3 mo old chick sang egg song???

[adcockfarm]

hi we have a three month old black australorp and she sang the egg song the other day. She has just been placed with the other adult hens and is getting chased and "nibbled" (not really a PECK most of the time) a lot. she flew up to the nesting boxes, (where she finds safety) and started singing it for 15-20 seconds. what does this mean?

 

[Poultry parent]

Sometimes they just sing it. Some of my hens sing it when they lay an egg, another sings it when she's mad, it really just depends on the bird

 

[Mace Gill]

hi we have a three month old black australorp and she sang the egg song the other day. She has just been placed with the other adult hens and is getting chased and "nibbled" (not really a PECK most of the time) a lot. she flew up to the nesting boxes, (where she finds safety) and started singing it for 15-20 seconds. what does this mean?

Even for an australorp she's at least a month early for laying. At a guess I'd say she was merely expressing her discontent from a safe distance

 

[adcockfarm]

yeah, she's still chirping. probably just angry.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

While it is known as "the egg song" the vocalization is not really related to the laying of an egg. Theory is that it started as being related to laying because, in flocks pre-domestication, the hen would leave the flock, nest down, lay her egg and then need to re-unite with the flock of fowl. To do this she would issue the call and the flock answers back (this is why, even today, other birds in the flock join the bird that just laid in *singing*)....essentially it is a chicken version of Marco-Polo. This call can be heard when a bird has become startled, has become separated (even just as much as being inside the coop while the rest of the flock is outside the coop, or around one side of a bush or any other situation that to a chicken brain = "oh my gosh, where's my flock????") or other situation that prompts a call/respond reaction....and, yet, they will do it when they lay and there are other birds right there in the coop with them.

 

[adcockfarm]

cool! i never knew that.

 

[RAsChickens]

My 14 week old barred rock sings it (and her buff orpington sisters join her) when I walk up to the coop! I yell "Here chick, chick, chick!" when I am coming to see them, and they start jumping around, squawking, and rush towards me! If I don't let them out of the run "in time" they squawk so loud I can hear them loud and clear from the house! It's not a crow, they just squawk really loudly!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are different chicken vocalizations that mean different things. Mine sometimes give a call very close to the "egg song" when they get nervous or excited, nothing to do with laying an egg or being separated. I think I can tell a difference in the calls sometimes but they really sound about identical. My rooster will sometimes join in too when they get going. Maybe the difference I hear is just the difference in which chicken is singing it, I don't know.

I tend to agree with OGM that it can be a separation call, where are you to the flock. But something I've noticed with a few roosters, not most but a few. When a hen lays the egg and starts the call, the rooster leaves the flock and goes to the hen, he then mates with her, and next leads her back to the flock. This makes sense as a hen that is laying eggs gets fertilized.

 

[RAsChickens]

There are different chicken vocalizations that mean different things. Mine sometimes give a call very close to the "egg song" when they get nervous or excited, nothing to do with laying an egg or being separated. I think I can tell a difference in the calls sometimes but they really sound about identical. My rooster will sometimes join in too when they get going. Maybe the difference I hear is just the difference in which chicken is singing it, I don't know.

I tend to agree with OGM that it can be a separation call, where are you to the flock. But something I've noticed with a few roosters, not most but a few. When a hen lays the egg and starts the call, the rooster leaves the flock and goes to the hen, he then mates with her, and next leads her back to the flock. This makes sense as a hen that is laying eggs gets fertilized.

I had my favorite (shh!) girl on the patio the other day. I set her down on the outdoor couch. She immediately jumped off and started frunning (my word for flapping wings and running at the same time)! I got up and followed her. She ran over to the coop and started squawking at her sisters. The reunion was so sweet, when I put her back in, she and her sisters started chatting and lay down in the shade together to dust bathe.