Curious about new behavior

[svh]

I've had chickens for about 5 weeks, the pullets are about 30 weeks old, and the roo is almost 2 years old. They are normally very quiet, except the roo early in the morning. I've had them on lockdown in the coop and small run for the past week or so, with an hour or two of supervised free range in the afternoon. I repeat, they have been very quiet since I acquired them 5 weeks ago.

This morning was no different, I fed the birds, and I went to the grocery store, and when I returned, the rooster saw me, and started makin LOUD CA-HONK sounds over, and over …. This got the hens wound up, and soon most were chiming in as well, with their own version of the same sounds ! This continued for about 15 minutes.

I went into the run, and they all quickly shut up. Everything was normal in there, so I grabbed 3 eggs, and hung a cabbage tether ball up for them, and sprinkled a hand full of raisins on the floor. They are all acting normal again.

My three dogs were here guarding the coop, so I don't think they got freaked out by a predator, or anything.

For the past week, when I let them out for their free range, I've been "bonding" with them, by hand feeding treats, and generally spending time with them, and they seem to enjoy hangin out with me and the dogs.

Could this abnormal behavior be because they "missed" me, and wanted to be let out, or something else. Have I created a monster !?! I'm not very well versed in chicken behavior, so, any advice is welcome.

 

[NuggetTheChicken]

My chickens do that sometimes, don't know why. Sometimes the roosters do an egg song with the hens lol

 

[Criticalicious]

Sounds like an egg song. Sometimes a hen or pullet gets a wild hair sort of feeling and has to make a bunch of noise, and others will join in. I've also had my flock do this when someone got freaked out about who-knows-what. Once it was a dog that came on my property. The ruckus freaked it out so bad that it ran off so fast I barely registered what it was. As a prey animal, chickens sometimes act weird to throw off predators. For us, it's unlimited entertainment!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I'm not very well versed in chicken behavior, so, any advice is welcome.

Sounds like a basic startled type eggs song maybe??

The boys in my stag pen get to doing it sometimes also as described by the other poster. Boy was I shocked the first time I heard it.

You may see their personalities begin to emerge more as they settle in and feel more comfortable with you and their new surroundings.

Get a video next time so we can see!

Examples from Google...

 

[aart]

Coincidental, with your arrival, 'egg song'?
Could have been an alarm call too, they sound much the same.
Yes, they know you, but sometimes my dog would bark at a fallen leaf.

 

[kiwi-chick]

that is the rooster sound that I call "A ruckus in the hen house". I find the males do it after the females start... it could mean a lot of things....

Sometimes I think they do it to get your attention or a treat!