What do different chicken/rooster calls mean? (I'm a newbie)

[MamaLisa1976]

Got our 5 chickens right around St. Pat's day, they were 1 day old. Hens never made any sounds, until today. Our one rooster has been crowing and crowing, and today I heard him and another hen just "buck-buck-bucKAAW!" back and forth for about 20 minutes. I thought maybe our hen laid a new egg or something so we went to check and found her in the nest. No eggs yet though. (We just got our first 3 eggs this week!) But why all the racket? What are they "saying"?
Thanks!
Lisa

 

[poodlechicks]

Hello and welcome!

Last year I posted the same question b/c I was concerned about the noise my hens were making. The first time I heard them I ran outside thinking they were being killed by a predator. Turns out it was the egg song, which I thought was going to be a melodious tune, but turned out to be a "screaming bloody murder" kind of sound

Your hens are probably "singing" the egg song. Some will start some time before laying and continue after laying. Her buddies may chime in singing to help announce to the cosmos that their friend is about to lay an egg

Mine do exactly that. It is deafening here in the morning with just 5 hens, but I learned to like it and look forward to collecting the eggs.

I can't help you about the roosters, as the only ones I own are babies still.

Enjoy the symphony!

 

[azygous]

They're all simply indicating that they're excited over the hens laying. It's catching. One hen will occupy a nest. Another hen will see this and declare her opinion about it. Often, she will decide occupying that particular nest is what she had intended to do before the current occupant co-opted it.

And the rooster just goes along with all the excitement, not wanting to be left out.

It's definitely a team sport.

 

[MamaLisa1976]

I thought it was pretty funny. At first, too, I thought it might be a predator, but they didn't sound threatened, it was a "happy" sound. Just A LOT OF IT and it was loud, and when I went to check on them it was only the rooster and our brown hen, "Henny Penny". Our other 3 chickens are white hens. I love that they do this! Chickens are awesome!