Chickens won't stop squawking loudly for no apparent reason

[southernmama47]

Hi all. I am extremely perplexed about some of my chickens. Two of them (a silkie and a BO) keep patrolling the yard and squawking loudly. I put them back into the coop and they get even louder. I am a city owner and I am starting to get seriously worried about my neighbors getting upset. I've tried calming them down with treats, petting, etc but nothing. Any idea whats up or how to stop it? They are about 5 months old (and none are laying yet)

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Are they saying, "bawk- bawk- bawk- bawk- bawk - BAGAAAAWK!!! - bawk - bawk -bawk" - and then it repeats?

If so, they are practicing the egg song. They practice it before they start laying.

Then, they usually sing it after they lay an egg every day. "The egg has been laid!" (I'm quoting another BYC'er- I forget who).

 

[mons02035]

From my experience, which isn't a lot..... They are getting ready to lay. My chickens got very vocal. I actually have a video of it.....

 

[All Ball]

My experience is there are 2 kinds of hen loudness:

1. Egg song bawking, which can be "I'm going to lay an egg," "I'm thinking about laying eggs," "I am laying an egg," "I laid an egg an hour ago," "I really want to lay an egg in my favorite nest and someone else is sitting in it," "I was trying to lay an egg and a bully drove me out," "Another girl just laid an egg," "One of my harem laid an egg," etc.

2. The kind that really, really, really annoys me: Begging, harassing, demanding very loud yells from hens with a sense of entitlement who think, despite my consistent efforts not to give them any ammunition, that I am present to meet their every whim and desire and they must demand I leave the house and meet their urge right this very moment. This only happens when they are hormonal typically; they are quiet as angels as pullets, or when molting or broody. I guess I might get hysterical if I gave birth every day....Apparently most chicken-keepers do not have these types of hens. I originally only had one hen like this, a BCM, but I think when she brooded my second generation of cream legbars she taught some of them some very bad habits. Now I have 3 noisy hens out of 6. One is slightly special needs and I think this aggravates her noise; she makes random outrageous screaming noises any time she thinks I should come out and give her something she can't get because she is 6 out of 6 in the pecking order.

A very few people (Olympia chicken guy is one notable example) have been able to train their chickens out of noisiness. My experience however has not been good in this area - it seems to me that the hens have no self-awareness of their vocalizations; it's pretty easy to train them in some areas, but very hard to train them around noise-making as they don't understand the connection between their noise and my actions of ignoring/yelling shut up and denying treats/aiming a stream of water toward them. I can see the confusion on their face. The entire flock takes my actions as being against the whole flock....They seem to have the impression that I am sort of a bipolar keeper who irrationally veers from cooing at them to yelling and threatening them with water. Accepting the noise or rehoming/culling seem to be the only solutions for most of us...

 

[Where The Wild Things Are]

I am going to watch this post with interest. I have 2 Black Copper Mirans that will do this. It makes a car alarm sound soothing! I know mine are both hens (about 9 months old) and they are CRAZY. Usually one will start, and the other will soon follow. Eggs, no eggs...morning, afternoon...full moon, no moon (kidding). They just seem to be in love with the sound of their own voice, and bawgak for no reason. Anyway, I think I'm going to have to re-home them. I too am a city dweller and I'm certain if their racket bothers me, it's bothering my neighbors (but their dogs bark...so neener neener). Maybe I can sell them to ADT as a house alarm

 

[kla37]

I count myself lucky after reading this. Only 2 of my hens feel the need to announce that they are going to lay an egg, are laying an egg, and that they have just laid an egg. The others do some egg singing too, but not for long and not terribly loud. My Barred rock is the loudest, she's also the top hen.

 

[babyrnlc]

My cornish did that the other day. It was weird. She had already laid her egg for the day, but the EE was in the nest. It was like she was cheering her on. She would go up the latter peak in and then go back out to the run. She did it until the EE came out and sure enough her egg was in there! MAybe she is a Doula Chicken?

 

[All4MrD8a]

We had chickens where the whole flock started being loud at the same time. It wasn't a predator. It wasn't an egg song. We couldn't figure it out.

Eventually, somebody with younger ears informed us that our girls were kvetching and another flock in the neighborhood would answer back. Gripe. Gripe. Gripe. Both flocks. Drove both families mad, and we couldn't figure it out.

 

[momto5ladies]

I'm no expert here but wanted to add my thoughts... my neighbors have really loud chickens, I hear them all the time and I LOVE it! While it is true that we have to be mindful of our neighbors, it never hurts to check with them as they might find it nice to be able to hear the chickens.

 

[southernmama47]

Is there a way to get them to quiet down? I mean, it's LOUD! And I'm really worried about upsetting my whole neighborhood

I'm not totally legal either...you can have 4 chickens but the coop has to be 100 ft from another house. Our coop is probably more like 50 ft. This squawking has gone on for hours...how long does it usually last?