Peck & Peck

How much does a rooster's success depend on his social position? At Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Alphaeus M. Guhl and Don C. Warren, fowl scientists, sought the answer to this question, financially important to poultrymen.

As casual observers discovered long ago, the social hierarchy in a chicken yard is as rigid as at any Army post. Each hen has a fixed position in the "pecking order": the No. i hen may peck all other hens, be pecked by none. No. 2 pecks all except No. i, is pecked only by her. The hen at the bottom of the social order, pecked by all, pecks none. Roosters too have a pecking order, but each rooster may peck and attempt to mate with all the hens.

For their experiment, Drs. Guhl and Warren chose three young roosters of different breeds (so that the chicks they fathered could be identified). Put in a pen with 36 pullets, each soon found his place in the rooster "pecking order."

A rooster's success with the hens is largely governed by the number of matings he can complete before other roosters interfere. Even in the close quarters of the experimental pen, the social preeminence of the top rooster (Alpha) discouraged interference. In 46 days, he attempted 175 matings, scored 112 successes. Rooster No. 2 (Beta) made 244 tries, succeeded only 54 times. Omega (the No. 3 rooster) made only eight tries, and did not succeed at all. Even when given a harem of his own, he sulked in impotent frustration.

The score in chicks was conclusive: Alpha, 221; Beta, 120; Omega, o.

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