They made their chicken wear red eyeglasses! The insight was simple. The sight of red-coloured blood intensified the pecking instinct in chickens. The red eyeglasses tricked the chicken from seeing the red colour of the blood, thus reducing pecking and even cannibalism.
These colored the world slightly red, but also disguised the sight of blood, which prevented the chickens from mobbing an already-wounded comrade. The most complicated lenses were attached to the top of the eyeglass frame on little hinges, like pet doors.
One query we ran across in our research was “Why do chickens have red lenses in their glasses?”.
This variety of eyeglasses was more complicated than others because the red lenses were fixed to a hinge at the top of the frame. This meant that as the hen lowered its head to feed, the lens swung out giving the hen an unobstructed view of the ground.
Why do chickens wear glasses?
The intended purposes of chicken eyeglasses were to prevent aggressive pecking, cannibalism, and feather pecking. Chicken eyeglasses are an alternative to beak trimming, which is the removal of approximately one-third of the beak by a cold or heated blade, or an infrared beam, usually when chicks are one day old.
Do red-tinted lenses reduce pecking injuries in chickens?
This is often effective in reducing pecking injuries, but causes pain and has significant effects on chicken welfare. Red-tinted lenses were considered to be effective in reducing internecine pecking because they disguise the color of blood.
Do chickens have good eyesight?
(In fact, chickens, like other birds, have good color vision. ) The firm had added the rose-colored feature to its glasses in 1939 under the brand name “Anti-Pix”. This variety of eyeglasses was more complicated than others because the red lenses were fixed to a hinge at the top of the frame.
Why do chickens peck each other when they see red?
When the chickens held their heads upright the red lenses rendered the birds color-blind, eliminating their ability to detect raw flesh and blood. You see, chickens are instinctively cannibalistic and have a natural tendency to peck one another.
What are chicken glasses and how do they work?
Andrew’s patented chicken glasses were basically an early version of safety glasses for poultry. They were meant to help protect chickens from getting their eyes pecked by other birds in the flock.
Are chicken eyeglasses still used today?
Using chicken eyeglasses was still practiced in 1973, evident by a report in Illinois’ The Hawk-Eye newspaper that a farmer had 8,000 chickens fitted with the rose-colored variety. One inventor of a form of the glasses proposed legislation in Kansas to require all chickens in the state to be fitted with glasses, but his campaign was unsuccessful.