How Chickens See the World (Its CRAZIER Than You Think)

Here's a question you probably haven't ever asked yourself. What do chickens actually see when they look at you? Well, it's not just the feed bucket they're looking at. Today, we're going to take a relatively deep dive into the world of a chicken's eyeball. And there's more to a chicken's eye than what meets the eye. By the end of this video, you're going to know why they bob their heads up and down, why they're scared of a dip net, and a lot more. To start with, chickens see color a lot better than humans do. If you remember from back in high school, humans have what they call trichromatic vision, meaning we have three types of color cones in our eyes. Red, green, and blue. On the screen is the color spectrum of visible light for humans. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. With green being in the center, which means green is the most visible light to humans. Just to the left side of the spectrum, outside of our ability to see, is infrared light. This is the light used in night vision goggles and those night vision hunting scopes. On the scope, there's a flashlight on the side of it that emits infrared light. But you have to look through that special optic to be able to see, because humans don't have the color cone to see it. It's also how modern game cameras take pictures at night. When you see the camera, you can watch it take a picture, but you can't see the flash. And further off that end of the spectrum is microwaves and radio waves. That's kind of irrelevant for the discussion, but we can't see those either. And off the other side of the spectrum that we can't see is ultraviolet light. And then further than that is x-rays and further than that is gamma rays. We can't see any of that either. Now that's us in a nutshell. But chickens, they have what they call tetrachromatic vision. They have four color cones. They have the same three as we do. Plus, they have the ability to see UV light, which is invisible to us. To put it in simple terms, your chickens have built-in UV goggles. And you may have wondered at some point, Why are they looking at me like that? When they give you that crazy side-eye or start bobbing their heads up and down. Well, they're seeing a you that you can't see. Their ability to see UV light helps them detect fine details that we just can't see. The type of clothes washing detergent you use will make a difference in how your chickens see you. That's why us deer hunters have to use special detergent when we wash our clothes in the washing machine. Because it really makes a difference on how animals see us. Now, if you're a deer hunter and you've never studied what laundry detergent does to visible light in your clothes, You should really look it up. Because it really makes a big difference. Let's just say you have a flock of 12 Rhode Island Reds. Just say. To you, it's really hard to tell them apart. All you see is 12 red chickens running around. But to them, it's no different than if you were out with, say, 11 or 12 of your friends. You can tell them apart. And a chicken can tell each other apart just as easy. Their ability to see UV light helps them detect patterns in their feathers that we can't even see. It's not so much which colors chickens can see that makes them unique, but it's how they see them. And what about movement? How can chickens pick up the tiniest little movements way faster than we can? Well, they have something called double cone photoreceptors in each eye. And that makes them super duper sensitive to movement. That's why they act all skittish when a leaf blows by or something that startles them. And especially if you hold up a dip net. A net to us just looks like a net. But to them, they can see the net, the color of the net, but they can also see the UV light reflecting off of each piece of string on that net. I would imagine that net to them looks like a big glowing disco ball. Those double cone photoreceptors also help them see polarized light. And I've read where some studies here recently have shown where it helps them see magnetic fields, but that's still being looked at. I don't know the idea or the science behind this just yet, but you probably noticed all the chicken feeders and all the chicken waters, most all of them are red. And I believe that's got to do with red not being, or bright red, not being something that's found in nature. So it makes them curious. And then that curiosity leads them to food or water or whatever you put in it. That's just me speculating. But one thing is for sure. They can see Grub Terra's black soldier fly larva, and they love it. Super high in protein and calcium, among other things chickens need. This is the best way to treat your chickens and facilitate consistent egg production. If you're looking for the highest quality chicken snacks on the market, their link and the 10% discount code will be in the description below. Now, back to that head bobbing thing. That's not just them being dramatic. They've got two fovea in each eye. One for close up and one for far away. So when they give you that side eye and start bobbing their head up and down, they're basically scanning you like a barcode. Think of it like this. They have the ability to see normal and through a magnifying glass at the same time. It's like having built-in bifocals. And with the ability to control each eye at one time with a 300 degree field of view, there's not much that can get by them. Built-in, hypersensitive, independent, dual magnification, ultraviolet light detecting super eyes until it gets dark. Despite their supercharged daytime vision, chickens are pretty much blind at night. They've got way fewer rods in their eyes, which means low light conditions, they're pretty much blind. So when the sun goes behind that live oak over there, my chickens turn into zombies. Frozen, confused, and extremely vulnerable. You can't have it all, I don't guess. And for the ones of you that use artificial lighting in your coop or in your chicken yards, it matters what kind of light you use. A fluorescent light to us looks fine, but to them, it looks like a strobe light and can really cause a lot of problems. So if you do use artificial light, try to find a good quality, soft LED light. I personally don't use artificial light at all anymore. I mean, I don't hate it, but I just don't do it. The next time you go outside and fool with your chickens, just remember to pay attention to how they're looking at you. They are scanning you like a barcode. They are analyzing what you're all about, and they're judging you. Through a set of eyes that's seeing the world in a lot more color than we're seeing it. Anyway, until next time, God bless.