Trouble in Chickenville!

[poppycat]

After raising chickens peacefully for over a year, in town, with no incident, my RIR has decided to mix it up a little. It's 6:15 in the morning and I've been up for 45 minutes trying to get her to SHUT UP!!! She started Ba-Kacking so loudly at 5:30 that I was afraid my neighbors would call the police. Seriously. Actually I'm lucky they didn't.

Why would she do that? All the other chickens were still on the roost. (They wanted to sleep a little later too)

Can I stop it from EVER EVER happening again? My neighbors are pretty nice about the chickens but I can't imagine them putting up with this too long, especially the ones that are closer to the coop.

As of now she's on probation. You might see her on Buy-Sell-Trade later today. I would be sorry to see her go but I want to continue to have chickens.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Whirlwind]

Don't know why. Mine do that sometimes also. I think they usually want out to free range. Its a good thing my neighbors are not close. My DH says they are noisier than a roo. Hope she stops soon.

 

[Finch]

Maybe your hen had seen a predator and was sounding the alarm...?
Or maybe she was feeling the urge to lay an egg and just had to let the world know. Is there an animal communicator in the forum? That sure would be handy!

 

[SpottedCrow]

BaGawk!! is usually an alarm call. And if she's top of the pecking order then she was telling you that something was up.

 

[akyramoto]

mine do that, but never that early! its bad when about 3 or 4 get goin. I actually heard one of them cackling yesterday it sounded like she was laughing.

 

[poppycat]

Spotted Crow, you're probably right. She is at the top of the pecking order.
I wonder if my neighbors bratty little pomeranian was out. She's always hated him. In fact she was downright vicious once when he'd had a bad haircut and looked more evil than usual.
My husband is going to hinge the door between coop and run tonight after he gets home from work. That way we have to let them out in the morning. Hopefully that will help, or at least put a little sound barrier between them and the rest of the world!