Do chickens like music?

[Rachel'sFlock]

Quote:
Can we infer from this response that he liked the Dolly music...or didn't like it???
Wondering aloud...

 

[SunnyAlberta]

I'm reviving the thread because I had the same question about whether or not chickens like music. Further Googling brought these results:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animals-and-us/201110/why-do-chicks-music-why-does-any-one
"Did they show a musical preference? Yes. The animals gravitated toward the speaker playing the pretty music and avoided the side with the dissonant Sex-Pistol-ly chords, even though the tunes were identical in terms of pitch, rhythm, and tempo."

 

[Aschenfire]

My chickens seem to like my choices... I listen to mostly rock (Slash, 80's hair bands, Apocalyptica, Tool, etc) and they really calm and seem to enjoy it. They always have, ever since they were tiny ^..^

 

[SunnyAlberta]

Aschenfire, you should do an experiment too see if egg laying increases if you play them mellow tunes, instead.

 

[yakibert]

Just the Chicken Dance ...

 

[Brigitte1]

I have a boombox in my chicken coop that plays the oldies station ... 60's oldies. And they love it. Started them when they were babies because they wouldn't sleep at night so I put on Pandora (they were in my office). Moved them to the coop at 8 weeks and they were restless at night, for 5 days till I put the music in there for them. Now they sleep like babies. Have some newly hatched babies now and am doing the same thing with them. YES, they love music.

 

[Isaiah McMillia]

yep i'll let my chickens fly up on me of down from the rafters. they seem to hang out on the porch a lot since I guess they know I always use that door and treats come out that door. they are starting to get brave with coming inside.

 

[Tater_TotQueenie]

I clean my coop every day, and spend about an hour there. I put a CD player in their coop and I play music while I work. I have several hens that actually seem to like to listen to music. As soon as they hear me come inside and turn on the player, they come in, choose a nest box (sometimes changing boxes until they find the one they like) and just watch me work. They seem to like listening to the music. Sometimes they doze off, and look very relaxed. At first I thought they were laying eggs, but most of the time, they're not. When I'm finished and go to leave, they hop out to go back outside. Has anyone else observed chickens responding to music?

When I clean my chicks' pen, we don't have an extra container to put them in so they have to be in the pen while I clean it, and they get freaked out. But I've noticed when I play a mix of some pop music such as Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor, Sia, etc, they calm down a bit and start to get curious. This helps out a lot by getting me in a good mood to clean, while making it easier to clean with the chicks calmed down.

 

[Peppercorngal]

When I clean the coop I sometimes listen to bluegrass and sometimes I have no music at all. I don't notice any difference in the behavior of the chickens. They always come around me and check out what I'm doing and then mostly go lay down to watch me. Sometimes one or two will come in the coop but I've seen no change whether I play music or not.

 

[Colorrific]

Today I was hanging out with our chickens (7 weeks old), got a little bored, and started playing Candy Crush on my phone. It occurred to me to turn on the sound effects so they could hear, but they were not impressed. So I turned on the music for the game...OMG, they were fascinated by it! All 8 chickens gathered around me to listen. This was the first time they had heard any music, and they seemed to love it.

I tried some classical, they loved Kathleen Battle singing O Mio Babbino Caro by Puccini, but did not much care for Handel's Messiah. Then I tried Moby singing We Are All Made of Stars, which they liked. I will have to investigate further!