3 am Crowing and Midnight Egg Songs

[SkyWarrior]

What's wrong with my chickens?

Last night, it was the 3 am crowing. I keep a light on in the barn at night and it had gone out (switch needs replacing, methinks). At 3 am, I think the light came back on and Crooked Toes decided to let everyone know. Good thing husband wasn't around.

Tonight, I start hearing squawking, but nothing from the geese. I drive down to the barn and shine the light on the birds to make sure everyone is okay. Yep, they are. Then, I realize this was the first egg song I've actually heard from the peeps.

No eggs, though. MIFChick had already laid hers late afternoon. What's with it with these birds? I thought they were supposed to be early risers. Instead, they mimic my bad habits of getting up late and going to bed late.

 

[Mahonri]

Might a predator have found it's way into the coop at that hour... and instead of an egg song, it was an alarm?

 

[flgardengirl]

You could probably wean them off thier light pretty soon. I found these cool flashlights at home depot that come in different colors. They have a glowstick on one end, flashlight on the other, and also a whistle. The cool thing about them though is that they turn off by themselves after 15-20 minutes.

I had some younger ones that I had the light left on and the little roo would wake up in the middle of the night and crow, so I weaned them off thier light. Now the only time I get noise is if there is actually something out there / if something trips the security lights that I have near the pen they freak out a little.
You could get a game cam and set up to see if you are having a predator issue..

 

[urbanfarmer101]

My mom's rooster crows all the time. You can go out at 2am and hear that silly bird. I am not sure he ever sleeps. Guess he is just might proud of his crow and of what a fantastic job he is doing. She is just bribing the neighbors with eggs. Guess if you cannot keep one quiet, you try to keep the other quiet.

 

[NHchicks]

My rooster used to crow at any and every time of day. Till I finally gave him away. Now it's pretty peaceful. But I do have to say that when I've heard an "egg song" at night it's a pretty sure thing a predator has been coming by to sniff things out. Can't get into my coop thank goodness, but still enough to frighten the group.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
That's what I thought and I went to check. Nothing. The geese, who are in the pen right next to them, said nothing -- which is very uncharacteristic of them.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
I'm hesitant to shut the lights off entirely because we live in an area with a huge predator population. Not just raccoons and foxes, but bears, wolves, coyote, bobcat, lynx, and other varmints. My thoughts are at least they would squawk and warn me before something got to them. The coop is actually in the barn and I keep two bulbs on away from them to keep them safe enough.

 

[flgardengirl]

Do you have motion detector security lights? We have a lot of predators here too (big cats, owls, fox, gators, coyotes, racoons, etc. ...not to mentions nieghbors dogs which has been the worst problem grrr.) because it is a wooded area etc. and that is what I use. The lights are mounted outside the run/coop and will click on for about 10 min when something trips it. When the lights go on the chicks are alerted because of the windows in thier coop (these are very secure windows) and if something approaches they will definitely squawk lol. The roos are the biggest drama queens and I can hear them up at the house even though they are an acre or so back from the house. Sometimes the lights will help to deter predators.

I know you guys prob have way more preds than us though lol , I used to live near Cody, WY for several years, not far from the east gate of Yellowstone and we had a ton there. I guess the added light inside would help the chickens get away from the predators more easily and buy a little time if something broke into the barn....

 

[flgardengirl]

I just had another thought about the inside light. How about if you used a red light...not the heat light kind but a simple red light bulb? They could still see and red lights are soothing to chickens maybe they wouldn't want to crow or lay eggs as much lol.