Don't count your chickens - leave the sums to them! Animal lover claims rescued battery hen has eggstraordinary head for maths

By ANDREW LEVY

She would be a great entertainer at a hen party.
The card trick that JJ can perform would leave guests in raptures.
For the rescued battery hen has been taught to count from one to seven – and is currently trying to crack eight. She shows her numeracy by pecking on a playing card the same number of times as the number of hearts, clubs, diamonds or spades printed on it.

Of course, the fact that JJ is rewarded with sunflower seeds every time she gives the right answer might explain her enthusiasm.
Owner Helen Jones, a former boss at a large catering firm, said: ‘I spent many years managing people and training people how to manage. I can honestly say training JJ was much easier.

Eggs-traordinary: JJ the counting chicken taps her beak on it the same as many times as the number printed on the card

‘She really is the most remarkable hen. She is trying to learn how to count to eight but she keeps getting a little confused.
‘She will get there. She is our little [Carol] Vorderman after all.’
Mrs Jones, a landscape gardener from Felmingham, Norfolk, who runs a shelter for rescued chickens, began teaching JJ after watching a BBC2 programme, The Private Life of ... Chickens. It revealed that hens have a good visual memory, enabling them to associate patterns with food rewards.

Hen-spired: JJ with owner Helen Jones who offers her a treat every time the hen counts correctly

She started by showing JJ an ace and tapping the card once with her finger. If the bird pecked the card once, she received a treat. ‘She seemed to take to it very, very well. We were amazed,’ said Mrs Jones.
JJ’s astonishing progress has been achieved in just six weeks.
Mrs Jones added: ‘The other chickens are amazed. They all stand and watch and then want to have a go themselves. One or two have tried it but they don’t seem to get it.’

Rescued: JJ was days from death and is shown here just after being liberated from a battery farm with a broken pelvis

JJ – whose name comes from the initials of Mrs Jones’s husband Justin – was rescued from a battery farm by the British Hen Welfare Trust last summer.
Her number was almost up at that point as she had a broken pelvis at the age of 18 months and was days away from being slaughtered.
Jane Howorth, founder of the Trust, said: ‘Hens are underrated on so many levels ... they are not the bird brains they are so often assumed to be.’

source: dailymail

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Duck a l'orange? No, it's chicken a la pink, green or yellow and it's the latest craze in pets across Indonesia

By REBECCA SEALES

Neon from bill to feet: These chicks are sprayed with permanent paint, and sell for 33 pence each

In every highlighter hue you can name, these two-day-old chicks are going cheep at a market near you.
That's provided you live in Indonesia, where day-glo chickens are the very latest craze.
Pictured at a street market in the capital, Jakarta, the rainbow-coloured balls of fluff are shown in bright green, orange, pink and yellow.

Are they supposed to be THIS yellow...? A two-day old chick perches on a buyer's hand

Dyed with permanent spray paint, they sell for 33 pence each.
While the trend may seem cruel to some, local photographer Himawan Paramayuda explained that chickens occupy an important role in the South East Asian country.
Many families in Indonesia have an income below one U.S. dollar per day, and keep chickens at home for their eggs and meat.

New craze: Chicks, dyed with bright colours to attract buyers, are seen at a market in Jakarta, Indonesia

source: dailymail

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I'm oven-ready already! The chick who still has no feathers

By LEON WATSON



Freak with a beak: Mr Feather has become a local celebrity in China



It was one of 2,000 chicks born on a remote farm... but this is the bird that caused a real flap.



Mr Feather, as he's been cruelly dubbed, won't feel cock-a-hoop though.



That's because the poor chicken was born completely bald - and has remained so ever since.





Tempting: Mr Feather, the five-month-old featherless chicken, being chased by a cat



Not only does Mr Feather look fowl, he must be a temptation to hungry humans - being oven-ready after all - and he's even had cats chasing him round.



But, so far, he's survived.



The bird of no feathers hatched in China's Shandong Province five months ago and since then he has become a local celebrity.





Looks fowl: Mr Feather makes this cock and the farm's hens look hirsute





According to owner Lao Yin, people have been flocking to his farm restaurant in Laoshan to get a bird's eye view of him.



"Some customers are dedicated to coming to visit him,' Lao said.



Mr Feather, or Ha Mao in Chinese, has put on weight very slowly, weighing less than half a kilogram while its feathery friends weigh two to three kilograms.



Lao added: 'I started to notice it was different 10 days after its birth, as others were fluffy, while he is almost naked.'



source: dailymail

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Chickens may be birdbrained - but they can still 'feel' each other's pain

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE

Pecking order: Female chickens have shown signs of anxiety when their young were in distress


You might think chickens are way down the pecking order in the animal kingdom when it comes to emotional intelligence.

But it turns out that mother hens are such attentive, caring parents that they ‘feel’ their chicks’ pain.

In experiments, female chickens showed clear signs of anxiety when their young were in distress. It is the first time scientists have discovered empathy in a bird.

The ability to feel someone’s pain or see their point of view was once thought to be uniquely human. But recent studies suggest animals may also experience empathy.
The tests on hens have important implications for the welfare of chickens in battery farms and science laboratories.

The British researchers chose hens and chicks because empathy is assumed to have evolved to help parents care for their young.

Jo Edgar, the PhD student at Bristol University who led the study, said: ‘The extent to which animals are affected by the distress of others is of high relevance to the welfare of farm and laboratory animals.

'We found that adult female birds possess at least one of the essential underpinning attributes of empathy – the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another.’


The researchers tested the mother hens’ reactions when their chicks’ feathers were ruffled with a puff of air.

When the chicks were exposed to the gusts, they showed signs of distress that were mirrored by their mothers. The hens’ heart rates increased, they became increasingly alert and, in a recognised sign of stress, their eye temperature lowered.

Levels of preening were reduced and the mothers clucked at the chicks more, according to the findings reported online today by the Royal Society.

The researchers said chickens reared commercially regularly encounter other birds showing signs of pain and distress ‘owing to routine husbandry practices or because of the high prevalence of conditions such as bone fractures or leg disorders’.


source: dailymail

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