What are they clucking about???

[hatchies]

All of the sudden my girls seem to be clucking LOUD and OFTEN! They have plenty of food and water as well as clean boxes and coop. It seems like they are yelling at me!

Do you have any idea what they are clicking about? The only thing I have changed recently is that I have added some scratch to their lay crumbles, where as they have only had lay crumbles for a long time. Whether or not that is right, I don't know, so tell me if it isn't!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How old are they? Chickens often become more vocal before they resume or begin laying. This time of year all poultry are experiencing a hormonal surge due to the increasing daylight, so they do become more rambunctious from it and some get louder.

 

[teria]

I agree, it's because they are feeling those hormones surging. Sometimes my younger girls get so loud I have to go out and sit with them to quiet them down.

 

[aart]

All of the sudden my girls seem to be clucking LOUD and OFTEN! They have plenty of food and water as well as clean boxes and coop. It seems like they are yelling at me!

Do you have any idea what they are clicking about? The only thing I have changed recently is that I have added some scratch to their lay crumbles, where as they have only had lay crumbles for a long time. Whether or not that is right, I don't know, so tell me if it isn't!

They can be real jabbermouths sometimes......
.....seems to come and go in my flock, who knows what they're thinking?<shrugs>

Adding scratch to the crumble may have set them off, they don't like change.

Best not to mix scratch with the crumble, scratch should be fed separately and with moderation.
I throw scratch in the ground in run, keep crumbles in feeder 24/7.


: I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

 

[Monguire]

Usually I find the jabbering is egg-song. One hen gets really excited about an egg recently laid and has to announce it to the world. This often gets the other hens caught-up in a chorus of cackling. Less often, I find that my cockerel will spin-up the hens for no apparent reason whatsoever as evidenced here from one of my coop cams. They were perfectly quiet for hours, our 5-6 daily eggs had been collected from our 9 layers some 6 hours before and all was peaceful and serene until something got his dander up.

Sometimes I think that like all young fellas, he just likes to hear himself talk!

 

[aart]

Usually I find the jabbering is egg-song. One hen gets really excited about an egg recently laid and has to announce it to the world. This often gets the other hens caught-up in a chorus of cackling. Less often, I find that my cockerel will spin-up the hens for no apparent reason whatsoever as evidenced here from one of my coop cams. They were perfectly quiet for hours, our 5-6 daily eggs had been collected from our 9 layers some 6 hours before and all was peaceful and serene until something got his dander up.

Sometimes I think that like all young fellas, he just likes to hear himself talk!

That's hilarious...have had that happen in my flock as well.

NICE coop @Monguire !!

 

[hatchies]

Thank you everyone! This all makes perfect sense. The girl who seems to be the instigator of it all just started laying again. She stands at the door of their nests and sqwuaks so loud I often go outside to check on them. Now I know it's just because she is proud of herself! And those hormones surging don't help!