normal hen laying behavior?

[bkterry]

This may be a silly question but here goes anyway...we have several chickens but i only have one that is old enough to lay right now. ive noticed that when she lays she cackles and makes all kind of noise as shes laying. i was just wondering if that is normal behavior or not. it just scares me sometimes because i'll hear her going off and im afraid its because of a hawk rather than just laying an egg.

 

[Redfeathers]

It's very normal. I love the "egg song" sometimes I get three or four about to lay at the same time and they all start cackling and it's a riot. Makes me laugh.

 

[hb]

I call it "sounding the alarm" when they go bruuuckbruuuckbruuuckBAWGAWWWK!!!!!(over and over for the next few minutes)

I have had my two girls for almost a year now and I have run out into the backyard because they "sounded the alarm" - to see a Cooper's Hawk stalking them or a neighbors cat being curious, or just because the other one is busy trying to lay an egg... and it's a little bit different sound when they are laying eggs. It's not so urgent or immenent sounding. But you should check it out anyways if you hear that mayhem...

It took me a while to get used to the egg laying alarm and the pedator alarm, but I still, when I'm home, check what's going on, but then they see me coming and think that when they make such a stink, that I'll come running out to save them...

Go figure!

 

[stilwellchick]

Very normal, cackle= proud of their accomplishment! I think new layers do it more than the older ones. Sometimes the new layers will join in on the cackling even though they are not laying yet. I have seen a flock of newbies all go quiet and listen to the first cackle of their flock and then start to chime in. Kinda like a maternity ward waiting room! Aren't they fascinating?

 

[d.k]

* I can tell when Chook is going to lay because she eats little, CANNOT WAIT to get outside and is "walking & squawking" incessantly til that egg is laid. That's when she's most likely to wander off, too!!!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

See now, the only ones I have that make a god-awful racket after they lay an egg are my RIR's!! My black sexies are like, pop out an egg, hop out of the box and back to the yard scratching and pecking. The RIR's are "BAWWWK WWWWAAKKK BAWWWWKK WWWAAKKK! And of course the other red has to join in and congratulate her!!

 

[bkterry]

Thanks for the replies! Atleast I know I'm not the only one rughing out the door to save the chickens from the hawk only to find a freshly laid egg. I figured this was pretty normal behavior but it never hurts to make sure.

 

[d.k]

* When there's a hawk near my place the birds go completely silent and still. Chook dashes under the bouganvillia and freezes like a statue!!! They'll all stay that way until 'someone', usually a bluejay, sounds the "All Clear!". . . .