When I said in a recent post that I wondered if chickens could be colour blind I realised that wasn’t really what I meant. What I meant was that Emerald didn’t seem able to see sunflower hearts when sprinkled over a background the same colour as them.
Chickens have really good eyesight so I wondered if Emerald’s eyesight was less sharp than usual. I decided to do an experiment. I took our orange bath mat and sprinkled some sunflower hearts over it and hey presto! Emerald could see them.
The bath mat experiment
Emerald can now see the sunflower hearts
Emerald is bottom girl and in such a small space she got chased from the mat a few times but even so she managed to get some of the sunflower hearts. Emerald is on the left of both photos.
Emerald taking sunflower hearts from the orange mat
I wasn’t going to include this photo as it’s not such a good one but changed my mind as it clearly shows Emerald (on the left) taking the seeds from the mat.
I think this clearly proves my theory that Emerald can’t see the seeds when they are on the same coloured background. She must have a slight fault with her eyesight but it doesn’t cause her any problem (except where sunflower hearts are concerned). I will continue to give her a sprinkle of meal worms when the girls have sunflower hearts.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Well there’s a result .
Glad to have been of service. 🙂
Thank you. A clear result I think.
Long time I wasn’t following your blog, but I have to say so many things has changed ! Keep up your good work ciao from Marcello !
Oh thank you. I know, I can’t believe so much has changed but I know that I have a much happier flock and I believe the girls I have re-homed also have a happier life. I have tried so hard to give my girls the best life I can and I really think that my flock is now the happiest it can be and a happy flock is a happy me.