Understanding Chicken Language

[The Angry Hen]

Sorry, I don't have a video...
The chick is older now, but when she was young the mother would call her over.

 

[Kristy1979]

I feel like an idiot but I can't figure out where or how to start my own thread with my own question... I'm replying here because this is all I can find!! Help?

 

[Bantambuff]

The chicks grow fast!

 

[The Angry Hen]

The chicks grow fast!

Yes, too fast!!

 

[The Angry Hen]

I feel like an idiot but I can't figure out where or how to start my own thread with my own question... I'm replying here because this is all I can find!! Help?

Um, sure! I can help!

Click 'forums' and choose the forum you would like to write in.
Then click it.

Now, you click 'Start Thread.' And there ya go!
I hope this helps! Good luck!

-The Angry Hen

 

[Kristy1979]

Um, sure! I can help!

Click 'forums' and choose the forum you would like to write in.
Then click it.

Now, you click 'Start Thread.' And there ya go!
I hope this helps! Good luck!

-The Angry Hen

 

[Kristy1979]

Oh man. Thanks!!

 

[The Angry Hen]

Oh man. Thanks!!

Your welcome.
-The Angry Hen

 

[azygous]

I've been studying chicken language for years. Just about the time I discovered they speak in phrases (syntax) a lot like us humans, I ran across a scientific study on bird language confirming what I had discovered on my own.

I first stumbled onto this amazing revelation when I was holding a two-day old chick when my cat strolled into the bedroom where I had the brooder set up. The tiny chick chirped out the exact same five-note phrase I had heard my adult chickens utter as the cat approached the run.

That's when I really began listening to my chickens. The way they string notes together with an emphasis on a certain note in the phrase will mean different things. For example, the five-note phrase "here comes the cat (or dog, or other friendly animal such as a squirrel) has no emphasis on any note, just a rapid "boop-boop-boop-boop-boop".

The phrase for "here comes a human" is "boop-boop-BOOP-boop-boop". I will look up and here comes my neighbor but she's still so far up the hill behind my house, I can barely see her.

The phrase for "here comes a bear!" is sinister sounding and very quiet and subtle, but it's still a five-note phrase. I can't recall which note has the emphasis because I haven't had a bear in a few years. But that time, the chickens warned me in the nick of time so I could get myself safely inside the run with them. As it was, the angry bear was snarling and pawing at the gate trying to get at me and the chickens. Of course, by that time, the chickens were past the point of civil conversation and it was pandemonium. With all the screeching and yelling, some of it from the chickens, the bear decided to give up and it went off about 50 yards to lie in the shade of a tree to plan and scheme another approach.

I managed to get to the house and called the game warden who luckily was in the area and was there in twenty minutes to shoot the bear with a tranquilizer gun and haul it away.

Learning chicken language is just a matter of spending time with your chickens and associating their different vocalizations with their behavior. And it sure has paid off for me. Big time.

 

[The Angry Hen]

Wow! I learned a LOT! Thanks for the info!
And yes, spending time with your chickens helps understand them a LOT.

-The Angry Hen