What is the pecking order and how does it work among chickens and livestock?
The pecking order is a social hierarchy that chickens and most livestock immediately establish when grouped together. Agricultural college researchers coined the term after observing chickens: every flock, large or small, sets up a ranking, and the animal at the bottom never tries to compete with the one at the top.
Les explains that the term was coined by agricultural college researchers who watched chickens and realized that in every flock, whether small or large, the birds immediately set up a pecking order. He notes the same is true in most livestock, including cattle: when you put a bunch of them together, they quickly establish their pecking order. The one at the bottom will never try to compete with the one at the top. Les uses this as an analogy for human behavior, noting that people also establish a pecking order, and that abuse can pass down generations as an abusive father abuses his wife, who turns on the children, who then need someone to go on.