Behavior Patterns of Chickens to Ten Weeks of Age

ALTHOUGH research involving young chickens is voluminous, only meager information is available concerning their behavior prior to the age of peck-order formation. The social organization in flocks of chickens was first described by Schjelderup-Ebbe (1922) and reviews of social and individual behavior patterns were published by Guhl (1953, 1962) and WoodGush (1955). The development of behavior involves the ontogeny of various systems in an individual. Kuo (1932) observed embryonic behavior while Guhl (1958), Kruijt (1963, 1964), and Ratner (1966) showed a sequence in the appearance of post-hatching behavior patterns. The experiment reported here was designed to study the development of behavior from hatching to 70 days of age in flocks where sexes were intermingled or maintained separately. MATERIALS AND METHODS The chickens consisted of progeny from matings of F2 generation White Rocks which had been selected for high body weight (HW) and low body weight (LW) at eight weeks of …