Chicken trills back and forth with me. Anybody else?

[loveleavesascen]

Hey guys! I know that most of you guys have had chickens who make happy trilling noises (especially after a good snack!). My chicken also makes this noise. But for a few weeks now, it would do this thing where it'd look at me and tilts its head. I would then make an imitation high pitched noise and it would do it back to me and we'd do this for a few times. Does anybody know why it does it or whether it has happened with their chickens as well? I recorded it but it got camera shy so it wasn't as willing to trill, it is probably because I kept shooting videos of it before this video

p.s. i know it is a little embarrassing of me to have a video of me doing mock chicken noises..

 

[TerrorBird]

I think it's just genuinely happy to have its mom around! I hand-raised a batch of babies this year and my barred rock will carry on conversations with me when I'm socializing with my babies. She doesn't trill like yours, but she's still very talkative with me.

BTW...your chick is awfully cute!

 

[azygous]

I think your chick is charming, and you are, too. As a fellow chicken-phile, I encourage this desire to communicate cross species.

Seriously, did you know that chickens have language? Not only that, they have syntax, meaning they speak in phrases like we do. All birds do, but most of us just hear trilling or cawing or chirping.

I spend an embarrassing amount of time with my chickens, and I have a few in the flock who manage to communicate their needs to me. Also, I've learned what some of their "phrases" mean. This has come in handy on occasion, when they warn me there is a bear approaching the pen, or lately, they've been confusing cattle with a herd of bears, and that has them both confused as well as overwrought.

 

[TerrorBird]

Seriously, did you know that chickens have language? Not only that, they have syntax, meaning they speak in phrases like we do. All birds do, but most of us just hear trilling or cawing or chirping.

I was sitting outside with my dinner a few days ago when one of my girls wandered up. She made a few casual noises and the chickens I could see all turned their heads toward me simultaneously and rushed over. The jerk told everyone about my dinner and how they should try to forcibly take it from me.

 

[coolcanoechic]

I was sitting outside with my dinner a few days ago when one of my girls wandered up. She made a few casual noises and the chickens I could see all turned their heads toward me simultaneously and rushed over. The jerk told everyone about my dinner and how they should try to forcibly take it from me.

Ha ha My chickens do that too! Here they are talking me out of my corn on the cob!

 

[TerrorBird]

Ha ha My chickens do that too! Here they are talking me out of my corn on the cob!

Cute! Your girls have manners, and for that you are lucky. One of my little ones (the one in my avatar) hopped up onto my lap when I was eating a bowl of pasta a few weeks ago. She tried to grab bits of my tomato sauce, but I was able to keep her at bay. But then she looked me in the eyes and made her cute little talkative noises like she was giving up. She plopped down on my leg, closed her eyes and puffed out her feathers. When I lowered my bowl (slowly and silently) to continue eating, she struck like a cobra. She grabbed a chunk of tomato and got liquid sauce on my pants. I've come to the conclusion that chickens are crafty evil things that only value me as a warm perch/napkin/victim.

 

[cheeka]

My cockerel, Barney, chippachirps, perperps and bopbops with me all day if I let him, he often will bob his head up and down, with a pine cone in his beak, or a leaf... and touch the ground with it and pass it towards me, then touch the ground with it... and so forth. if i take the little "gift", he will spin in a circle and chippachirp even more... i've tried numerous times to get video of it, but he's wise to the camera. i'm determined, i will have the video, and when i do, you betcha i'm posting it on byc!
my BR Wilma trills when i get my fingers under her wings and smooth her feathers. she also puffs up every single feather on her body... lately, she's taken to dust bathing, then hopping in my lap for a massage... so when I get my fingers under there and she puffs out, i get a load of dirt in my lap... go figure!

 

[azygous]

Cheeka, Barney is smitten with you. Does he come when you call him, or at least look up and answer you?

My Brahma roo Penrod does to me what Barney does to you. When I give him treats, he always, ALWAYS offers me the first one or two bites, which I, of course, thank him for being a gentleman and decline his offer.

If people all realized what charming, affectionate, communicative creatures chickens are, would they still eat them?

 

[cheeka]

azygous, smitten is the perfect word. Barney comes running to me every time he sees me outside, and if i don't come outside when he wants me, he comes to the living room window and crows for me. to be fair, all the chickens will come running when i'm outside whether i call them or they see me, but after a few minutes the rest of the family is off scratching and pecking, yet he follows me everywhere while i do my outside chores and we perp perp together back and forth, he flirts with me the same as the hens... dropping his wing and skipping sideways... i adore him, i spoil him, and while he will only let me have a glancing pet on a wing during the day, he lets me hold him almost every night before he goes to roost. i love to stroke his comb, he closes his eyes, i enjoy listening to him breathe.

i don't know... if the world would stop eating chickens... we humans are known to eat some really bizarre creatures ~ how hungry do you suppose that person was who figured out how to eat a lobster??? my birds are my friends, i couldn't eat them.

 

[TerrorBird]

azygous, smitten is the perfect word. Barney comes running to me every time he sees me outside, and if i don't come outside when he wants me, he comes to the living room window and crows for me. to be fair, all the chickens will come running when i'm outside whether i call them or they see me, but after a few minutes the rest of the family is off scratching and pecking, yet he follows me everywhere while i do my outside chores and we perp perp together back and forth, he flirts with me the same as the hens... dropping his wing and skipping sideways... i adore him, i spoil him, and while he will only let me have a glancing pet on a wing during the day, he lets me hold him almost every night before he goes to roost. i love to stroke his comb, he closes his eyes, i enjoy listening to him breathe.

i don't know... if the world would stop eating chickens... we humans are known to eat some really bizarre creatures ~ how hungry do you suppose that person was who figured out how to eat a lobster??? my birds are my friends, i couldn't eat them.

My Muffet follows me around, sits on me, talks with me and enjoys a pre-bedtime cuddle every night. When she and my other three little ones want to see me and they know I'm in the house, they form an adorable pile on our porch until I come out. I couldn't eat my babies either.