Translating Chicken Talk

[momreda]

One of my white leghorns has a personality beyond measure. She will tattle on the "new" layers if they don't lay in the box, she will peck my leg when I walk into the coop to let them out and walk over to the egg, moaning and groaning the whole way. It's like she is saying "look what those new birds did, can't even lay in the box like a normal bird!"

We have 3 new layers on that side and she now has a ritual of telling on them. When it is time for her to lay heaven forbid there is a bird in her box. She will just go off I swear. She hops from roost to box, pecks the bird

, sits at the end of the box for a few seconds, hops back down paces the coop and starts all over again until the bird leaves the box. She cracks me up!

 

[prov31gal]

im not sure, but i think some of my chickens "call"us when they are scared or upset or something is different, we have no roo in with the orpingtons so i think that maybe they look to us as the roos or mommys or leaders or something. i know they make a loud bawk bawk BAGAWK when they want the eggs to be gotten, if they are done laying and tired of looking at eggs sitting in the house.
but they make a loud noise, all of them, when somethings up, like when we had these kids dirt biking in the woods behind our house for a few days, they didnt like it, and woul huddle in one corner of the run, and when we came out and said, hey, its ok, be quiet, from our back porch, they would shut up for a while, and then get loud again, and we would go out on the back porch and do the whole , be quiet, youre fine, thing, and they would settle down again. were they comforted by our voices? wee they calling us for protection from the scary noise? i dont know?

 

[spamee34]

WOW AND I THOT I WAS CHICKEN OBSESSED!!!!!!!

 

[ivan3]

VOCAL REPERTOIRE OF THE RED JUNGLEFOWL: A SPECTROGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION AND THE CODE OF COMMUNICATION’ NICHOLAS E. COLLIAS

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v089n03/p0510-p0524.pdf (very useful for `Berlitzing' Brahmas and their kin, e.g.,, `Bwwaaaaaakkkkk eeEEEEee Bwaaaaakkkkk' Translation: `Bugs grass dirt run gate open now stupid human!!!!')

I stripped out all but the essentials, however, every growl/whine/purr/etc. is described in extensive detail (in context-illustrated by sonograms) in the linked paper. Collias made his observations of, and performed his sonograms on, the flock of Red Jungle Fowl that used to be maintained at the San Diego Zoo.

1. Rising pitch (pleasure) vs. falling pitch (distress) (chicks)
2. Clear tones (attract) vs. white noise – hiss (repel)
3. Low pitched (attract) vs. high pitched notes (repel)
4. Brief notes (attract) vs. long notes (repel)
5. Soft notes (attract) vs. loud notes (repel)
6. Slow to fast repetition rate of notes (increased stimulus intensity)
7. Regular to irregular repetition of notes (increased stimulus intensity)
8. Gradual onset of call (set to respond) vs. abrupt onset of call (startle)
9. Steady tones (secure) vs. wavering tones (disturbed)
10. Consistent number of notes (stereotyped) vs. inconsistent number of notes (flexibility)

Specific calls (see paper for details, i.e., chevron calls/intergradiation of calls), each is comprised of signals (vocalizations) appropriate to a given context.

1.Chick calls expressing insecurity or security
2. Attraction calls of hen to chicks
3. Attraction calls of a cock to hens
4. Calls of well being or contentment by adults
5. Adult calls of mild disturbance
6. Warning calls announcing a predator on the ground or perched
7. Warning announcing a flying predator
8. Aggressive calls
9. Crowing

When our girls were still pullets on the `learning curve’ I observed behavior (increased chance of advantageous foraging by means of `delay of gratification, i.e., `malice aforethought’). One pullet had managed to take down a large, `armored’, Tree Boring beetle. As it worked to tear off the wing covers and get at the `meat’, two other pullets, nearby, continued to pick at vegetation and made no move to `share’ the `bugged’ pullet’s feast. When that pullet finally made her way through the beetle’s shell, the other two pullets rushed her and one made off with it, and the chase was on.

Collias makes reference to something similar in vocal signaling:

In experiments with domestic fowl cocks exposed to a hen who could not see the food automatically presented to the cock, the rate and number of food calls given by the cock increased with the preference ranking (palatability) of the food. A hen was more likely to approach the male when he was calling than when he was silent after food was presented to him (Marler et al. 1986a). A cock would food-call significantly less with no audience than in the presence of a hen; he would even food-call to a hen over non-food items especially in the presence of a strange hen (Marler et al. 1986b). Since a cock often refrains from ingesting a food item after calling a hen to it, just as a hen does after calling her chicks to food, a possible inference is that the behavior is intentional and implies that the caller plans ahead of time to share the food with the receiver (Marler et al. 1986b).

The observations of behaviors (vocal or otherwise) that might suggest a degree of `delay of gratification’ - `planning', could indicate a certain `presence of `mind’’ that is not often considered part of the lowly chook's armamentarium; though some rooster’s penchant for attacking from ambush is well known and reported in the forum, weekly.​

 

[A.T. Hagan]

My birds make a sort of low almost growling kind of sound when something has them concerned. I hear it most often if I'm out and about around their tractors or roost houses at night. Sort of like a "there's something out there. Pay attention." sort of thing.

I've got about twenty five roosters in a large pen close to my workshop at the moment. The other day my daughter and I were down to the shop working on the latest chicken tractor. We'd been there for some time and the birds had been aware of us all along. Suddenly they ALL started to make that "I'm concerned" sound and rather loudly too. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I went all the way around their pen and the shop and could not determine what it was that made them do that. It wasn't their "there's a hawk!" sound, but the sound they make at night when something is moving outside their roost house.

Of course there's nothing like a large group of nothing but roosters for drama. Every day, all day long.

.....Alan.

 

[catwalk]

I have a Silkie hen that speaks in sentences. There's syllables, inflection, punctuation, the works! I have no idea what kind of story she's telling, but it makes my heart melt!

 

[Asgard Farms]

ok, so what does it mean when the head" hen honks at me?

No lie, she sounds like a horn honking. (yes, I am sure she is a chicken)

Patti

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
LOL...I don't know what it means, but one of mine use to honk too. I called her my little goose.

I haven't heard the honk for some time now, but she (the honker) is still my most vocal hen...and she's the boss too!

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
LOVE the purring and cooing!! Mine do it at the nest box (even if it's just making over the wooden egg in there), and my BO does it when she's sprawled out on my lap when I'm petting her (if she's really relaxed). Sometimes they'll do it from the roost if I'm sitting in the coop with them talking really quietly and sweetly to them. They are SO sweet!

 

[nanawendy]

Maybe that's what mine does...a honk not a bark. It's very guttural. a deep down sound. I'm not sure what it means but she does it when she WANTS SOMETHING.