[Carla]

Right then. My 2, 7 week old chicks are in the laundry room until their coop arrives on Wednesday. They are naturally wary of everything, but when I was sorting the washing yesterday and today...everytime I folded something blue, they backed as far away from me as they could and cheeped their heads off as if they were really scared!?! I held up different coloured items (how my days fly by!!) and they weren't bothered by anything except the blue things. Is it me being silly, or could they be genuinely bothered by the colour blue?? Please dont phone the men in the white coats

[evie2]

That would be an interesting PhD study 

[joyfull]

I have a blue eglu coop and my chickens love it (at one stage I had 10 large fowl and 2 bantams all trying to sleep in it  )  

[Carla]

I wonder what it was then?? They were definately spooked by blue things?? I'm going to find out my sons 'learn your colours' books and test them tomorrow Maybe it's trousers vs t-shirts issue

[Lindeggs]

Chickens can definitely see in colour and react differently to different colours.  E.g. they will often peck at red things.

I was talking to the neighbour's builder the other day who said he was working at a house over a couple of days.  The first day he wore a blue shirt with no problem.  Next day he wore a yellow shirt and the chickens panicked and hid from him all day.  The owner told him she has the same problem if she wears yellow.

Check out this video starting at around 1:35 where the chicken shows she can distinguish between blue, red and yellow:
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In that video you could say it's the contrast rather than the colour that makes the difference but there are plenty of others showing other colour distinctions where contrast isn't an issue.