Talking Chicken - What does your Hen say to YOU?

[sonomacluck]

I often wonder about chicken speech patterns.

Thankfully, there is recent research on this:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...es-the-nuances-of-chicken-ldquo-speech-rdquo/

 

[Pugsabi]

Welcome to BYC! Thanks for the great article.
Check this article out @KikisGirls

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I couldn’t resist playing the audio files in that article on my phone to see what my chooks would do... the tidbitting sound made the cockerels spazz out a bit, lol

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC! Thanks for the great article.
Check this article out @KikisGirls

Doing so now. Thanks.

 

[aart]

Have read this in the past.....this is the part that struck me the most:
“Some farmers tell me that despite all the gadgets, their most important piece of technology is a five-gallon bucket,”

 

[RWise]

I had an elderly person visiting and watching my birds, A group of hens and a rooster walked by chatting. This person turned and said "they think they are wild birds, they are speaking wild chicken language", LOL I guess that means they are happy birds,,,
Interesting article.

 

[Perris]

yes interesting, thanks for posting the link @sonomacluck
On the 'egg song' though I've been persuaded by @Shadrach 's posts that it's a call to the rooster to fetch the hen and guide her black to the flock - that fits best with my experience.

 

[Biddybot]

Nice article, thanks! I was glad to read that they mentioned that chickens have a good two dozen distinct vocalizations. I remember reading that in one of my old banty books and the thought then was that the extensive vocabularies of chickens was due to how their ancestors live, in the sometimes dense edge vegetation of jungles, where visibility was sometimes compromised, but they could always talk to one another, even when a distance apart.

Another thing I like about chickens (although they do need access to the outdoors for this) is that they can also learn the languages of other bird species, most particularly alarm calls, which I believe are thought to be somewhat universal as bird-speak goes. I noted this just a couple of days ago when there was another small-bird hawk swoop over my neighbour's feeders. A blue jay there sounded the aerial predator alarm and a couple of my brown-egg layer hens, who were out in the open by themselves, instantly sprinted for cover--man! did they move! All the older chickens also go alert when they hear nearby robins and sparrows tut-tut-tutting. They've learned that such calls mean a ground predator, maybe just the neighbour's cat, but it COULD also be the neighbourhood fox...

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Back in may the blue jays were raising a ruckus in the backyard ... I watched them and about 10 other species of birds checking something out, all making their own alarm calls, i figured it was a snake... sure enough when I walked down there I found a large black rat snake.