Do chickens get stressed out by hearing, but not seeing, one another?

Henrik Petersson

Crowing
11 Years
Jan 9, 2009
646
1,127
312
Karlskrona, Sweden
If you want to keep separate chicken flocks, you may end up with one flock on one side of the farm and another flock on the other side. Or in the same barn, but separated by a wall. In this case, the chickens (most notably the roosters) will hear each other day in and day out, but not see one another. Will this be stressful for the chickens? I can imagine that a rooster that constantly hears another rooster will start thinking "oh, get off my land or come and challenge me already!", while a rooster that hears hens will go "why won't you come to me when I'm crowing for you? Get over here, you need my protection and wonderful semen!"

I guess hens would be more laid-back, but I don't find it a stretch that even they might find it disturbing.

When I ponder chicken psychology questions, I tend to think "what would it be like for wild chickens?" And I assume that wild chickens would often hear chickens from other flocks that they can't see, living in thick vegetation and all. However, maybe it's an unnatural situation to hear it day in and day out?

Thoughts, comments and experiences, my friends?
 
I can tell you the first thing my flock does when ever they are let out to free range: They immediately run to the grow out coop. Sometimes there are chicks there, sometimes cockerels. Currently, there is one lonely cockerel who is waiting for processing day. Without fail, the flock runs to that grow out coop to visit with who-ever is in there. And after processing, Jack will run to that grow out coop, and do a thorough inspection until he's sure there's no one there. In a large enough free range situation, I'm guessing each roo will keep his little harem out of the range of other roos. From what I see, there is a fair amount of communication between my grow out flock, and my main flock, especially when it comes to predator alert.
 

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