Chicken Eyeglasses
34 comments
·June 11, 2025WD-42
dvh
I had a theory, long supported by things like astatine, quantum computing or graphene, that if top-right Wikipedia image doesn't contain photo then the subject is either not real or not practical.
MaDeuce
And contact lenses too. A HBS case study I remember from grad school:
"Optical Distortion, Inc" A new product, contact lenses for chickens, is to be introduced by a small firm formed to market the product. An entry strategy must be planned including price, sales force, size, and location. Allows data for computation of economic benefit to farmers. Includes state-by-state chicken population data for planning a rollout sales program.
conradev
Looks like he actually tried it:
But some ideas cannot be crushed by bankruptcy and the dream of providing lenses to all of America’s hens was carried on by the son of one of Vision Control Inc.’s founders, a young Mr. Randall Wise. Wise, a Harvard Business school graduate and former nautical shipping consultant, used the millions he made from selling his software company to establish Animalens, Inc.
Instead of pecking at each other (success!), the hens were now pecking at the air, rubbing their eyes repeatedly on their wings, and suffering from corneal ulcers and ruptured eyes.
Aardwolf
The article talks in the past tense, but doesn't mention what it got replaced with.
Searching for it reveals pink plastic chicken glasses for sale today, so they still seem to exist. Or maybe those are blinders instead
raptorraver
Nowadays they do the same using red lights in industrial egg production, if pecking becomes a problem in a flock.
thomassmith65
I looked this up after hearing about them on ABC's If You're Listening podcast: https://abc.net.au/listen/programs/if-youre-listening/skunk-...
kylecazar
Well, I know more about abnormal injurious behavior in birds than I did an hour ago
ortusdux
A friend had a job in the 70's at a research lab, and one of their duties was to use a hot iron to curl the beaks of each incoming batch of chicks, to help prevent pecking. They called the tasking "giving the chickens lips". I like the glasses solution a bit better.
miohtama
Is the driver of behaviour having too many chickens packed in too small space?
chmod775
No. Chickens have a tendency to gang up on sick and injured chickens and quite literally peck them to death.
This has been observed long before we started cramming them into tiny spaces, but it certainly doesn't help.
spookie
As a rural guy can confirm.
Also, the males, become quite agressive past 4 months of age. They also grow sizeable spurs hard as nails, usually these are trimmed if you have more than one rooster. Roosters will attempt to kill chicks occasionally, although they usually do a great job protecting them from predators. They are able to scare foxes sometimes :)
wormius
We owned this game growing up: https://magisterrex.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/the-best-classi...
It has those goggles in it. Still remember fondly to this day (not the game, the chicken goggles).
WastedCucumber
I don't get it though - how does this help prevent pecking? The only reasoning seems to be in the 1911 article, where it suggests they're made to protect the chickens' eyes.
07d5602d5e488e3
end of the first paragraph
> the coloring was thought to prevent a chicken wearing them from recognizing blood on other chickens, which may increase the tendency for abnormal injurious behavior
Levitating
> One variety used rose-colored lenses, as the coloring was thought to prevent a chicken wearing them from recognizing blood on other chickens
So that's only relevant tot the rose-colored variant.
I think the answer lies in this quote right above it:
> They differ from blinders in that they allow the bird to see forward, whereas blinders do not.
Where "blinders" is a hyperlink to an article concerning blinders for chickens.
That article has a piece comparing blinders to spectacles:
> Blinders work by reducing the accuracy of pecking at the feathers or body of another bird, rather than spectacles which have coloured lenses and allow the bird to see forwards but alter the perceived colour, particularly of blood.
But this again only refers to the coloured lenses, which in the article was said to be a variant.
So my understanding is that both blinders and spectacles work by restricting the vision of the bird but the spectactles additionally had a rose-colored variant.
bbarnett
You must have missed this in the wikipedia page, but they're hinged.
So when they look down (which for a chicken means bending their neck), they can see the ground and their feed.
When looking ahead, their vision is obscured and blurry, opaque, so they won't attack or eat other chickens.
(the red is an additional option)
tomcam
Chickens are hilarious and surprisingly adorable. All plans of eating ours went right out the window when I brought home the first wave of day-old chicks.
They can be very mean to each other. “Pecking order” is literally true and the results can be heartbreaking. Ours have never pecked each other’s eyes, thank heaven, but I’m guessing most of that is from the roosters, not the hens. Roosters can get disgustingly rapey and have to be separated from the hens, who can get seriously injured during the mating process.
natmaka
I heard from someone who raised chicken that they are way more agressive towards each other when their diet lacks adequate proteins.
eMPee584
Low Protein intake => low neurotransmitter levels => lower emotional balance / control is a causal chain I've learned about a few years ago from a therapist named Julia Ross who treated thousands of patients with this insight and published three books about it, the most recent one (The craving cure) being a comprehensive practical resource about this phenomenon. It seems to be a major factor in depression, addiction, obesity, and dysfunctional social behaviour.. and little surprise it affects chicken, too.
In my view, we have massive problems (child brain development, social problems) in the world because of protein scarcity, as capitalism excels providing everyone with ample cheap carbs but cheap sustainable protein, not so much. I dream of open source bioreactors for algae (spirulina etc) too boost availability of Protein & Omega 3 (which is another hugely undersupplied nutrient, esp. in non-coastal regions and as appetite for sunflower-fried batter goes up, because Omega 6 cancels out 3).. here in Dresden, we have a small start-up https://algenwerk.de that is trying to commercialize it but the cost really has to be brought down a lot, rn one jar is about 8€ for some green goo that tastes like nothing, but it has potential and they are a talented team.
uncircle
> Chickens are hilarious and surprisingly adorable.
They are, but also extremely dumb. I always think of Herzog's rant about chickens and their stupidity.
As they are literal dinosaurs, the terrifying aspect of gigantic carnivore sauropods with the "intelligence" of a chicken has never been properly depicted in movies.
dyauspitr
>disgustingly rapey
This anthromorphization is deeply annoying. What next? Turtles don’t care about age of consent?
rendall
I was a tourist in Athens once. Adjacent to the Presidential Mansion is the National Garden, quite lovely. At the time it had a miserable little zoo. In one of the cages was a pair of bedraggled hens. Their backs were entirely bare of any feathers. The reason they were bedraggled and bare was because they were locked in with a rooster. That rooster would mount and rut with them every four seconds or so, all day long, every day. It was one of the most cruel and grotesque tableus I've ever seen.
spookie
That's normal rooster behaviour even when free range. Farmers separate them most of the time.
bowsamic
We have indoor rabbits and our boy rabbit often mounts the female one (they are both neutered). What else is there to call it but rape? He mounts her, she rejects it and runs away, he insists, eventually she has enough and they have a fight. It’s basically impossible to not call it rape
null
smusamashah
I can not find pictures of chicken wearing those particular glasses depicted in this Wikipedia article.
The fact that this article doesn’t include any images of chickens wearing said goggles is an injustice.