At what age do chicks voices change from those cute peeps, to nothing, or clucking. ANd what noise do roos make?(other than crowing)?
My girls are just over ten weeks, and they still peep. They sometimes make other sounds too, but they don't sound like chickens yet???
My oldest of 8 chicks was 8 wks old this past Friday, and she's been clucking for a couple of weeks, albeit with the occasional peepish interlude. The 7 wk old also clucks, AND "trills" when she's really happy, but she also still peeps now and then. I have one around 6 wks old that alternates - she peeps quite loudly a lot, but now and then makes some clucking sounds. Everybody younger than that all still peep. Oh, perhaps I should mention the breeds: EE 8 wks, Australorp 7 wks, EE 6 wks. The rest are various other breeds; I didn't want any of the same because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
My birds started clucking at 3 months. At first they peeped and clucked but it wasn't very long before they were just clucking.
Quote:Three or four months I seem to recall, as others have said, their voices change. But it's kind of a gradual change, and some change earlier than others. Roosters make all the same calls the hens make, and a mature rooster who takes charge of a flock of hens has other noises he makes as the leader of the flock (aside from the crowing, of course). Ours will make a quick little "alert cluck" sound to tell the hens when something unusual but not necessarily threatening appears, like a person or a large animal, or whatever. Then there is his "here's the food" call, which is an excited little gurgle of low-pitched clucks, that he uses to show the hens something edible he has found. They all sound similar to the uninitiated but they mean quite different things, and the hens respond accordingly. It's quite amazing actually the amount and complexity of the verbal and body language communication that goes on with the roosters.
