What if there was a magic potion to get our chickens to love us? Perhaps there is. It’s called mesotocin, the bird version of oxytocin, the so-called cuddle hormone. Oxytocin in humans is activated when we hug each other, have pleasant interactions with people, or when we pet our dog or cat. It’s a direct antidote to cortisol, the hormone humans release when stressed. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-friend-who-keeps-you-young
Birds, reptiles and fish secrete a version of this hormone. However, it’s not quite as well studied as oxytocin in mammals, but what we do know is it works in similar ways to create bonds. It also assists in reproduction, laying eggs, and maternal care of the young as oxytocin does in the mammalian birth processes and care of young. This hormone may be what triggers the bond between a broody and her chicks, beginning with the first peeps the chicks make in the eggs. It may also explain why some of my older hens, seemingly out of the blue, decided to adopt chicks I had been brooding in my run where these hens had been observing them from the day I brought them home from the feed store.
Having kept chickens for going on two decades, I’ve had lots of very affectionate, tame and friendly chickens of many different breeds. I would say that, judging from my present flock of twenty, around half have been and are in this category. But for a while now, I’ve been giving serious study to why some are so extremely friendly while some will barely tolerate being handled, even after years of being in my flock, and all having been raised exactly the same. These differences are not always consistent within breeds, either. Could some of my chickens have more receptors for mesotocin hormone than the others? It could explain it.
Any of us who have hand raised baby chicks have found that handling them when new can have a taming effect, and a lot of that is in how we handle them. For example, we’ve known for years that hands thrust into the brooder from up above scare baby chicks the same as would a sky predator dive bombing them, while chicks being approached from the side are much less apt to be frightened and more likely to trust us. But my question is why do only half of these chicks remain tame and even seem to grow in their affectionate behavior? Is it because some have more receptors for mesotocin? It could explain it.
What causes this bond some of us have with our chickens and does this bond somehow change the chickens? Is it beneficial to us and our chickens? In what way? I do know that my friendly birds are more likely to get medical attention much sooner that my unfriendly birds simply because I’m able to interact more with the friendly ones. Could oxytocin and mesotocin be the key to understanding this special bond?
Mesotocin seems to be more active in female birds than in males. I do notice that my roosters have always maintained a certain reserve, never becoming the shameless love junkies that some of my hens are. Studies done on finches and canaries found that artificially increasing mesotocin in these birds causes them to become more social, but it’s mainly in the female populations this is apparent. https://phys.org/news/2009-08-scientists-common-link-bird-flocks.html These species are noted for their complex vocals, by the way, and only the boys sing.
When the young male birds are learning to sing, the role of mesotocin is a significant factor, and it acts strongly to cause the young birds to prefer learning songs from their own male caregiver. Mesotocin appears to strengthen existing bonds with familiar members rather than creating bonds with strangers. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cne.25338
This causes me to ponder the role of vocalization in the production of this hormone. Could it be mutually causative and self reinforcing? If so, could we, in talking to our baby chicks and older hens, trigger mesotocin in their brains to reinforce and continue to build a bond? There are no studies I’ve been able to find that suggest this, but I’m willing to hypothesize it could, given how this hormone works over diverse species.
Oxytocin studies on humans have found that having a close bond with our pet dogs and cats stimulates oxytocin in us, and that it’s very beneficial for both human and animal. Dogs especially are triggered by their bond with their human to produce oxytocin. Would it follow that our bond with pet birds could stimulate oxytocin in us and mesotocin in them? Why not? Oxytocin appears across species with only slight variations such as a single amino acid. https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/29517-oxytocin-across-species/#:~:text=The problem was that birds do not have oxytocin
Food sharing among bird flocks has been shown to trigger mesotocin. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eth.12990
We’ve all experienced being mobbed by our chickens when we bring them a treat, and everyone who has a dog knows the reaction a treat will cause. Is this activity producing mesotocin in our chickens and helping to create a bond? I believe it’s more than just possible.
I’ve had very skittish and shy roosters that I coaxed to trust me by hand feeding them and talking to them as a daily training exercise. Over several months, these roosters came to trust me and to permit me to handle them. Was I triggering mesotocin in their brains that assisted in creating the bond and trust that developed?
I would love to work with a scientist to study this, to measure levels of mesotocin in my chickens, both those that adore me and those that barely tolerate my presence. Unfortunately, the mesotocin in a blood sample I would take would degrade within minutes, so sending a sample to a lab would not be practical. As far as I know, no one is studying mesotocin levels in backyard chickens, but I don’t doubt for a minute that such a study would be immensely revealing.
Meanwhile, the fact is we produce oxytocin and our chickens produce mesotocin, and these hormone variations assist in bonding. That produces pleasurable feelings in us and probably also in our chickens. All I need in order to believe that my chickens are getting high off our snuggle sessions is to see those eyes close and to feel their little warm bodies melt into mine as we cuddle. Got to admit, I’m addicted, too.
Birds, reptiles and fish secrete a version of this hormone. However, it’s not quite as well studied as oxytocin in mammals, but what we do know is it works in similar ways to create bonds. It also assists in reproduction, laying eggs, and maternal care of the young as oxytocin does in the mammalian birth processes and care of young. This hormone may be what triggers the bond between a broody and her chicks, beginning with the first peeps the chicks make in the eggs. It may also explain why some of my older hens, seemingly out of the blue, decided to adopt chicks I had been brooding in my run where these hens had been observing them from the day I brought them home from the feed store.
Having kept chickens for going on two decades, I’ve had lots of very affectionate, tame and friendly chickens of many different breeds. I would say that, judging from my present flock of twenty, around half have been and are in this category. But for a while now, I’ve been giving serious study to why some are so extremely friendly while some will barely tolerate being handled, even after years of being in my flock, and all having been raised exactly the same. These differences are not always consistent within breeds, either. Could some of my chickens have more receptors for mesotocin hormone than the others? It could explain it.
Any of us who have hand raised baby chicks have found that handling them when new can have a taming effect, and a lot of that is in how we handle them. For example, we’ve known for years that hands thrust into the brooder from up above scare baby chicks the same as would a sky predator dive bombing them, while chicks being approached from the side are much less apt to be frightened and more likely to trust us. But my question is why do only half of these chicks remain tame and even seem to grow in their affectionate behavior? Is it because some have more receptors for mesotocin? It could explain it.
What causes this bond some of us have with our chickens and does this bond somehow change the chickens? Is it beneficial to us and our chickens? In what way? I do know that my friendly birds are more likely to get medical attention much sooner that my unfriendly birds simply because I’m able to interact more with the friendly ones. Could oxytocin and mesotocin be the key to understanding this special bond?
Mesotocin seems to be more active in female birds than in males. I do notice that my roosters have always maintained a certain reserve, never becoming the shameless love junkies that some of my hens are. Studies done on finches and canaries found that artificially increasing mesotocin in these birds causes them to become more social, but it’s mainly in the female populations this is apparent. https://phys.org/news/2009-08-scientists-common-link-bird-flocks.html These species are noted for their complex vocals, by the way, and only the boys sing.
When the young male birds are learning to sing, the role of mesotocin is a significant factor, and it acts strongly to cause the young birds to prefer learning songs from their own male caregiver. Mesotocin appears to strengthen existing bonds with familiar members rather than creating bonds with strangers. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cne.25338
This causes me to ponder the role of vocalization in the production of this hormone. Could it be mutually causative and self reinforcing? If so, could we, in talking to our baby chicks and older hens, trigger mesotocin in their brains to reinforce and continue to build a bond? There are no studies I’ve been able to find that suggest this, but I’m willing to hypothesize it could, given how this hormone works over diverse species.
Oxytocin studies on humans have found that having a close bond with our pet dogs and cats stimulates oxytocin in us, and that it’s very beneficial for both human and animal. Dogs especially are triggered by their bond with their human to produce oxytocin. Would it follow that our bond with pet birds could stimulate oxytocin in us and mesotocin in them? Why not? Oxytocin appears across species with only slight variations such as a single amino acid. https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/29517-oxytocin-across-species/#:~:text=The problem was that birds do not have oxytocin
Food sharing among bird flocks has been shown to trigger mesotocin. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eth.12990
We’ve all experienced being mobbed by our chickens when we bring them a treat, and everyone who has a dog knows the reaction a treat will cause. Is this activity producing mesotocin in our chickens and helping to create a bond? I believe it’s more than just possible.
I’ve had very skittish and shy roosters that I coaxed to trust me by hand feeding them and talking to them as a daily training exercise. Over several months, these roosters came to trust me and to permit me to handle them. Was I triggering mesotocin in their brains that assisted in creating the bond and trust that developed?
I would love to work with a scientist to study this, to measure levels of mesotocin in my chickens, both those that adore me and those that barely tolerate my presence. Unfortunately, the mesotocin in a blood sample I would take would degrade within minutes, so sending a sample to a lab would not be practical. As far as I know, no one is studying mesotocin levels in backyard chickens, but I don’t doubt for a minute that such a study would be immensely revealing.
Meanwhile, the fact is we produce oxytocin and our chickens produce mesotocin, and these hormone variations assist in bonding. That produces pleasurable feelings in us and probably also in our chickens. All I need in order to believe that my chickens are getting high off our snuggle sessions is to see those eyes close and to feel their little warm bodies melt into mine as we cuddle. Got to admit, I’m addicted, too.
