Chickens and color

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Question

Chickens and color: Is there any difference in the eating behavior of chickens who are exposed to red and yellow colors or to a different variety of colors?

Answer
Just like we humans, chickens enjoy the ability to see full color spectrum, with normal visual health.

I've heard that humans benefit, in different ways, from certain colors. Some colors are more restful, other colors may stimulate appetite, activity and creativity.

Red and yellow are colors that stand out in just about any color scheme, so I imagine that the red and yellow colors of chicken waterers and some feeders may initially attract their attention and help them recognize location of feed and water from a distance. Once they know where food and water are, they remember.

In all my years of keeping chickens, I've never noticed a difference in chickens' eating habits from a grey galvanized feeder to a red plastic feeder, to scratch scattered on the ground.

In my opinion, when hungry chickens find a source of good food, they eat their fill, or eat until there is no more.

The only way I could fully answer your question would be to set up controlled environments for chickens, exposing them to different colors, to see if color seemed to make a difference to them.

There would be so many variables, that a truly scientific approach would probably not be cost effective unless resources were unlimited. I know research has been done to choose the most appealing colors to draw chickens attention to feed and water. Yellow and red probably stand out the most.

Since this curiosity has peaked your interest, possibly you would like to experiment and get back to us?

If you find that chicks eat better and are healthier when exposed to certain colors, or hens lay more eggs, I'm sure that would be information we would all be interested in reading.