Does every flock have a complainer?

[The Yakima Kid]

I have a pullet called Steve who was our first layer. I started free-ranging them a couple of weeks ago, now that they are bigger than my cats & Steve has started complaining about not being let out enough to suit her. She's crafty too. She sings an egg song to get me to come out & if I don't the egg song gets angrier until she sounds a bit hoarse. This afternoon I called the pullets to get back in the run so that I could go out & Steve didn't make an appearance. I found her lounging in their newly made dust bath (in my garden bed) like she was at a spa & not in the least worried that she was alone.

When we had a flock composed of Barred Rocks and Black Stars they learned to get us out to them muy pronto by making the distress calls of the sort one expects when a predator is right outside the run - or possibly in it.

 

[MichStep]

Ok, is it just my flock or does every flock have a complainer?

We have a 4 year old GSL hen that seems to complain about just about anything

We call her Claudette the Complainer.

It's too hot...It's too cold...It's raining...It's windy..Someone is in a nest box ( any nest box - doesn't matter that she hasn't laid an egg in over a year).. the grass in the other "chicken yard" looks greener than this one...I wanted kale today - not spinach...

Been like this since she was only a few weeks old.

It's not all day complaining or even every day for that matter - although Sunday morning when my neighborhood feels like one of those horror movies where you are the only human left on earth... it sure seems louder than normal

She has a pretty spoiled urban chicken lifestyle with 3 other hens that she was raised with. And she is a sweet tempered girl - middle of the pecking order and never any issues with picking on or getting picked on by the others.

Just trying to figure out if every flock has one or if we are one of the "lucky" few to have a resident complainer

I have a chicken like that, but one day her complaining called in some wildlife and she got her self attacked. I love her so so so much but she is ugly now and very loud...

 

[dianegaz]

So funny..... I logged in to ask if there's something wrong with one of my two hens. They are both adorable and sweet very spoiled urban pets who happen to lay eggs. Mae is always quiet and seems content. She loves to be held an falls asleep in my arms. Bea is always BAWK-ing loudly when she's hot (but never takes advantage of the misters or ice or wading pool I provide here in Phoenix on hot days), or when she lays an egg (no other chicken has ever endured such a thing before), or if dinner is late she comes to the gate and BAWK! BAWK's. I was worried that she might be sick (she looks and acts healthy), but sounds like she's just a drama queen.
Thanks for answering my question before I even asked it
Diane

 

[grassfedchicken]

Hehe, love reading the stories in this thread.

From my flock the complainer is an Ameracauna who is my most beautiful, unique chicken. She has never once laid an egg and she is 3 years old. She comes to my front door for food every day morning knowing that I will be out to feed them but she will never wait like the other chickens and just forage around, she has to stand on the front porch staring at the door until i come through it then squawk at me and go under my feet. She will take all the treats for herself disregarding the role of the roosters and the roosters seem to not be able to get her tamed to any of them, she has all the roosters for years now fighting for her and she keeps them confused by not picking a mate like the other females. She gets over mated while the other hens don't. Gardenia is extremely smart and beautiful, but SO ANNOYING and slightly evil LOL (in photo she is on the right, the blue ameracauna)

 

[CoopDeDoo]

This thread makes my day....

 

[ekavi]

Our are crazy, don't let them know the human are awake and not letting them out. Holy moly, bawk bawk bawk

 

[rahbunn]

I have a Delaware that screams like she is being skinned alive. She is screaming at 5:30 in the morning to get let out of the run. So I get up and let them all out. Then she screams for food. So I throw out a little scratch. Then she screams because a squirrel is in the tree. So I let Buzz, our German Shepherd, out to chase the squirrel out of the yard. Then she screams as she looks in the house from our walk out basement because my kids thought it would be funny to let the hens in the house...???????? My husband said last night, it is bad enough i have a German Shepherd and a Bullmastiff staring at me while I eat, now there are six hens staring in the sliding glass doors. I feel like I am in a cage at the Zoo and the chickens are staring at ME!!

 

[rahbunn]

Ekavi....I love your picture of that hen...that is exactly what they look like when they are inspecting something!!! bwahhhh ahhahhaha

 

[amyjk]

I have Daphne - good old nothing-is-right-in-her-world Daphne. She's an EE, and although she hasn't started laying yet she is awfully quick to stand on the nest box bar and scream at Ida, my only layer thus far. Daphne actually paces that bar, glaring at Ida and scolding her in no uncertain terms. When Ida comes out and sings her egg song, Daphne has to give her one or two little pecks on the head. I don't know what that's about but Ida almost acts like it's a natural part of the routine....like she'd be lost without Daphne pecking her. So the routine is, Ida in the nest, Daphne pacing the bar yelling at Ida to get out, egg laid, egg song sung, a peck on Ida's head, then all is peaceful - until one of the others is too close to where she's standing, or finds a bug she didn't spot, or whatever.....she just complains. She stands at the door of the run in the evenings yelling at us to let them out for their free time. She pecks at one corner of the hardware cloth that seems particularly offensive to her for some reason, and we don't know what that reason is. I don't know how she can keep her eye on 19 other chickens at one time, but she manages to know where each one is and exactly what each one's doing at any given moment. You can hear her over and over again, "Nooooo no no no no nooooo". She'd just better hope that when she starts laying those eggs are large and perfectly blue to justify her arrogance! Always in charge and seeing if she can find anything else to annoy her! And yelling at me, as usual.

She looks just like our Peggy Sue!

 

[7 Biddies]

I have a Delaware that screams like she is being skinned alive. She is screaming at 5:30 in the morning to get let out of the run. So I get up and let them all out. Then she screams for food. So I throw out a little scratch. Then she screams because a squirrel is in the tree. So I let Buzz, our German Shepherd, out to chase the squirrel out of the yard. Then she screams as she looks in the house from our walk out basement because my kids thought it would be funny to let the hens in the house...???????? My husband said last night, it is bad enough i have a German Shepherd and a Bullmastiff staring at me while I eat, now there are six hens staring in the sliding glass doors. I feel like I am in a cage at the Zoo and the chickens are staring at ME!!

Oh, you *definitely* need to get one of these: http://chickendoors.com/

You can get them to operate on a timer or on a photo cell that opens it at sunrise and closes at sunset (I have this kind). No way I'd be running down to the coop at 5:30am every morning just to satisfy a bossy hen ... especially, in winter! You *do* realize that she's got you well trained, don't you?