What the heck? Ollie is practicing the egg song!

gritsar

Cows, Chooks & Impys - OH MY!
14 Years
Nov 9, 2007
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SW Arkansas
My pullets should be laying any day now. Both my layer pullets and the rescue cornish are 18 weeks old, as of today.

I'm not real concerned with when they will lay, be it now or in the spring. I am kinda excited for the rescues to lay. The farmer that gave them to me took a look at them last week and said it should be any time for them; plus, the rescues have been squatting for their roo (Ollie) for about a week now.

Ollie the rescue roo is the alpha of my combined juvenile flock, but he's so big there's not much he can do about the antics of my other cockerel.

Anyhow, Ollie has been singing the egg song at random times today. I know it's the egg song. There's nothing else that sounds quite like it.

I just can't figure out why he's doing it when the pullets haven't started laying yet. If it was the pullets practicing it I could understand, but the roo?
 
Back in the days before domestication, a hen would leave the flock to find a good hiding place to lay her egg. She would quietly slip into her nest and lay the egg where she hoped it would escape notice of things that eat eggs. She also hoped to escape notice of things that eat hens that are laying eggs. As she completed her business, she would hop off the nest and yell to her flock (and anything else around), "I just laid an egg. Where are you, oh rest of my flock, so I can come join you?" So the egg song is basically a call to her flock that says I'm lost and want to join you.

Although Ollie may be in the middle of his flock, he is obviously lost and lonely. You do get strange chickens.
 
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AMEN!
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I have to say it's been fun watching Ollie and the rest of the rescues learn to be chickens. It's also funny to watch Ollie when Impy tries to mate one of Ollie's girls. Ollie gets so mad! He tries to chase Impy, but just can't keep up.
I basically have a flock within a flock. Though they live together, Ollie wants nothing to do with the layer pullets. Now if Impy would just learn to leave Ollie's girls alone.
 
That is too funny! I was just going to aks if a rooster sings the egg song. I am pretty sure one of my Dominiques is a rooster, I heard the egg song and it was him! Although I am not 1oo% sure that he is a he, I am pretty sure! He was kinda off by himself, so he could have been calling the girls!
 
Carl sings the Egg Song when some of his girls lay eggs. It's so odd, because he SOMETIMES joins the chorus once it's started, but sometimes he sings the Egg Song after one of the girls who DON'T sing have laid an egg.

Like he wants the flock to know even if the lady is shy about it.
 
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Well I never heard the pullet that laid the first egg sing, so she must be real quiet about it. Ollie on the other hand seems to think it's the greatest thing in the world. He sang all day yesterday.
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That might just be it. Ollie is funny and sweet and a whole lot of other things.
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I love watching him take a dust bath. He's so big you'd swear the ground was shaking. He really seems like he's very content.
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