I had thrown five extra grasshoppers into their enclosure.

Chickens are also curious! Once they recover enough of their energy spent during the hatching process, they will refuse to stay still unless sleeping. After a few weeks, they will begin to grow disinterested in their enclosure and may start to jump. This is when their legs display significant physical prowess. They can and will attempt to jump onto ledges that are several times their height, similar to how an ant is able to pick up and carry objects that is several times its weight. It is akin to a baby learning how to walk, although a jumping chicken is arguably much cooler.

This behavior should also be monitored and/or kept at bay if possible, for once they learn to escape the habitat, they are less likely to stay put in the future. It may also be an early sign that the chicken is ready to be released to live in an outdoor environment. It seems that young male chickens tend to exhibit such “rebellious” behavior more often than females as the latter, especially in the presence of a male leader, may remain more passive or tame as per the standard, or general, pecking order. Additionally, chickens love to perch. It is a good idea to have structures installed especially in an outdoor enclosure that allow them to perform said action. Anywhere that is higher than where they once were originally will suffice as they climb up each step even further before realizing that they still have to flap down if they want food. Since all breeds of domestic chickens are unable to fly (possibly for the better), they are often seen cautiously hopping up and down between places.

Thank you for reading this post and learning more about chicken behavior! Join me next time for some more chicken action. Stay tuned.