
Chicken Hypnotism - ag8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_hypnotism
======
zbjornson
By far the best part of the article:

> The United States military when trying to avoid divulging information gives
> reporters briefings with 25 minutes of intentionally dull PowerPoint
> presentations and 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone who is
> still awake. The presentations are called hypnotizing chickens.

~~~
_def
also this:

> Notable people who have discussed chicken hypnotism:

> \- Werner Herzog. "known to hypnotize chickens; he also hypnotized the cast
> of his 1976 film Heart of Glass"

I wanna watch this movie now.

From the movies own wikipedia article:

> During shooting, almost all of the actors performed while under hypnosis.
> [...] The hypnotized actors give very strange performances, which Herzog
> intended to suggest the trance-like state of the townspeople in the story.
> Herzog provided the actors with most of their dialogue, memorised during
> hypnosis. However, many of the hypnotised actors' gestures and movements
> occurred spontaneously during filming.

------
ivanhoe
Is this really a hypnosis or just some primal defense system that kicks in,
like "snake ahead, freeze". I had a pet python and I know for a fact that
snakes will only eat moving food, if you just leave a dead mouse snake will
not touch it (same as frogs and many other lizards and amphibians). Pray needs
to move to attract the interest. So if you don't want to get eaten by a snake
the perfect defense is exactly this, don't move a muscle, stand very still.
And many animals have "hard-wired" defense against snakes, for instance like
cats get scared by cucumbers and other snake like shapes, although they never
seen a snake in their life. Just a wild theory of course, but it might be
that?

~~~
sandworm101
It isn't real hypnosis. It is the brain being hit with unusual or overwhelming
stimulus and is basically blue-screening, locking up the entire system until
something kicks it out of the loop and causes a reboot. Similar things happen
to sharks if you put them upside down, or to deer caught in headlights at
night. Unable to process what is happening, their brains just lock up.

Drawing the line probably forces the chicken's eyes to follow the object out
of its stereo vision. Birds have amazing stereo vision right in front of their
faces (so they don't smash their beaks when pecking at things). Trying to
track an object moving directly out of this space might be just unusual enough
to cause a system crash.

~~~
YokoZar
Deer in headlights is probably a much simpler explanation - their eyes+pupils
are adapted to the dim light, and sudden application of headlights is
blinding.

If you were suddenly blinded, you probably wouldn't respond by running either.

~~~
sandworm101
It's more complex than that. If I shine a light at you in the dark it will
hurt. You will close your eyes, look away or shield your face. The deer don't
even blink, the most primitive response to bright light. They are transfixed
like the chicken.

~~~
DecoPerson
Because looking away may lead to death.

When does a deer naturally get suddenly exposed to blinding light? Ignoring
the response of "ah it's bright, look away" avoids false positives
accidentally getting the deer killed. Actual positives never occurred during
night time until humans developed artificial illumination.

------
luc4sdreyer
In this demonstration, the rooster doesn't even mind having its leg pulled and
prodded. I wonder how much discomfort it will endure before snapping out of
it.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_Up5UdwG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_Up5UdwG0)

~~~
rkagerer
The rooster video is worth watching for the ending.

------
wybiral
I have a small flock and can confirm a similar "hypnotic" behavior. Sometimes
when my rooster is being a punk I'll pick him up while I feed the rest. If he
keeps trying to attack me I hold him on his back and he almost instantly falls
"asleep".

Curiously enough, one of my hens managed to do this to herself on accident.
She flew up on a fence and somehow got her spur caught in it (yes, some hens
have spurs too). That resulted in her falling and basically hanging upside
down by her foot. But instead of struggling she just went limp. I ran over to
get her down and after being upright she slowly came back to (she was fine).

------
kart23
I love chickens. Lots of fond memories chasing after hens in my grandpa's
backyard as a kid. We would put a basket over them, and ten minutes later, a
fresh egg would appear. And then ten minutes later I would be eating scrambled
eggs for breakfast.

~~~
nickpsecurity
Their sounds and movements are just really funny to me. They can also have
interesting personalities. On occasion, one or two will be fairly smart in a
tactical way, too. (Goats are similar.) Our family had them at different
times.

One thing I saw in action was the Pecking Order. The alphas were jerks to the
younger and smaller ones. They'd even eat when they probably weren't hungry.
Starving them. So, I enjoyed chasing them away or holding them while the
others got to eat first. I'm sure their massive egos suffered a great deal
watching that display. Haha.

------
daveslash
Holy cow, it's real. I had chickens as a kid growing up and I was told this. I
tried it; never succeeded. The only thing I learned was that chickens don't
like having their heads grabbed. I just assumed it was some rural urban-
legend.

~~~
blarg1
When I had chickens, if I tried to grab them I would get a face full of
feathered wings

------
bacon_waffle
This just moved "build henhouse" several steps up on my TODO list... Tempted
to follow the spirit of this one:
[https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-ufo-chicken-
spac...](https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-ufo-chicken-spaceship-
coop-that-is-out-of-this-world.73235/)

~~~
feedbeef
The chicken gravitron is full of flair, but to work gardening into the
picture, I've settled on this for now:

[http://www.bbqzoo.com/22-UFO-BBQ-COVER-
UF22A.htm](http://www.bbqzoo.com/22-UFO-BBQ-COVER-UF22A.htm)

[https://www.backwoodshome.com/save-time-and-energy-with-
the-...](https://www.backwoodshome.com/save-time-and-energy-with-the-fenced-
chicken-coopgarden/)

~~~
bacon_waffle
The approach in the second link seems like a great compromise between free
ranging and a chicken tractor, thanks!

------
hhs
Are there neurological explanations about why this happens? Does this also
happen to other animals?

~~~
Ididntdothis
I believe there is a thing where sharks get turned over and stop moving.

~~~
iscrewyou
Orcas use this technique to turn sharks upside down, induce tonic immobility,
and then eat out the liver and leave rest of the carcass...

[https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-
immobility](https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility)

~~~
ignoramous
Here's a relevant news.yc discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15723393](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15723393)

Amazing.

------
saagarjha
Related: what’s the verdict on cat scruffing? Does it work? Should you do it
to adult cats?

~~~
Gustomaximus
It works. You can also tie something around the middle of a cat like a
teatowel and it has the same effect.

I used this to train a cat not to walk on my desk. Kept a teatowel and would
do this every time for for a bit when ever it walked across my keyboard/papers
while I was working.

Not sure if was ethical... Cat didnt seem in any discomfort, just annoyed it
was stuck there. Was a while ago so not sure but seemed to train it ~5 times.

------
man2525
Sideshow (actual) geeks used this trick to keep chickens from wriggling when
they bit their heads off. Heard so from my dad. Not sure where he heard it.
Avid reader, but he was a journalist in the 1970s and early 1980s. He might
have heard it from someone he interviewed. Maybe Red Skelton, as he would have
been alive in an era that allowed it, and would have needed work in either a
sideshow or circus.

------
KhoomeiK
This is why I always click Wikipedia articles linked on HN. Gold.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the way chickens use their eyes too.
They're unable to move their eyes to account for movement so they instead
repeatedly move their head once their body has moved more than a threshold
amount, resulting in the typical strutting motion of their head.

------
EGreg
More generally

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death)

------
cafard
And it occurs in Charles James Portis's novel _Norwood_ , which is worth
reading for many reasons...

------
ruang
Tim Ferriss recently had a podcast with a famous Stanford physics PhD on
hypnosis [https://tim.blog/2019/08/16/safi-
bahcall/](https://tim.blog/2019/08/16/safi-bahcall/)

