Noisy hen goes quiet when broody

[BuKock]

Hi All, I am relatively new to chicken keeping.

I have a small flock of six bantam chickens: 1 Light Sussex (Pepper), 1 Ancona (Pokémon), 2 Belgians (Boby and Olivia) and 2 Pekins (Pop-Star and Midnight).
They were very noisy, in particular Olivia and Pepper and all of them very noisy after laying eggs to the point that I started to experiment in ways to make them quiet down by giving them access to other parts of the garden. But since Pepper has become broody and quiet all the other hens have also become relatively less noisy although not broody. Egg production has not slowed down and because Pepper lays her eggs outside the nesting boxes, all the other hens can see her laying down on her favourite spot and it makes me wonder if it's because of Pepper that the rest of the flock noise level has gone from very noisy and annoying to surprisingly pleasant. The flock are now making pleasant chicken sounds just like it's nice to hear all the other birds chirping in the wild.

Has any one had a similar experience before? I know it's not my imagination but I wonder if my conclusions are right.

Thanks in advance

 

[lazy gardener]

If Pepper is still laying eggs, she is not broody. But, if she is brooding a clutch of eggs, that may be why the rest of the flock is quiet. It would be instinctive to be quiet to avoid attracting predators to a broody nest. Do you have a rooster? Do you have room for more chickens, or want to add to your flock? If not, and if she is truly broody (Not laying, staying on the nest 24/7, only getting off for a few minutes to quickly eat, drink, dust bathe, lay a massive stinky turd, then run back to the nest) then you need to break her if you are not going to give her hatching eggs.

Or they may be quiet b/c they now have improved area for ranging.

 

[azygous]

Chickens are vocal or quiet according to their individual agendas, their conflicts with one another, and outside stimuli. Some chickens are bossy and loudly opinionated, and others like to keep a low profile. Hormones can enter the picture and change individual temperaments for a while or even long term as it sometimes is with new layers.

If your Pepper is actually broody, the broody hormones can make her behave much differently from her regular self. She will have a laser focus on her eggs and she'll shut out everything else. For all practical purposes, she's dropping out of the flock for the duration of her incubation.

But as LG pointed out, if there is no rooster to fertilize the eggs she may be sitting on, it's pointless to let her incubate eggs that will never produce results, a poor investment of her physical resources.

 

[BuKock]

If Pepper is still laying eggs, she is not broody. But, if she is brooding a clutch of eggs, that may be why the rest of the flock is quiet. It would be instinctive to be quiet to avoid attracting predators to a broody nest. Do you have a rooster? Do you have room for more chickens, or want to add to your flock? If not, and if she is truly broody (Not laying, staying on the nest 24/7, only getting off for a few minutes to quickly eat, drink, dust bathe, lay a massive stinky turd, then run back to the nest) then you need to break her if you are not going to give her hatching eggs.

Or they may be quiet b/c they now have improved area for ranging.

Hi and thank you for your reply. Pepper was still laying eggs three of four days ago but not any more. I don't have a rooster and six is the most I am aloud to have in suburban Brisbane. In fact one of the council regulations with backyard chickens is that the noise should not be a nuisance to the neighbours and I've been stressing a bit as it was truly getting out of hand. I am glad that Pepper's broodiness has cause the flock to quiet down to an acceptable level. When the noise levels are up I open the gate to other areas of the garden and thanks to Pepper, lately I haven't had to do that... well not until this morning. I had to step out to check what was going on and Pepper was scratching away with rest of her flock. It looked like the other chickens around the nesting boxes were having a quarrel. At the moment the noise levels are down and egg number are looking good.

 

[BuKock]

Chickens are vocal or quiet according to their individual agendas, their conflicts with one another, and outside stimuli. Some chickens are bossy and loudly opinionated, and others like to keep a low profile. Hormones can enter the picture and change individual temperaments for a while or even long term as it sometimes is with new layers.

If your Pepper is actually broody, the broody hormones can make her behave much differently from her regular self. She will have a laser focus on her eggs and she'll shut out everything else. For all practical purposes, she's dropping out of the flock for the duration of her incubation.

But as LG pointed out, if there is no rooster to fertilize the eggs she may be sitting on, it's pointless to let her incubate eggs that will never produce results, a poor investment of her physical resources.

Hi and thanks for your reply. You are right about the hormones, it's been a few days since I've removed the last egg that Pepper laid but it has not stopped her broody behaviour. She nest all day and fluffs her feathers with droopy wings as if chicks are around her. At the moment things are manageable but I am scared that the other chickens will also start joining Pepper's broody episode.

I am wondering if too much light is the cause of the broodiness. I will start closing the coop earlier just to see if it makes any difference. Thanks again and regards.

 

[azygous]

Broodiness is an individual thing. It occurs in a hen after she has laid a number of eggs, and it's only in certain individuals, not every hen. Some go broody three times a season while others never go broody in their entire lives. You can't force it, and you can only stop the hormones by cooling down the hen over a period of several days.

You've no doubt heard about the broody cage. It serves a dual purpose. It keeps a hen from heading for a nest and planting herself in it for three weeks (presence of eggs in nest is immaterial), and it cools the hen down by allowing air to circulate under the open mesh bottom of the cage, and this disrupts the broody hormones. It's the only way to stop broodiness.

 

[eswenerton]

My girls are usually pretty quiet, preferable in my suburban setting. One hen suddenly starting squawking quiet loudly at first light for a few weeks which caused me concern. Raising chickens has just become legal in my locality and I strive to be a good neighbor. I tried giving her scratch and opened up new roaming spaces, but those efforts only worked temporarily- I felt she was training me instead of the other way around. What happened next was quite remarkable. The noisy hen became broody and completely quiet. My theory is that when she was noisy, she was calling for a rooster. In nature she would have mated, laid eggs, then sat on her brood. In the wild it does not behoove a nesting bird to be noisy and attract predators; however, it may be necessary to broadcast a morning call to attract a mating rooster before laying the clutch.

I am curious if others have experienced a hen being unusually noisy before going broody.