Noisy chicks!!

[EMS83]

I keep reading that happy chicks are quiet or chirp softly. Mine are neither. They're quiet when they sleep, but when they're awake, they're constantly, constantly making chirps, trills, peeps. Not particularly in a hollering for mom sort of way, but NOT soft or quiet. This is my first batch; there's eight of them, about 9 days old. They're in an 18"x36" brooder made out of two cardboard boxes. I had them in a Sterilite tote, but they seemed to need the height to hop up on their heated tunnel and flap around a bit. I can't tell if they're nervous, or excited, or bored? Or just want to see out because the Sterilite was clear--cardboard, no so much. Occasionally one or another will do more intentional and loud peeps, repeated several times and evenly spaced, but it seems half they time they are trying to get the other chicks' attention. Are they ok? How do I tell if they aren't? I'm feeling pretty clueless right now!

 

[azygous]

Perhaps it seems as though they are making a lot of noise because there are eight of them. They're more likely to stimulate one another into being rambunctious.

That said, chicks will chirp loudly, very loudly, when they run out of food. When they are lonely or can't locate the other chicks. When they are being raised alongside the adult chickens and the adults disappear into the coop for the night. (Where did everybody go?) When they are cold.

Occasional loud chirping is nothing to become alarmed over. It's when the loud chirping is non-stop that, "Houston, we have a problem".

 

[EMS83]

Thank you for the reassurance! I have just a little pop hole for them between the two boxes; maybe I should widen that. The "not being able to locate everyone" does explain a good bit of their behavior when they're chirping like that.

 

[The Witch Coop]

What I gather from your story is that they are upset that anything changed. I recently had this problem and could not for the life of me figure out what their problem was (ear-splitting screeching.)

My 3 girls are 3.5 weeks old, and we just changed their brooder from a big plastic bin to a bigger cardboard box. As dusk approached, they started screeching, screaming! I made sure they had plenty of food, clean water, heater pad going, they've been getting along great so far from what I can tell...then I looked through these forums and found someone else had some screeching chicks and couldn't figure out the deal. OP realized they had changed their water feeder to a rabbit feeder and the birds were afraid of it...

Chickens are creatures of habit. I tried moving all of their stuff so it was in the same setup as it was in the smaller brooder, so that everything was in the same location that it used to be (feeder, roost, heat pad, etc. in the same corners)...Sudden silence, like a switch. I think they were trying to settle down on the roost for the night (I could see them kind of hopping on and off, pushing a sister out of the way to get where they wanted to go, then changing their mind.) Seems they couldn't organize themselves the way they wanted because their stuff was out of place, and they had it all figured out, and then I went and screwed up their feng shui. I mean...seriously?

So, I'd suggest making sure their stuff is in the same position that it used to be in. I don't know if it'll work, and I felt pretty silly organizing their room back to how it was, but if it does, you prove my theory correct.