4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Gallina]

More interesting hen research from the University of Oxford:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090807.html

 

This how your hens know (without opening their eyes) that it is dawn, so time to get up and make a nuisance of themselves.

[Patricia W]

I wonder if they experimented with turning this light sensor off?

 

Tricia

[simon_blackwell1]

That research doesn't make an awful lot of sense. If acts in response to light why is it "buried deep in their brain" (where there is no light). Clearly the chicken's eyes (even when closed) are what's monitoring the light and whatever it is that's in their brain then tells the chicken that it's daytime/spring etc based on the light levels detected by the eyes.

 

All of which we already knew!

[Patricia W]

I guess its a sense related to the one that helps migrating birds know when and where to go. Birds are wondrous things!

 

Tricia

[Penguin]

So it's not that they have a telepathic communication with the toilet flush so that as soon as I use the toilet in the morning they know that I'm up and make noises if I hesitate to stop for a cup of tea before I let them out .......

[Patricia W]

I'm amazed how acute their hearing is...... but you are right, it may be telepathy....

[..lay a little egg for me]

Amazed this is "news". I'm sure I remember learning about light sensing in the brain when I studied Biological Sciences at Uni in the early 1980s!!!