What sorts of noises do your chickens make?

[janf1914]

I joke and say our 9 wk. old pullets are part duck. If they are upset, like when you pick them up when they don't want to be picked up, they squawk with almost a ducklike sound!

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Married to a wonderful, handy husband with 3 beautiful daughters and 4 silly chickens - 1 BO, 1 Production Red, 1 EE, and 1 GLW

 

[ChickyLove]

Right now my three littles still "peep". The only thing is, they peep in a bunch of different ways. We have the:

soft chirrupy peep when they are falling asleep

screechy peep when they are racing after food

loud obnoxious peep when they are trying to one up one another

excited peep when they are let out for play time

snuggly happy peep when they are roosting on my lap

"get the heck away from me" peep when the cat gets too close

and

"holy cow, it's music! let's sing!" peep.


They are very communicative and SO much fun to listen to and watch!

 

[centrarchid]

As chicks mature and their voices change multiple times, those different peeps will become easier to distinguish. If you listen closely you should even be able to distinguish sex based on pitch and other subtle differences in their vocalizations. I am very confident they can recognize each as individuals by sound alone and you may be able to do as well. I can now recognize birds of front yard flock by calls alone.

 

[ChicKat]

In the book Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens , Gail Damerow explains a researcher identified 30 distinct sounds made by chickens and goes on to explain some of the meanings of chicken communications.

What great birds they are!!!

My chickens are mostly low key---- but if they want something from me they get a little louder--- It is all very amusing.

 

[hudsonhousechicks]

When our Buff Orpington, Hazel sits in the nestbox I change her name to Kitty. If she even THINKS that you are going to approach her she makes a high pitched sound that reminds me very much of a cat. Otherwise she's very quiet. Our rooster makes a lot of different sounds. The one that I find the most entertaining is his gorilla sound. When he finds something that he wants to show the girls he makes a excited, low pitched and repetitive sound. He sounds like a big ape. When he chases my husband and rams chest first into his legs he makes a dull thump. Yes. The chickens are forever entertaining : )

 

[la-pro]

I only have two chicks, and I can definitely tell them apart by sound. In fact, I named them by the different calls. Percy was a big complainer for the first month, and she makes a long whistle-like chirp. Pippy has a very quiet and short little "pip!" As they are getting older, they still have different sound making habits, but it's developing a little bit. Pippy keeps looking like she's trying to make mature chicken sounds but she can't do it yet. She opens her mouth and her throat moves up and down but no sound comes out. LOL

 

[centrarchid]

They can produce more than 30 distinct sounds. My games have a larger vocabulary than dominiques and red jungle fowl have an even larger vocabulary. More would have been noted it birds in more complex environment with rival flocks and more predators.

 

[gordonburrito]

My favorite is the growl our top hen gives to the others when they approach to steal a particularly tasty morsel. It usually stops them dead in their tracks followed by a hasty retreat

Before they got their big girl voices there was a whole range of vocalizations from peep cluck combos to goose like honks. Each hen now has their own cluck pattern and "sound". I can identify them from a distance and sometimes figure out what is setting them off based on the chicken and the vocalization they are giving. For example, Foxy or Edna go off if they've hopelessly lost their flock after laying. Scrappy, on the other hand, will only go off is somebody is in her nest box when she wants to lay. Jasmine will get loud if she's hurried out of her nest box by another hen. They even have different calls for different types of perceived predator threats......that can be anything from a stray dog to a hawk to a confused rabbit who runs by them and startles the flock.

 

[confusedturtle]

awww thanks for all of the replies, I hope I will get good enough to tell who is who by their sounds. We should be finishing the coop/run this weekend and my kids will be out of school soon so I will be able to spend more time enjoying all of them (kids & chicks) and see how they all relate and get along

 

[delfargo]

i have found that having chickens is like having your own little "nature show". when we sit out in the evenings and watch the chix in thier pen, we say we are watching "chicken t.v.". it is a very funny show, but also very educational. we are learning what all the different sounds mean, but there is one sound that has us baffled.
you ever hear the one that sounds like someone is strangling a baby? a cross between a high pitched "shreek" and a kind of "gurgling" noise? i can never tell who's doing it or why.
"chicken t.v." is great... and it's never a re-run. always something new to make you laugh and always something interesting to learn.