Chick noises at sunset?

[danib5446]

I'm a first time chicken owner and I have a two 5 week-old Australorps that make lots of sqeaky, peeping noises when it starts getting dark out. Is this normal chicken sunset behavior??

 

[devora]

My girls all chitter chat as they settle in for the night.

"I'm gonna sleep over here..."

"Oh, this is a good place!"

"Well, I wanna be next to Gertrude tonight, move over!"

"No need to push..."

They do the same routine every night, yammer yammer yammer.

 

[nurse_turtle]

Mine do that too. It's like a muted, content chatter. Seems like a calming down...

 

[Paul 1952]

I understand your concern and as we are first time chicken owners too. Have noticed the same behavior with our 6 new girls, 3 black & 3 red stars... 6 to 8 weeks old now, noticed it a little while they were in the brooder. But once they got moved to the tractor they really give it hell in the evening. We figure it's their 'goodnight John-boy' way... ;-) It's just a settling in for the night ritual they have and they'll start out pretty noisy and when I close the door to the coop area they'll amp it up a bit but then it will begin to diminish over the next few minutes or 15. Then it's just quiet peeps and such as they've settled in.
Odd thing is that the other birds in our yard do the same thing too, have a couple of Blue Spruce and a Red Fir in our yard that are well occupied. Just not so noticeable as they are scattered in the trees. And we're keeping a closer eye and ear on our little charges.

 

[tweetysvoice]

We just put out our 5 week old chicks into the coop last Friday. We've noticed that just at sunset they start doing the really loud cheep - almost the I'm lost and separated cheep, although they are right there together. My assumption is that because chickens can't see very well in the dark, that they are starting to get a bit anxious about the light going away. We put them into the coop and they keep up the loud chirps for about 5 minutes or so, then settle themselves down and start the light chatter that everyone above refers to. I'm sure that as they get older, they'll get more comfortable. My DS's chickens put themselves to bed as the sun starts going down. I can't wait for that to happen. He just has to close up the coop after they are all in there.

 

[RedDrgn]

Yep, perfectly normal. Ours used to absolutely shriek and go wild trying to get up on our shoulders and heads when the sun started going down.

 

[danib5446]

Thanks for all the informative replies everyone! That makes me feel better about these noisy chicks!

 

[3LilBirds]

My girls all chitter chat as they settle in for the night.

"I'm gonna sleep over here..."

"Oh, this is a good place!"

"Well, I wanna be next to Gertrude tonight, move over!"

"No need to push..."

They do the same routine every night, yammer yammer yammer.

 

[chickadee23]

my four ladies take themselves to bed and once i have closed the coop they start cchattering with each other then at sunset 1 lady will lay and the others are banging onthe door to come out. god forbid im late letting them out as they will give me a good telling off