Loud hen all day. Is this normal?

[3KillerBs]

That is what I call the "team building choir".

Before her molt, the Brahma in my avatar felt the need to announce not only her own egg, but every egg laid by her flockmates.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

several of my hens will seemingly join in something resembling "egg song" when not laying. They do so while another hen *IS* laying (and singing)

Imagine my surprise when my very first pride and joy breeding cockerel joined into the eggs song!


Even the boys do it, a lot of them!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Imagine my surprise when my very first pride and joy breeding cockerel joined into the eggs song!


Even the boys do it, a lot of them!

After the last culling, most of my boys sound like teenagers whose voice is just beginning to drop gargling mouthwash before their first date.

 

[3KillerBs]

After the last culling, most of my boys sound like teenagers whose voice is just beginning to drop gargling mouthwash before their first date.

Though Rameses had a decent crow from an early age, Ludwig spent weeks only able to go "Awwww!"

 

[McChooky]

My hens don't, I have plenty of roosters. BUT, and possibly instructive to your situation, several of my hens will seemingly join in something resembling "egg song" when not laying. They do so while another hen *IS* laying (and singing) - generally at some distance from the laying hen. My birds free range during the day on several acres. I theorize that they are doing so in an effort to confuse predators by creating the impression that there are several hens who might be "occupied" and unable to flee as easily as others, and to add confusion as to the site of any given nest....

I thought this was normal - its been my experience since getting chickens - so I've not really thought about it, beyond making up a plausible sounding reason for why it might be occuring. The Real Reason??? No clue. Maybe I'm right. Probably not.

Actually that makes a lot of sense! I couldn't tell myself who was laying last summer because some of them were running in and out of the coop and others were singing along. My hound spent a lot of time at the chicken coop last summer guarding the chickens from an imaginary predator that was making them all squawk!

 

[Motherof4Girls]

My rhode island reds where crazy noisy the 1st year...now they are quiet ladies and don't announce everything under the sun. I added 2 buff orpington's to my flock and oh man are they chatty!! Sounds like a dying goose at times!! They are young, under a year old...Im hoping they will simmer down as they mature, like my rhode islands. I do pop my head out and call to my ladies when they get unnecessarily noisy. Which seems to help. We check on the eggs when they get noisy too. Sometimes they stop squawking after we grab their eggs.

 

[Motherof4Girls]

My hens don't, I have plenty of roosters. BUT, and possibly instructive to your situation, several of my hens will seemingly join in something resembling "egg song" when not laying. They do so while another hen *IS* laying (and singing) - generally at some distance from the laying hen. My birds free range during the day on several acres. I theorize that they are doing so in an effort to confuse predators by creating the impression that there are several hens who might be "occupied" and unable to flee as easily as others, and to add confusion as to the site of any given nest....

I thought this was normal - its been my experience since getting chickens - so I've not really thought about it, beyond making up a plausible sounding reason for why it might be occuring. The Real Reason??? No clue. Maybe I'm right. Probably not.

Yes my hens did this too! I figure they were all worked up and excited, but I like your idea that it would be to confuse predators.

 

[Bella Dominique]

I have a barred rock whose very talkative. I usually think its cute, but during the summer she’ll follow me around talking so much I’ll have to go inside to get some peace. It cracks me up when after laying she’s singing away while eating her feed, which of course makes her feed fly all over the place. She’s my favorite and I like that she wants to be near me.

 

[LizzzyJo]

If she’s your favorite I wouldn’t get rid of her - only because she has now taught the rest of the hens that the dominant hen is loud. You’re more likely now to have the next leader also be loud if she’s gone. So, you will have gotten rid of your favorite just to have the next in line be as loud as she is. Sometimes they’re just loud your neighbors will have to get used to it. Hens aren’t as ear piecing as roosters, but they are not quiet.

 

[AntiqueB]

I also have an Orpington who needs to announce when someone might lay an egg, when she herself might lay an egg, when someone else has laid an egg, when she has laid an egg, when she sees something that might be a predator, when she thinks she might have seen something that might be a predator. . . You get the picture.

She has calmed down a bit now that she's a year and a half old, but she's still the loudest of the bunch.

One thing none of them do is get loud in the mornings. Now that mornings may still be a bit dark, try to keep the coop dark until later. I have mine trained to know that NOTHING will open that coop door until I come out, at around 7 am. They start making noise when they hear the back door open, but not before.