Cruelty to Animals // Chickens // The Hidden Lives of Chickens
The Hidden Lives of Chickens
Small Birds, Big Personalities
Like all animals, chickens love their families and value their own lives. The social nature of chickens means that they are always looking out for their families and for other chickens in their group. In the wild, chickens spend most of their time in groups—they enjoy foraging for food, taking dustbaths, and roosting in trees together at night. After he toured United Poultry Concerns in 1998, Ira Glass, the host of National Public Radio’s This American Life, was so impressed with the personalities of the chickens he met that he hasn’t eaten chicken or any other animal flesh since.
 Mother hens care deeply for their babies—Jesus even refers to the loving protectiveness of a hen toward her chicks in the Gospels, which were written almost 2,000 years ago.22 Indeed, a mother hen will turn her eggs as many as five times an hour and cluck soothingly to her unborn chicks.23 Hens prefer to have private nests for their eggs in protected areas far away from predators. According to The Humane Society of the United States, “The desire [for a private nest] is so strong, in fact, that a hen will often go without food and water, if necessary, to use a nest.”24 This demonstrates the fact that hens will sacrifice their own comfort if it means protecting their chicks.
 Besides bonding to their young, chickens also form strong friendships and enjoy spending time with their companions, just like we do. Kim Sturla, the manager of Animal Place, a sanctuary for farmed animals near Sacramento, recounts a touching story of two chickens. “We rescued an elderly hen, Mary, from a city dump and later an elderly rooster, Notorious Boy. They bonded, and they would roost on the picnic table. One stormy night with the rain really pelting down, I went to put them in the barn and I saw the rooster had his wing extended over the hen, protecting her.”25
Read about what happens to chickens on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, and learn how you can help chickens.
Minny’s Dream is a wonderful fiction book for children ages 8 to 12. The book is about one girl’s visit to a factory farm and her encounters with fascinating chickens who are trapped there. Read a review or order the book.
22 The Bible, Matthew 23:37-38 (New King James version), BibleGateway.com 2005.
23 The Humane Society of the United States.
24 The Humane Society of the United States.
25 Alex Cukan, “Chickens More Than Just Dumb Clucks,” United Press International, 20 Sep. 2002.
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