Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Hello @BY Bob
May I suggest you turn this into an article.

As I wrote this, it seemed like it might make a good article. I have not done that before. Do I just post it under articles?

 

[Shadrach]

As I wrote this, it seemed like it might make a good article. I have not done that before. Do I just post it under articles?

Yup. It should go in the Articles - Members Section I believe.
You are more then welcome to provide a link to my article and if I may I would like to link to yours when it's done.

 

[BY Bob]

Yup. It should go in the Articles - Members Section I believe.
You are more then welcome to provide a link to my article and if I may I would like to link to yours when it's done.

Certainly. I will gladly link to yours. I will probably put it up tomorrow.

 

[Ali James]

@BY Bob that is really cool! Flock dynamics are just brilliant, and it just goes to show that those instinctive behaviours are ever present, even in so called domesticated animals.

I got a lump in my throat reading about poor bereft Lily

 

[Ribh]

Thanks @BY Bob. That is a great insight into the so called egg song. One of my hens took on escort duties as we have no rooster & she would often wait in the coop till they were done as well. Makes way more sense than, I laid an egg; come get it!

 

[MaryJanet]

I've noticed Mary and Janet watch over each other and Sandy, but Sandy never watches the other two. And while Mary and Janet are watching over the laying, they chat quietly with whoever's on the nest, it's like a comforting and soft kind of chatter. They're very sweet.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I have been accumalting a bunch of stuff since I got back. So i am going to put up a series of posts today. This should be fun.

Welcome Back Treat

Anyone who knows my flock knows that pasta and orange cheese are their favorite snacks (although peanut butter is clearly high as well). Well there is one food that combines both of these things.....Kraft Macaroni & Chesse.

I decided that Thursday night they deserved a speacial treat for all the time we were gone and I gave them some. Here is the video. Lots of chasing. I put 2 plates down so everyone could get some but they were more interested in what someone else had. I think that Aurora (bottom of the pecking order) wound up getting the most as she seemed to chase less and just eat more.

So peaceful you can hear the crickets BYBob! My girls are talking all the time

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Let’s Talk Egg Song

I was catching up on @Ali James thread when the topic of the Egg Song and its purpose came up. Like many I thought that it was the dumbest thing ever. Making a lot of noise when you lay an egg would just seem to let predators know that there was a handy snack ready to go. Why would you do that?

Once I really started getting “involved” with the chickens, I decided that I should try and learn more about them. Therefore I took an Animal Behavioral Sciences course related to poultry from a reputable university that offered the course online. I am too old to go back to a classroom setting and needed to it while I was traveling for work, hence, online.


At the time I had no rooster but of course they were covered in the material as well. @Shadrach is right. The egg song is to let the rooster know the hen is done. In natural flocks of chickens (unrestricted in any way) the flock will roam a territory that belongs to them. They typically do not stand still for long as the rooster keeps them moving looking for food. Because of this, when a hen goes to lay an egg the flock will likely have moved on from where she laid it. After all we have all seen hens take upwards of an hour sometimes to lay an egg. Therefore when she is finished she will call out to the rooster to come get her and bring her to the rest of the flock. This call out is the egg song.

Just as interesting as the egg song is how a “natural” hen will decide where to lay her eggs. If there is not an established nesting area, the hen will inform the rooster that it is time. The rooster will then go with her helping her to find a safe spot in which to lay the egg. Once they are agreed, the hen will set down, build the nest, and the rooster will return to the flock to keep them safe. This is how the rooster knows where she is when she signs the song for pickup and escort back. If this nest is near to the flock when another hen tells him she needs to lay, he will lead her to that same “safe” location to lay hers.

At the time I took the course my flock consisted of 3 hens.
1. Daisy: White Leghorn, Alfa
2. Patsy: Maran, Beta
3. Lilly: Black Sex Link (I think), Omega

Daisy was my only hen when I added Patsy & Lilly who had been living under a porch in town. Patsy and Lilly seemed to have a very tight bond.

Daisy never in her life sang the egg song. She would lay her egg and off she would go. No big deal. In fact the backyard was pretty quiet the whole time we only had leghorns. Not a lot of signing or yelling. The first time we ever heard egg song was when either Patsy or Lilly, I cannot remember which one laid their first egg. What a shock! My wife thought someone was in trouble or dying. They were so loud. One would sing and the other would answer and they would join back up. Patsy and Lilly would actually do a version of the egg song anytime they ever got separated. With Patsy passing earlier this year the saddest thing was the final time Lilly called out to her and she did not answer. I had to go and pick her up and take her to the rest of the flock, tears running down my face. She has not called out since then.

When Jabber joined the flock, egg song was the rule of the day. Everyone sang it and he would go and get them. One interesting thing that I did note was that when they were confined to the coop and run, Jabber would just hang out in the coop while they were laying. I always pictured him as a worried husband as the wife gave birth. Pacing in the waiting room, smoking cigarette after cigarette until she was finished. Here he is hanging out in the coop while Hattie lays.
View attachment 1901423
Since Jabber left there has been little egg song. We did have crisis a while back when someone, I can’t remember who, was in Hattie’s nesting box and she threw a complete fit on the porch but nothing really related to having laid an egg. Sometimes I miss it but mostly I think the neighbors are glad that the flock is quieter.

As I wrote this, it seemed like it might make a good article. I have not done that before. Do I just post it under articles?

You have a natural way with words Bob, I'm glad you're going to make this into an article. I think there is a typo here (4th paragraph)?
"when she signs the song for pickup and escort back." Did you mean "sings"?

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

"when she signs the song for pickup"

I have learnt Australian sign language (AUSLAN) and I must admit, when I read that line, I was picturing a deaf chicken...



Edited to remove duplicate post

 

[BY Bob]

You have a natural way with words Bob, I'm glad you're going to make this into an article. I think there is a typo here (4th paragraph)?
"when she signs the song for pickup and escort back." Did you mean "sings"?

Why yes I did. Thanks for pointing that out.

Of course I did have to teach my hens sign language in case one of them was deaf. So she could have been signing.....