Head Shaking in Response to my Voice

[Hayduke27]

Hey everyone!

I just searched the forums, and there is one short thread about this topic in the "Hatching Baby Chicks" section, but I haven't found much discussion on it, so I thought I would bring it up here. I have been keeping chickens for long enough now I have lost track, roughly 10+ years, and the past couple of years I have noticed a funny thing. I first noticed this one night when I went to close the coop, stepped inside, and talked some "chicken talk" to the flock. I was making what I refer to as the "ninja noise" (ie- WUAAAAAAA... WUAAAAAAAAAA....) and as I did so all of the chickens shook their heads simultaneously. At first I was worried that I had just randomly come across all of them showing symptoms of mites or something, but I have come to realize this is just their behavior upon hearing me.

Volume doesn't really have much effect on whether they do it, but tone certainly does. If I just human-talk to them, some will shake their heads a little, but the minute I let out a "WUAAAAAAA..." they all shake their heads in unison. And I am talking about real shaking here, as if they were shaking water off or had bugs or something. You can hear their little combs and waddles making slapping noises. I have about 20 chickens, and they all do it in complete unison, making a pronounced slapping sound. It's hilarious and bizarre.

As a side note, I have a big Bourbon Red turkey tom, and he has his own reactions to hearing my voice, but he does not do the head shake.

Has anybody else noticed this in their flocks? Does anybody else do this as a party trick to entertain guests? It can't just be me...

 

[azygous]

Hayduke lives! Peace out.

Chickens have ears. They have the same reaction to loud noise as we do. I know I sure do. Loud, high pitched noise makes me want to do uncivilized things to make it just stop.

If you have a high pitched voice and you are very loud when you greet your chickens in the enclosed space of the coop, there is a chance it hurts their ears. The clue is the head shaking as an immediate result of your loud greetings. Chickens shake their heads when their ears hurt.

I'm sure you have never considered that yelling could cause discomfort for your flock, but perhaps you might want to mellow out and tone down your verbal greetings

 

[Mrs. K]

I want to watch the video!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Whenever I work, I usually have some upbeat Christian music playing fairly loud in the shop to keep my spirits lifted. My daughter will oftentimes bring a chicken in to play with or whatever. I have noticed that they act stressed and shake their heads unless I turn the music down a bit. I don't have to turn it off but just so we can easily hear each other over it. I imagine their ears are quite sensitive naturally for their survival.

My daughter, 10 years old now, would talk fairly normally while holding a bird and trying to soothe it. This never worked. I told her to try to speak more quietly, but not necessarily a whisper, and that made such a huge difference.

 

[BesideStillH2O]

Hey everyone!

I just searched the forums, and there is one short thread about this topic in the "Hatching Baby Chicks" section, but I haven't found much discussion on it, so I thought I would bring it up here. I have been keeping chickens for long enough now I have lost track, roughly 10+ years, and the past couple of years I have noticed a funny thing. I first noticed this one night when I went to close the coop, stepped inside, and talked some "chicken talk" to the flock. I was making what I refer to as the "ninja noise" (ie- WUAAAAAAA... WUAAAAAAAAAA....) and as I did so all of the chickens shook their heads simultaneously. At first I was worried that I had just randomly come across all of them showing symptoms of mites or something, but I have come to realize this is just their behavior upon hearing me.

Volume doesn't really have much effect on whether they do it, but tone certainly does. If I just human-talk to them, some will shake their heads a little, but the minute I let out a "WUAAAAAAA..." they all shake their heads in unison. And I am talking about real shaking here, as if they were shaking water off or had bugs or something. You can hear their little combs and waddles making slapping noises. I have about 20 chickens, and they all do it in complete unison, making a pronounced slapping sound. It's hilarious and bizarre.

As a side note, I have a big Bourbon Red turkey tom, and he has his own reactions to hearing my voice, but he does not do the head shake.

Has anybody else noticed this in their flocks? Does anybody else do this as a party trick to entertain guests? It can't just be me...

Hello!
I came to this forum looking for answers to this EXACT question! I’m sorry others were incapable of reading — and on behalf of the BYC community I apologize that they were evidently determined to be total a canoe about it — but YES!!! we have noticed the exact same phenomenon with our hens.
Volume is 100% irrelevant. It has everything to do with tone. We say, “whoooooop” and it’s an instant outbreak of simultaneous, face-slapping, waddle shaking! I have seen others say their hands do it when they talk to them?? I don’t know, but it does seem like it’s a response to some sort of irritation? One thing that’s interesting is we have a pen with Marans and Bresse hens together and my daughter noticed only the Marans would do it. So I do think it has something to do with the structure of their ears.

Thanks for taking the time to ask about it. I’m glad we’re not the only ones to notice!!