poor chicken, she probably just got it really dizzy.

"A chicken's brain is pretty much just a one-way system connecting the chicken's senses to the chicken's body. Without any input, the brain just sort of switches off.

Putting the chicken's head under its wing deprives it of vision and muffles sounds. The swinging motion disrupts its sense of position in space. Lost and confused, the bird gives up and goes to sleep."

This actually sounds cruel to me. Compare to it to your mind being shut in a dark room and then spun around. Why put an innocent living creature through a confusing ordeal? It will sleep when it wants to.

More amusing is to flip the chicken over on her back and draw a circle or line in her line of sight. The chicken will be "hypnotized" for a few minutes and not move.

How is it cruel if the chicken uses these techniques on itself? It puts itself to sleep by putting it's head under it's wing typically nightly.

Comparing this to darkening and spinning a room for a human is different. We still think and try to process the situation. I wish someone could shut off my brain like a chicken.

Another way to put a chicken to sleep is to put the chicken standing on the ground and run your finger along the dirt from its under her beak to about 6 inches straight in front of it over and over again. It takes about 10 "lines" in the dirt until it just kinda snoozes off. I don't know if it gets bored or hypnotized or what, but it's cute to watch.

I tried this with my Buff Orpington - I got as far as tucking her head under her wing and she went to sleep. The Easter Egger wasn't having any of it, though.

WOW.

I know a total of ZERO about chickens, but what does this accomplish? I mean, why do you need a chicken to fall asleep? I know why my toddler needs to sleep... but is there an insomnia issue with poultry? This is so weird.

I don't know how cruel it is or whatever, but i do know this: this is a famous, well-known trick that kids do. I had encountered one such youtube vid once, showed it to my mom (who grew up on a farm) and she was like, "oh yeah, my brothers and his friends used to do that all the time when we were kids. Take 15 of them, line them up asleep, and then create some huge racket, waking them all up at the same time, creating a panic of feathers". so there you go.

Back in 4-H we used to "hypnotize" the chickens when we needed to move them, or crate them - much easier with a sleepy chicken than with a wide-awake, squawky one! As for cruelty, they never seemed to mind much.

This is so Martha.

Ah, chickens are stupid. They don't care as long as you're not hurting them physically.

The chicken uses a similar technique to sleep, however it does not have a human hand manipulating it's neck just for the sheer fun of it. Either way, all life needs to be respected.

Noadi: YES!! My mom showed me how to hypnotize a chicken when I was young. I've not found anyone else who ever heard of it until now. Thank you for proving I'm not crazy!

Every minute the chicken finds itself still alive, I'm sure it has chicken-joy.
Maybe a hypnotist could give it a post hypnotic suggestion to walk and talk like a human whenever it hears keys jangling.
Now that would be hypnotism!

Having a person care about it enough to put it to sleep by actually touching it is a better fate than most US chickens endure. If I were a chicken and I had a choice between being on a farm with some kids who occasionally put me to sleep this way or being in an industrial ag warehouse, laying cage, or something of the like, I'd choose the farm for sure!

this is just a "fun" thing. the chicken will stay "asleep" for only 30 seconds or so. So it is by no means are caring gesture