The welsummer that won’t shut up, feed related?

I've got a talker, too. She's the best layer I have so I ignore her. She talks all the time. Talks to the ground, talks to my feet, talks to the nest box, talks to her egg, talks to the other chickens. And sometimes she talks to nothing at all, or maybe she's chatting to the wind, sun, stars...
Hmmm, so another noisy one that’s a good layer… that’s really interesting.

Mine don’t go any louder when they get “extras”. But Carla is similar to yours, the mouth is going at just about everything, if no people are around. If people nearby she just stalks the fence watching you. That’s why I never connected her going silent with having a pile of greens. She’d already go silent if you went out there, and we’re out there a lot. Yard is small & I’m in process of removing the grass (dead anyway, grass is stupid in the desert & I’m not paying to water it), building raised beds, planting etc.

@ChickenMumAbi & @aart - lol, yes, it was so weird I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out if her weird noises were normal…there’s been a few people on here that ask about barking, but I can’t find anything else for info. Bc she never acted ill, grew normally, laid early, I just chalked it up to that’s her voice. I didn’t mention it to the fam bc I thought I was nuts. Over the course of a few months, they’d hear her on the camera, or be sitting in the house and hear it… seeing all the dogs in the house, eyes would go funny & they’d ask “is that the chicken?”

It’s been a trip.
 
Omg, today we had some wind. 50mph gusts. Not sure what or why & I don’t really care/bc I’ve been trying to figure her out for 9mo—no health issues, she eats like a hog, lays 9/10 days, poops, digs, plays, etc… but Carla the mouth did not shut up for more than 10 minutes during daylight. She’s started up the moaning again and was quiet only while eating sprouts/fodder (ran out after the 10 minutes …) I gotta say today was a challenge. By 4pm I’d had enough and caught her. Placed her in the big dog crate. Put her back outside on the roost after dark. She still complained for almost 30min.

They have the 2’x4’ enclosed space as a dark nesting/laying area with over 200sqft of run, still with some green vegetation, plenty of shade/dusting, and the silver polish has been squatting for 2 weeks and camping herself near the door.

So today the only difference is the polish camping just inside the opening to the nest area, and the wind.

Only big difference was the wind.

Unfortunately, if she doesn’t knock it off, she’s going to leave the property. My neighbors have been aok, but I’ve just about had enough of her noise, I’ve got tinnitus and when she starts up, it hurts my head. Most of her noises are fine—the moaning is AWFUL.

She lays almost every day, so that’ll be sad… please someone tell me I’m not the only one with an extremely vocal MOANING chicken?

Makes me want to go back and do a phd on loud chickens/breeding for quiet chickens.

Tags: welsummer moaning barking loud
 
Omg, today we had some wind. 50mph gusts. Not sure what or why & I don’t really care/bc I’ve been trying to figure her out for 9mo—no health issues, she eats like a hog, lays 9/10 days, poops, digs, plays, etc… but Carla the mouth did not shut up for more than 10 minutes during daylight. She’s started up the moaning again and was quiet only while eating sprouts/fodder (ran out after the 10 minutes …) I gotta say today was a challenge. By 4pm I’d had enough and caught her. Placed her in the big dog crate. Put her back outside on the roost after dark. She still complained for almost 30min.

They have the 2’x4’ enclosed space as a dark nesting/laying area with over 200sqft of run, still with some green vegetation, plenty of shade/dusting, and the silver polish has been squatting for 2 weeks and camping herself near the door.

So today the only difference is the polish camping just inside the opening to the nest area, and the wind.

Only big difference was the wind.

Unfortunately, if she doesn’t knock it off, she’s going to leave the property. My neighbors have been aok, but I’ve just about had enough of her noise, I’ve got tinnitus and when she starts up, it hurts my head. Most of her noises are fine—the moaning is AWFUL.

She lays almost every day, so that’ll be sad… please someone tell me I’m not the only one with an extremely vocal MOANING chicken?

Makes me want to go back and do a phd on loud chickens/breeding for quiet chickens.

Tags: welsummer moaning barking loud
You're not the only one.

I'm currently looking into rehoming one of my orpington hen. Very docile and squats for me all the time. Lays 4-6 eggs/weekly. However, she gauks (sounds like she says haaaaawwwwwkkkkkkk) for no apparent reason, especially between 7am-10am. It's like a high pitch screech. She gets the other ladies rowdy. I've always buy or grow out more than I need and keep the ones with the best dispositions. Always get more than you need as insurance. If can't rehome, freezer camp sometimes happen. If she is super loud, I'd look into rehoming her or freezer camp.

Have you tried throwing scratch or oatmeal? When I need my chickens to shut up asap, I throw them some scratch or oatmeal. Some people say that oatmeal is not healthy for chickens, but my experiences has been that it has a calming effect on chickens. This includes lessening bullying, pecking, etc. You can look it up, many people share similar experiences.
 
You're not the only one.

I'm currently looking into rehoming one of my orpington hen. Very docile and squats for me all the time. Lays 4-6 eggs/weekly. However, she gauks (sounds like she says haaaaawwwwwkkkkkkk) for no apparent reason, especially between 7am-10am. It's like a high pitch screech. She gets the other ladies rowdy. I've always buy or grow out more than I need and keep the ones with the best dispositions. Always get more than you need as insurance. If can't rehome, freezer camp sometimes happen. If she is super loud, I'd look into rehoming her or freezer camp.

Have you tried throwing scratch or oatmeal? When I need my chickens to shut up asap, I throw them some scratch or oatmeal. Some people say that oatmeal is not healthy for chickens, but my experiences has been that it has a calming effect on chickens. This includes lessening bullying, pecking, etc. You can look it up, many people share similar experiences.
Oh, I’ve been looking this up since she started the moaning/barking when she was about 4 mo old, they’re 9mo now. She’d stopped the moaning for 3 months+. And was never this bad, long or loud.

I threw everything but the kitchen sink at them today (including oatmeal, funny enough)…

No kidding, it sounds like someone is killing a person. Today was no barking and NOTHING shut her up except chicken jail…If it keeps up I know it won’t be acceptable to the neighbors. It’s SoCal, everyone is outside all the time unless it’s 100°, in a fairly dense area, and if I can’t take it, I know my neighbors aren’t enjoying the haunted house/tortured/dying human sound coming from over the fence. The barking was funny. The moaning is unnerving.

Last week she was actually particularly quiet with extra greens (sprouts & spinach).

Maybe it was the wind. Tomorrow is another day, and the wind (50 mph gusts, 35+mph sustained) is supposed to die down. Or she was pissed about the polish in their nesting hut. 🤷‍♀️ The mouth didn’t lay an egg today, but wasn’t showing any signs of distress except for the constant racket.

There’s a hard limit of 4 so was unable to have “extras”. If she keeps it up tomorrow, it’s chicken jail and decisions will have to be made. We were technically @ that choice right before she quit a few months ago… The girl has a great set of air sacks but she’ll have to do it somewhere else…
 
Update: it’s been a week since we had the Friday from hades with Carla-the-mouth.

We had very windy (35/40mph sustained, 50/75mph gusts) during the day on Saturday also… These are desert Santa Anna’s (the devil winds). But, they only apparently bothered Carla the first day.

I’m happy to report, she’s still here and I didn’t have to put her in chicken jail all week.

The silver polish has not started laying yet, but the cream legbar (NotCarla) has kicked it up a few notches this week, having laid 6 of the last 7 days also (she was only at maybe 3 a week in November/December).

Even her barking is much less, and she’s taken to “running” to which ever end of the yard people are on. The coop/run is on one side of the yard, with a 40’ long 3’ wide Chunnel going across the one retaining wall.

So best guess of chicken brains is hormonal + agitation … the combo of wind (1st time they’ve experienced that level), the polish spending time in “her” space, and whatever was going on with her buddy NotCarla (because of the doubling of her egg-laying).

Lol, I’m also hoping her new jogging routine is wearing her out. It’s been in the low 70°’s all week, so by afternoon, they’re all in the shade for hours, digging in the dirt & picking stuff off their trellises. QUIETLY.

Winds are supposed to return today, so I’ve got fingers crossed she’ll be a good girl.

Whew.
 
I had 4, now 2 Wellies. The noises yours makes are unusual, in comparison. You are fortunate to get 6/wk. Mine lay 3-4. They do make the normal egg song, and one of them got broody more than once last summer (their yr. old summer). Both molted for the first time this fall, and are finally laying again. They seem to be a gentle, friendly breed. Lets me pet them. One girl used to be my follower, and would keep me in eye's reach when I was on the other side of the fence gardening. She had a tail that stayed down, like a turkey's, and made gentle non-chicken sounds. As stated above by a fellow poster, each chicken has their own personality. It's fun to see it develop over time, whether from a chick, or as a older acquired one.
 
Well, if she starts up again, maybe rent her out to the sound effects department of some movie studio.....:cool::cool::cool::cool: Carla does Hollywood. Glad to hear she changed her tune. Hormones? Maybe.
Lol, if she starts up again she’s going to have to go live in Hollywood!

My neighbors are used to weird noises. I had a yellow-naped parrot (I got her in her mid-20’s, previous pet that was paired up), long time ago, that from dawn to dusk sang opera (loudly!) and made a really weird noise in between songs… took us about a year to figure out it was a sewing machine noise.

I’m loving the silence. All she’s done this week is announce her egg & the cream legbar egg, and that’s just a few squawks.

Bc we’re in the desert, greens are harder to keep in front of them, and I’ve noticed a huge difference in their attitude/noise when they have A LOT of greens. They haven’t changed the amount of pellets they eat, but they’ve definitely increased their green intake. They’re also still drinking the same quantity of water too.

A big handful of spinach/baby greens is gone in minutes, a pound plus of fodder w/i 30min. A head of cabbage- might last a couple of hours.

On top of the ryegrass I was sprouting, I’ve added BOSS & corn sprouts the last few days. And a head of cabbage every other day.

I’m currently firmly in the camp of growing & feeding sprouts/fodder. Used to do it with the parrots, had NO IDEA chickens would want this much green stuff.

🙄 chickens 🤔
 
Omg, today we had some wind. 50mph gusts. Not sure what or why & I don’t really care/bc I’ve been trying to figure her out for 9mo—no health issues, she eats like a hog, lays 9/10 days, poops, digs, plays, etc… but Carla the mouth did not shut up for more than 10 minutes during daylight. She’s started up the moaning again and was quiet only while eating sprouts/fodder (ran out after the 10 minutes …) I gotta say today was a challenge. By 4pm I’d had enough and caught her. Placed her in the big dog crate. Put her back outside on the roost after dark. She still complained for almost 30min.

They have the 2’x4’ enclosed space as a dark nesting/laying area with over 200sqft of run, still with some green vegetation, plenty of shade/dusting, and the silver polish has been squatting for 2 weeks and camping herself near the door.

So today the only difference is the polish camping just inside the opening to the nest area, and the wind.

Only big difference was the wind.

Unfortunately, if she doesn’t knock it off, she’s going to leave the property. My neighbors have been aok, but I’ve just about had enough of her noise, I’ve got tinnitus and when she starts up, it hurts my head. Most of her noises are fine—the moaning is AWFUL.

She lays almost every day, so that’ll be sad… please someone tell me I’m not the only one with an extremely vocal MOANING chicken?

Makes me want to go back and do a phd on loud chickens/breeding for quiet chickens.

Tags: welsummer moaning barking loud
:lauI'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but I have been cracking up since the beginning of this thread! I feel your pain as I too am the proud owner of a Welsummer. I think they are just hard wired to walk around talking smack about everything, lol! Piper starts out her mornings as soon as the pop door opens griping, if my husband has treats, she's all up in his business chirping, cooing, BAAAAWKAKKK...which translates into give it to me now! She will follow me around the yard, in the run, and coop griping the whole time. She literally has something to say about everything all day long:gig But alas I love her and her "individuality". But I don't think I'd ever get another one as long as she's alive, 1 is enough
 

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