My chickens are making a weird noise can someone please tell me why?

[Casandra]

My chickens are about 20 weeks old, and my roosters are starting to grab the hens on the back of the neck and jump on their backs. I am starting to worry because they are walking around making a squeaky toy noise. The 3 roosters are doing it too but its a little deeper then the hens. Can someone please tell me why? At first i thought maybe they we're just sneezing but its just that now i don't think so.

 

[aoxa]

Grunting? Uhmmm... They are mating..

 

[Casandra]

no they are not mating they aren't touching each other when they squeak they are just walking around.

 

[aoxa]

Ohhh.. So why did you mention the fact that they were grabbing the backs of the necks then? That's mating.

Can you post a video, possibly?

Sounds like sneezing to me. A chicken sneeze is very odd. It does sound squeaky.

 

[Casandra]

i said about the biting on the backs of the neck because i wasn't shure if that had anything to do with the squeaking because it started about the same time. so its sneezing? does that mean their sick im new at this and could use quite a bit of help.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not going to comment on the squeaking. I don't know what that is about. Maybe it is nothing and maybe it is something. I understand they are not squeaking while mating, but I suspect you think the squeaking is due to damage from mating. I'm confident it is not.

At 20 weeks, yours are mating. There are a lot of variations, but the general sequence is that a rooster drops a wind and circles the hen a bit. That is dancing. The hen squats. That squatting spreads her body on the ground so his weight gets spread out. She is not supporting his weight on her legs which could cause a problem but instead it is going directly into the ground. He hops on and grabs the back of her head. That head grab is her signal to raise the tail out of the way. His vent very quickly brushes hers and he hops off. She stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. That fluffy shake is not her telling him, "That was nothing, Big Boy". She does that to help get the sperm where it needs to go.

Sometimes the hen will resist or try to run away. Sometimes the rooster does not dance, or dance much. But at 20 weeks, yours are mating.

 

[aoxa]

Sounds like they have some respiratory issues. How many do you have, and when did the sneezing start? One or two sneezes here and there is nothing, but if it is continuous, and there is runny nose involved.. I would think it indicates a problem. You should watch them carefully, and see if they are all doing it.

If they DO have a respiratory issue, most people will tell you to either cull, or close your flock. It is contagious, even if they are not having a flare up. I have 2 cats with respiratory issues, and they never flare up, but they can pass this issue on to another cat.

Stress can cause chickens to have flare ups (same with cats), as can any changes.

 

[Casandra]

i have 10 and i just realized that i was a week off on their age so they are 19 weeks. sorry. what does culling and closing the flock mean.

 

[SueBaby]

I don't have a rooster at all, but I do have a hen that squeaks too. It might be a sneeze, but I've heard other more "sneezy" noises and this "squeeze toy" noise seems different. My hen that squeaks has been doing it for a long time. She's one of the top hens in the pecking order, is healthy and lays great so I haven't worried about it. No one else does it. I have been taking it as a quirk of hers.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I have had chickens with respiratory problems who never made the squeak noise, so I don't know. Here is a link on poultry diseases so you can rule out a respiratory disease hopefully: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

I don't think there is any mention of squeak noises in the link. I have occasionally heard my chickens make that noise, but not repeatedly. I'll be curious to see what others post.