My lavender Orpington has been making her 'egg laying' song multiple times a day. Randomly she just starts doing it.. The other day I literally thought she was crowing.. But she lays eggs so she's obviously a girl. This has been happening maybe two weeks. Is this normal? She does this after laying her actual egg, in the middle of the afternoon and she seems to do it just before dark.. She's also my top hen. Back-story.. Her flock mate just hatched chicks about a week and a half ago also.. But wasn't being a good mom so I moved them into a brooder inside. Is it possible she's calling to them, is that weird? She never physically saw the babies but I'm sure heard them. Trying to figure out if I should be concerned here!
While it is called the "egg song" it is not really related to laying so much as the separation of bird from flock during the laying process - this often leads it to being heard at times not related to the hen laying an egg. Think of it more as a game of chicken marco-polo, one bird starts the call and the others answer back......in the case of a hen who has gone off to lay this would be how she would reunite with the flock afterwards. Even though the modern/domestic approach to keeping birds limits or even eliminates this the instinct to call/return the call remains. Often a bird will be startled, lose sight of another bird, etc and will initiate the call....causing confusion for the chicken keeper who associates it only with laying.
We have 6 Javas that do an egg laying "chorus" every single time one them lays an egg. Sometimes they even stand together and call out. I'm guessing that sometimes it's a game, but like Ol Grey Mare said, it's a call so they can re-orientate into the flock.
Can I ask for a clip or a better description of the sound you're talking about? Is it more of a wail or a "buK-buk-buk-buk-BUH-BAW!"?
That's about it.....it's also very close to an 'alarm call'. Sometimes I think that some birds just like to hear themselves yell over and over and over.
Teeheehee We've got an EE that likes to screech along anytime someone lays an egg. And an Australorp that could wake the dead. Also had 3 of them run around their new extended boundary making egg song noises the first day or two- I think they were confused about where the egg box went- but figured it out... eventually.
