Chicken clucking following egg laying (so called song) questions

[Hobbits Mommie]

does your neighbor supplement lighting for winter laying and turn on the light at 3:30 am? I supplement the lighting in the evening for that reason. My roosters will not crow before the break of dawn.

No, but he has a light pole in the yard that pretty much lights up the entire property.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Danger and Egg song are similar.
I can see my chickens from my house. If one hen is strutting her stuff. She laid an egg.
If all are looking at the sky. I know there's danger and will investigate. Coopers hawk are common around here. I saw my first Red tail hawk this year, a couple of days ago, fortunately out of town. GC

 

[CanadaEh]

No, but he has a light pole in the yard that pretty much lights up the entire property.

if you could suggest your neighbor to have light in the coop in the evening say till 11pm, I would think being active till 11pm they would be more sleepy in the morning ignoring that light outside until actual dawn. If they had to go to bed at 5:30pm as it gets dark where I am, they could get pretty bored of sleeping by 3:30am...

 

[CanadaEh]

Danger and Egg song are similar.
I can see my chickens from my house. If one hen is strutting her stuff. She laid an egg.
If all are looking at the sky. I know there's danger and will investigate. Coopers hawk are common around here. I saw my first Red tail hawk this year, a couple of days ago, fortunately out of town. GC

yes, unless others join her (which what pisses me off as there is no way to tell audibly other than checking on them). The 2 times they had a valid reason for distress clucking was a seagull getting into the run before it was covered with fishing line and was making a mess trying to fly out and a stray cat investigating the run fence.

 

[GC-Raptor]

yes, unless others join her (which what pisses me off as there is no way to tell audibly other than checking on them). The 2 times they had a valid reason for distress clucking was a seagull getting into the run before it was covered with fishing line and was making a mess trying to fly out and a stray cat investigating the run fence.

Yes but when there's danger flying around my hens freeze. When a hen has laid an egg she's is strutting and tossing sticks and straw on her back.
But if you can't see em, then you have to run out there.
Both of my coops and pens are visible through windows and less than 50 feet away. GC

 

[TheBeardie]

I can usually tell the difference between a distress call and a egg song. Most roosters I've had make a 'Ahhhhhhhhh' noise ranging from barely a whisper to a loud multi rooster 'I hear/see something above get under something now' when something goes overhead.

The distress call of a hen, personally, sounds more urgent than most egg songs. No build up to everyone else making the same noise.

One thing the does scare me is young chicks making a distressed noise. Sometimes something did happen, like an injury, but in my experience that horrible noise is a chick playing chicken football. One chick finds something 'edible' and doesn't want to share so, a game of keep-a-way happens. It's fun to start and watch a game but, it's not fun to hear that noise randomly thinking your about to see a bloody mess. There is a difference in sound between chicken football and an actual injury I suppose, but it still didn't stop me from running to the brooder and making sure the chicks are ok!

Take some time getting attuned to your birds. Spend a few minutes a day with them see if you can pick apart the behaviors and the sounds that go with them. See who's loud and prone to making a big, loud fuss and who isn't. See if you can tell who's making the noise from sound alone, I can't tell the difference between all of my chickens but some do have unique sounds. Roosters are particularly easy to tell apart by crow. Once they have it down it stays relatively the same for the rest of his life in my experience.

I know how draining it is to constantly worry of the safety of your flock. Take extra precautions if you can't tell the difference between a distress call and a egg song. Anything to make yourself feel better about not checking on them at every noise they make.

Is your flock made up of barred rocks? Or some other striped chicken?

 

[Shadrach]

Here the questions I could not find answers for:
1) what is rationale of calling the most annoying chicken sound a "egg laying song"?
2) why does it sound exactly the same (to human ear) as chickens danger/distress sound?
3) why would other hens/roos would pick up and join that clucking the same way as when they do when communicating danger/distress? I.e. they can't tell difference either?

This is the answer to your first question.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-egg-song-it’s-not-about-the-egg-it’s-an-escort-call.74386/
It doesn't sound the same to a chicken.
They can tell the difference and so could you if you put the sound through a frequency analyzer.

 

[CanadaEh]

Is your flock made up of barred rocks? Or some other striped chicken?

all barred rocks

mine not making distress noises about anything in the sky. They make a quite "urrr" sound and either turn the heads watching it or run under the coop - depending how big or how close it is.

They make distress noises either when something really bad happening or some suspicious noise or visual that they can make up and freaking out - e.g. wind moving garbage bag. If I sit in a chair feeding them treats, than start moving my foot they would also freak out and start staring at it and clucking as well.

 

[crunchymama11]

Maybe get some EEs? My EEs make little noise and no egg song. My BR is noisy! My NHR is noisy but not as much as the BR. But I can tell their egg songs apart. The NHR honks lol.

 

[Kalimak]

I love it when my hens start doing that, and I also love it when the rooster starts replying to it.