SCREAMS!! New behavior

[jojotheteach]

Wondering why my one chicken SCREAMS (not the normal cries) while the other chicken is laying an egg. It goes on for 20 minutes. Being a suburban keeper I'm afraid I'm going to have to get rid of her . Any ideas?


Jo

 

[NYcue]

That's funny... I can't answer your question but I can tell you that mine do the same thing. I don't hear nothing from the layer but always someone outside the coop house begins screaming... Once the layer is done... the noise stops.

Maybe the screamer is telling the layer to hurry up?

 

[Stewarts]

Its normal behavior. I am wintering 14 laying hens, they have six nest boxes but its the bottom three that are most preferred. When a hen or two are in the boxes, other hens will come and 'scream', usually because they want into the box themselves to lay their egg and they don't appreciate another hen in, what they consider, 'their' box. If there are a couple of eggs in a box, a hen will go in there just to sit on them, so another hen will scream because she wants to lay. I just put the screaming hen into the next available box. If she climbs out and goes back to screaming, I take an egg or two, put them in another box and show them to her, then put her in. She usually calms down when she has eggs of her own to sit on.

 

[jojotheteach]

I'm wondering if it is 1. missing her friend because she stops immediately when the other lays or 2. if she is trying to protect her friend. They have been laying for months and this is the first time I have heard it. I jumped sky high, I thought she was being murdered. They are not competing for a nest. The loudmouth stands on a perch I have in their coop and literally screams. It's awful!

 

[jojotheteach]

This is the culprit!

 

[Stewarts]

I have a hen like that. One morning she simply would. not. stop. screaming! The other hen starting hissing at her to GO AWAY. I took some eggs, put them into another box and set here on top of them. She went quiet. She was jealous that the other hen was sitting on eggs or trying to lay one of her own. There could be a measure of protection involved here too if the hens are very close to each other.