How peck orders of chickens are measured: A critical review

Rushen, J.

doi:10.1016/0304-3762(84)90032-4

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…These results support those obtained by Allee and Collias (1938), Guhl and Ortman (1953), and Ligon et al (1990). Comb size is probably used by the hens as a salient cue in assessing the potential of an opponent as suggested by Rushen (1984). Moreover, the size of comb and wattles is controlled by testosterone in the fowl, which is also the hormone controlling basic aggressiveness in this species (Allee et al, 1939;Ligon et al, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

The role of hen's weight and recent experience on dyadic conflict outcome

Martin

Beaugrand

Laguë

1997

Behavioural Processes

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

The role of hen's weight and recent experience on dyadic conflict outcome

Martin

Beaugrand

Laguë

1997

Behavioural Processes

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“…As suggested by Rushen (1983), the effects of age differences, breed differences, and density on dominance hierarchies need to be examined more closely. It is likely that behavioral and physical correlations with dominance and fertility were confounded by breed effects in the present study, but sample sizes were too small to analyze separately by breed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Behavioral Correlates of Male Mating Success in a Multisire Flock as Determined by DNA Fingerprinting

Jones

Mench

1991

Poultry Science

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The fertility of an individual rooster within a multi-sire flock may be influenced by a number of behavioral considerations, including frequency and timing of matings and the male's position in the social dominance hierarchy. The relationship between behavior and fertility has proven difficult to assess, however, because there are a limited number of heritable morphological traits that can be used to determine paternity. The objectives of the present study were to use DNA fingerprinting to determine paternity in domestic fowl and to assess some behavioral and physiological correlates of mating success. Sixty day-old chicks from each of two commercial breeds, DeKalb White Leghorn (L) and Warren Color-Sexed (W), were reared in either same-breed or mixed-breed groups. At 43 wk of age, all females and six randomly selected males were mixed into one large pen. Male aggressive and mating behaviors were recorded over a 4-mo period. Fertility of individual sires was determined by DNA fingerprinting and pedigree analysis of chicks. Dominance rank and the frequencies of both completed matings and mating attempts were positively correlated with fertility (P less than .01). In addition, wing flapping was correlated with both dominance (P less than .001) and fertility (P less than .05). There was no correlation between fertility and plasma testosterone. There were breed effects on dominance status, with W dominating L. Multiple paternity was demonstrated in 4 out of 10 families by DNA fingerprinting. The present study is the first one to demonstrate a correlation between dominance and fertility in a flock containing several males of the same breed and morphology.

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“…As suggested by Rushen (1984), comb size is probably used by the hens as a salient cue in assessing the potential of an opponent. Moreover, the size of comb and wattles is controlled by testosterone in the fowl, which is also the hormone controlling basic aggressiveness in this species (Allee et al, 1939;Ligon et al, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of recent experience and weight on hen's agonistic behaviour during dyadic conflict resolution

Martin¹,

Beaugrand²,

Laguë³

1997

Behavioural Processes

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Recent victory or defeat experiences and 2-hour familiarity with the meeting place were combined with size differences in order to better understand their effects on the behaviour leading to the establishment of dyadic dominance relationships between hens not previously acquainted with each other. Three kinds of encounters were videotaped: (i) a previous winner unfamiliar with the meeting place met a previous loser familiar for 2 hours with the meeting place (n = 12 dyads); (ii) as in (i) but both were unfamiliar with the meeting place (n=12); (iii) as in (i) but the previous winner was familiar with the meeting place while the previous loser was unfamiliar (n=13). The weight asymmetry was combined with these three types of encounters by selecting hens of various weight differences: in 29 dyads the recent loser was heavier than the recent winner and in 8 dyads it was the reverse. Recent experience had a major influence upon both agonistic behaviour and dominance outcome. Hens that were familiar with the meeting site initiated attacks more frequently than their unfamiliar opponent but did not win significantly more often. Recent experience and site familiarity could be used to identify 80% of future initiators. Once the first aggressive behaviour had been initiated, it led to victory of its initiator in 92% of cases. Weight was not found to influence agonistic behaviour nor dominance outcome. However, hens with superior comb and wattles areas won significantly more initial meetings than opponents with smaller ones. In the final encounters, victory also went more frequently to the bird showing larger comb and wattles, which happened also to be the previous dominant in a majority of cases. The use of higher-order partial correlations as an ex post facto control for comb and wattles indicates that they were not influential upon agonistic behaviour nor on dominance outcome, but were simply co-selected with the selection of victorious and defeated birds in the first phase of the experiment designed to let hens acquire recent victory/defeat experience.

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How peck orders of chickens are measured: A critical review

Cited by 19 publications

References 57 publications

The role of hen's weight and recent experience on dyadic conflict outcome

The role of hen's weight and recent experience on dyadic conflict outcome

Behavioral Correlates of Male Mating Success in a Multisire Flock as Determined by DNA Fingerprinting

The role of recent experience and weight on hen's agonistic behaviour during dyadic conflict resolution

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