Meet the chicken
Chickens use more than 30 different calls, recognise around 100 individual faces, and can count small numbers.
Friends and family
Chickens have a real 'pecking order' — a social ladder everyone knows and mostly respects.
A mother hen talks to her chicks before they hatch, and the chicks peep back from inside the eggs.
How they talk
Chickens use different alarm calls depending on whether danger comes from the sky or the ground, and other chickens react in the right way.
- Rapid 'buk-buk-buk' then a shriek: Aerial alarm — a bird of prey above.
- Soft repeated clucking with pecking: 'Food here!' — a hen telling her chicks she's found something good.
- The egg song: A loud cackle after laying an egg. Scientists aren't sure why hens do it.
How clever are they?
Chickens can count small numbers, learn from watching each other, and wait for a bigger food reward instead of grabbing a small one straight away.
What they feel
Hens show signs of distress when their chicks are upset, even if the hen herself is safe.
Superpower: Colour vision beyond ours
Chickens see ultraviolet light, so the world looks brighter and more patterned to them.
👀 See the world through their eyes
Sight
They see UV light and have different vision in each eye — one for close detail, one for spotting far-off danger.
Hearing
Chicks and mothers recognise each other's individual voices.
🤓 Did you know?
- Chickens can recognise around 100 different faces.
- Mother hens talk to their chicks through the eggshell before they hatch.
- Chickens have over 30 different calls that mean different things.
- Exactly how much chickens plan for the future is still being researched.scientists are still studying this
Living alongside people
There are more chickens than any other bird on the planet — over 25 billion. Most are raised for eggs or meat in large indoor sheds.