hen/rooster language

[midd2005]

so, new to chickens over here. i've got a brood of 7 nine week olds and i've been playing the ever popular game, "are you a rooster," like mad. my most suspicious little one started to make an adorable wheezy bok bok bok noise recently, when i would go to pick "her" up. this got me thinking about chicken language. i obviously know that chickens do bok bok boook and err err errrrrer errrr, and i've since learned they have a ton of other noises too. i've even learned that hens can learn to crow but that it's not soooo typical.


my question is, do roosters make a bok bok bok noise in between all the crowing or do they have their own rooster specific noises?

 

[emys]

Roosters can imitate all the hen noises when they want to including the egg song

When hens crow it never sounds very convincing - mine does it and she sounds more like an owl trying to do a chicken impression.

 

[bjash]

Well, once they get to laying age, they will do an egg song (search around here or YouTube for an example) that sounds very similar to what you're describing. I have had some make the same noise when they're excited about something happening around them such as when i was sinking in some new fence posts with a sledgehammer. Sometimes when one starts, it's contagious and others join in.