Egg songs?

[SC-ChickMom]

Why do chickens have egg songs? If chickens were in the wild I would imagine they would not want to announce an egg to any would be predators.

My GLW does an egg song when she is going into the nest and then after she has layed an egg 30 minutes later. Is this common?

Just my curious questions for the morning.

 

[devora]

I have wondered about the evolutionary benefit of the egg song as well. Do jungle fowl do this and, more to the point, why would a bird do this?

My guess is that it was a selected trait after we domesticated fowl.

As for the egg song, it comes alllll day from my girls. Before, during, after the lay.

It's just one giant "Bwowk!!!" around here.

 

[CSWolffe]

Keep in mind that even in the wild, chickens are social birds; all of their noises serve some sort of purpose, from comunicating distress to alerting others to predators or a good food source. Their egg-song may serve to reinforce some sort of social bond, or may alert other hens to the presence of a nest/eggs. Just speculation.

 

[raymondjames]

Well if you dropped more than one egg a week out of your ***, it wouldn't hurt to scream. And, it was probably bred into it later so the chicken keeper knew when the eggs where laid to gather them.

 

[TwoCrows]

Who knows when the "egg song" came to be. Was it before domestication or after? It could have developed after domestication, and not just for deterring wild predators, but from the dogs that run wild in camps, lose pigs and even humans that come around to gather and eat eggs. Chickens have many communication calls and use them throughout the day for many reasons. I don't think they are intentionally announcing the egg or acting proud of it. They must be trying to deter SOMETHING they think may come sniffing around for the egg they just laid and it may not date back to the primal jungle fowl anymore. Just a thought.

 

[laughingdog52]

One of my hens started singing after 10pm, and I ran out to see what predator had her, but she was just fine, only a little late laying her egg(or early?)

 

[SC-ChickMom]

The worst is when I hear an egg song and run out to the coop to find nothing...nada.... I guess they are making sure I get my exercise for the day.

 

[LilMissChz]

The worst is when I hear an egg song and run out to the coop to find nothing...nada.... I guess they are making sure I get my exercise for the day.

ROFLOL

 

[skunknchatter]

Most of my hens don't do the egg song thing. HOWEVER, I have one hen that "sings" whenever there is anyone in a nest box. She's nuts!

 

[LittleSticks]

In the book "Raising Chickens" by Storey it says that chickens sing their egg song in the hopes that if a predator is around it will forget about the egg and go after the chicken. I'd rather think it's a song of relief and pride -Look at what I did!