They say that it doesn’t upset chickens when you take the eggs. Wrong.

[Kariann]

I've been watching and noting a behavior from Penny (my 24 week old Easter Egger) that I've finally figured out.
My hens have 2 places they like to lay eggs. I have been collecting eggs before noon sets in and the day gets hot.
I started noticing that Penny would go to the nest I just left and make sounds that sound kind of distressed. Then, she started following me when I headed to a nest and making those sounds as we went. Today, I collected one egg, and as I was closing the nesting box back door, Penny came right up to me. I slipped the egg into my pocket and squatted down to pet her, but she was more interested in finding the egg she knew I took. She then went right up into the nesting boxes and made the distress sounds. I opened the door and put the egg back, she immediately calmed down and sat on it. She doesn't sit on any eggs all day, but she very clearly does not want them being taken.
I suspect my Speckled Sussex and one of my Sapphire Gems are also in on this, they don't make the distress call and come right up to me, but they do watch me and I know theyre talking shit about me, lol!
Any advice would be appreciated. I've already tried fake eggs. She doesn't fall for that.

 

[azygous]

Egg laying, besides being a bodily function, also has social elements. You may have noticed that a hen getting ready to lay an egg will be fretfully vocal, communicating to the flock her intention to lay an egg. Then, as she settles into the nest, she will become relaxed and quiet.

At the same time she is settling into the nest, other hens may perch nearby and set to creating a racket, seemingly calling attention to the hen that is in the nest. They are, in effect, sharing socially in her egg laying.

After the hen lays the egg and upon leaving the nest, she will almost always engage in what we refer to as the egg song - loud vocalizing to call the attention of the flock to her having just finished producing an egg. Others in the flock will almost always join in, and it can be a raucous event. It can rival a predator visit in noise levels.

So, I'm going to hypothesize that your hen, seeing you remove the egg she just finished laying, was still in this stage of sharing vocally with the flock her achievement, and since our flocks are very likely to consider us as flock members of a sort, she associated you with the event and was acting accordingly by vocalizing it. It sounds like a distress call, but it's really social communication of the egg event. I've had some hens lay and egg and then continue with their loud vocalizations even after they've reentered the run, only stopping when they get distracted by something else.

The whole egg laying thing is high drama and produces the most noise of almost any chicken activity. When humans have their silly "gender reveal" parties, it's not any more social than how chickens behave when those eggs get laid.

 

[Kariann]

Egg laying, besides being a bodily function, also has social elements. You may have noticed that a hen getting ready to lay an egg will be fretfully vocal, communicating to the flock her intention to lay an egg. Then, as she settles into the nest, she will become relaxed and quiet.

At the same time she is settling into the nest, other hens may perch nearby and set to creating a racket, seemingly calling attention to the hen that is in the nest. They are, in effect, sharing socially in her egg laying.

After the hen lays the egg and upon leaving the nest, she will almost always engage in what we refer to as the egg song - loud vocalizing to call the attention of the flock to her having just finished producing an egg. Others in the flock will almost always join in, and it can be a raucous event. It can rival a predator visit in noise levels.

So, I'm going to hypothesize that your hen, seeing you remove the egg she just finished laying, was still in this stage of sharing vocally with the flock her achievement, and since our flocks are very likely to consider us as flock members of a sort, she associated you with the event and was acting accordingly by vocalizing it. It sounds like a distress call, but it's really social communication of the egg event. I've had some hens lay and egg and then continue with their loud vocalizations even after they've reentered the run, only stopping when they get distracted by something else.

The whole egg laying thing is high drama and produces the most noise of almost any chicken activity. When humans have their silly "gender reveal" parties, it's not any more social than how chickens behave when those eggs get laid. it's not only her eggs that she wants to protect. It's any and all eggs in both places. Her distress sound is not very loud, and only the other 2 mentioned, no one seems

Egg laying, besides being a bodily function, also has social elements. You may have noticed that a hen getting ready to lay an egg will be fretfully vocal, communicating to the flock her intention to lay an egg. Then, as she settles into the nest, she will become relaxed and quiet.

At the same time she is settling into the nest, other hens may perch nearby and set to creating a racket, seemingly calling attention to the hen that is in the nest. They are, in effect, sharing socially in her egg laying.

After the hen lays the egg and upon leaving the nest, she will almost always engage in what we refer to as the egg song - loud vocalizing to call the attention of the flock to her having just finished producing an egg. Others in the flock will almost always join in, and it can be a raucous event. It can rival a predator visit in noise levels.

So, I'm going to hypothesize that your hen, seeing you remove the egg she just finished laying, was still in this stage of sharing vocally with the flock her achievement, and since our flocks are very likely to consider us as flock members of a sort, she associated you with the event and was acting accordingly by vocalizing it. It sounds like a distress call, but it's really social communication of the egg event. I've had some hens lay and egg and then continue with their loud vocalizations even after they've reentered the run, only stopping when they get distracted by something else.

The whole egg laying thing is high drama and produces the most noise of almost any chicken activity. When humans have their silly "gender reveal" parties, it's not any more social than how chickens behave when those eggs get laid.

It's not only her eggs that she wants to protect. It's any and all eggs in both places, and even after they have been unattended to long enough to get cold. Her distress sound is not very loud, and only the other 2 mentioned, no one seems to take notice.
Yes, there is always at least 1 other hen present when any hen is laying.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It's not only her eggs that she wants to protect. It's any and all eggs in both places, and even after they have been unattended to long enough to get cold. Her distress sound is not very loud, and only the other 2 mentioned, no one seems to take notice.
Yes, there is always at least 1 other hen present when any hen is laying.

The purpose of the species is to procreate. Anything else is an evolutionary dead end. Some significant portion of egg song - particularly by the non layers at any given moment - seems to be for purpose of distracting predators from the bird actually doing to potential procreation. *(Though I admit to sometime imagining it as a "cheering section" at times). No different then when an adult animal deliberately makes a target of itself to lead predators away from their young/the pack's young.

I would be *VERY* cautious of imposing human-like concepts of morality and emotional response onto chicken and similar creature's behavior, they don't have the brain development (for good or ill) that we and other primates do, or even domesticated anmials like dogs whose cognition varies greatly from the root stock. They have rudementary object permanence, yes, and can be taught habits we might characterize as tricks, but there is little evidence that they view an egg as a potential new chicken, or give much mind to the disappearance of an egg for more than a brief period of time.

 

[McChooky]

Mine quit singing the egg song soon as I go out to the coop. Its like turning a spigot off.