Living life on the edge (of the incubator) hatch-a-long

[2ndTink]

Glad to hear Sergeant Pepper mage it out and is doing OK!

All your babies are positively adorable!

Thank you!

 

[fluffycrow]

OK so I have a question. From what I know, a worry with many human raised wild birds is them imprinting on humans, and as a result not breeding with other specimens of their species. If so, how can we hatch chicks in our incubators, sometimes a human being the first thing they see, and yet they still mate with the right species when mature?

 

[CoopBoots]

OK so I have a question. From what I know, a worry with many human raised wild birds is them imprinting on humans, and as a result not breeding with other specimens of their species. If so, how can we hatch chicks in our incubators, sometimes a human being the first thing they see, and yet they still mate with the right species when mature?

Hmm that's a good question.

Total guess, but we so often still confine them in a no-escape scenario with others of their kind, both as young and later as adults, with no alternatives, that instinct still wins out. I'm sure it helps to have almost no standards, as well. I've seen roosters try to mate shoes, feeding bowls... Bound to hit the right target eventually!!

On the other hand, songbirds seem very picky, so maybe imprinting and missing correct behavioral and visual training is an insurmountable social setback for them.

 

[fluffycrow]

Hmm that's a good question.

Total guess, but we so often still confine them in a no-escape scenario with others of their kind, both as young and later as adults, with no alternatives, that instinct still wins out. I'm sure it helps to have almost no standards, as well. I've seen roosters try to mate shoes, feeding bowls... Bound to hit the right target eventually!!

On the other hand, songbirds seem very picky, so maybe imprinting and missing correct behavioral and visual training is an insurmountable social setback for them.

That's a very good hypothesis. Being picky could definitely play a part, interaction with many individuals of the same species early on could be another. Out of the many documentaries I've seen, it has never been mentioned that galliformes, ducks and geese that were raised by humans and eventually reintroduced into the wild had any issues with finding suitable mates. Birds of prey, cranes, and other species did. The latter is definitely more picky, and with the exception of possibly geese, has smaller clutches. So it makes sense that a single chick, whose only familial connections are his parents, chooses to mate with specimens that look similar to them

 

[TwoCrows]

OK so I have a question. From what I know, a worry with many human raised wild birds is them imprinting on humans, and as a result not breeding with other specimens of their species. If so, how can we hatch chicks in our incubators, sometimes a human being the first thing they see, and yet they still mate with the right species when mature?

I had a Quail chick bond with me instantly at hatch, she was the first in the batch to hatch. She was a screamer, I mean I couldn't walk away from the brooder and she'd scream loudly. ALL night long too for the first 2 weeks! You know, she bonded with me so well, she never took a mate on all her life. Bobwhites chose their mates and mate for life with one male, she ignored every male that tried to court her. She waited for me every day to come sit and hang out with her, she'd squat for me when I went to pet her, she'd looked at me with loving eyes.... but she remained a loner all her life and I believe because her bond to me at hatch was so strong.

 

[fluffycrow]

I had a Quail chick bond with me instantly at hatch, she was the first in the batch to hatch. She was a screamer, I mean I couldn't walk away from the brooder and she'd scream loudly. ALL night long too for the first 2 weeks! You know, she bonded with me so well, she never took a mate on all her life. Bobwhites chose their mates and mate for life with one male, she ignored every male that tried to court her. She waited for me every day to come sit and hang out with her, she'd squat for me when I went to pet her, she'd looked at me with loving eyes.... but she remained a loner all her life and I believe because her bond to me at hatch was so strong.

Oh wow! So it does happen in fowl. But what are the criteria? I can't seem to find a pattern, to help me avoid coming across this in the future

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I think the pattern is how monogamous the species is. Chickens generally are not very discriminatory breeders. Males in a natural setting assure their genes are passed on only by keeping a few hens close, breeding them often, and fighting off any other males that attempt to breed those hens. But many hens accept any decently impressive male breeding them, not just 'their' male, and younger, less impressive males will also 'ambush' breed hens when they can. There's not much courting, not much display. This as opposed to quail who, as TwoCrows mentioned, court and pair up for life.

I do think that imprinting happens in chickens. This is why some roosters become man fighters, why other roosters attempt to breed people's boots, and why some hens will squat for their keepers, in each case a level of imprinting has occurred to make them think that humans are at least part of the pecking order. But because of their general lack of discrimination in breeding, it also does not stop them from breeding with the other chickens they're around as well.

 

[fluffycrow]

This is probably what determines how easily, and how deeply imprinting affects the bird. I've definitely seen more cases of ducks being imprinted on humans, and I know ducks are semi-monogamous, pairing off for each season, and possibly more than one. What you said about chickens still going through some sort of imprinting process, and thus exhibiting behaviours such as squatting, and breeding of random objects and human boots makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll have to put a stock photo of a mumma hen around the incubator at lockdown

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh wow! So it does happen in fowl. But what are the criteria? I can't seem to find a pattern, to help me avoid coming across this in the future

This is probably what determines how easily, and how deeply imprinting affects the bird. I've definitely seen more cases of ducks being imprinted on humans, and I know ducks are semi-monogamous, pairing off for each season, and possibly more than one. What you said about chickens still going through some sort of imprinting process, and thus exhibiting behaviours such as squatting, and breeding of random objects and human boots makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll have to put a stock photo of a mumma hen around the incubator at lockdown

I don't think it's all that common in chickens, they've been domesticated for thousands of years and around humans a long time and may have developed a sense to know better than to think they can mate with a human. Bobwhite Quail on the other hand are new on the scene to being raised by humans, and the instinct to imprint on the first big shape they see or hear singing to them, which I do during incubation, is still quite strong. I don't think you will have any issues with your birds.

 

[fluffycrow]

I don't think it's all that common in chickens, they've been domesticated for thousands of years and around humans a long time and may have developed a sense to know better than to think they can mate with a human. Bobwhite Quail on the other hand are new on the scene to being raised by humans, and the instinct to imprint on the first big shape they see or hear singing to them, which I do during incubation, is still quite strong. I don't think you will have any issues with your birds.

You're right, that should be another factor to consider. I probably won't put anything around the incubator since I'd like to observe the hatching process (especially with those little serama legs). But I think it'd be hilarious to try it. If someone is planning on many hatches this year, would you be up for it?



I talk to them what they're in lockdown too. But you know that, because you had already predicted I would when Heartbreak-her was pipping early!