why the egg song? wouldn't it attract predators?

[jomercer]

Evolutionarily speaking, I think it's odd that chickens would advertise the fact they've laid an egg. Wouldn't that have the potential to attract predators? Songbirds tend not to sing near their nests, presumably to avoid directing egg-and nestling-thieves to the nest.

Perhaps the egg song enhances flock cohesiveness and awareness and therefore better protection.

Anyone know?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've heard a few different theories. I'm not sure if they are correct, but here they are.

It is a call to find the rest of the flock. While the hen is laying, the flock has probably moved and she wants to rejoin them. If this were the case, I'd expect another to answer. What I have seen, the rooster will often go to the hen and try to mate her, so I guess this gets her back with the flock. It also has the effect of a hen that is laying is more likely to be mated. This one makes the most sense to me.

Another theory is that she does not call while on the nest but moves off the nest before she starts the call. Thus the call is a decoy to attract predators away from the actual nest. I don't believe this because I have seen hens giving the call while still on the nest. Not much of a decoy.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Since they make the same noise when they get scared or frightened, it is hard to say. I only know this. Out of our dozens of laying hens, the only time you get that call is following the laying of a big egg that they've really had to work on to get out. Otherwise, they lay it without much ado. That's all I know, and it isn't much.

 

[allpeepedout]

Just tossing out a guess: Since many laying chickens are the product of selective breeding and feeding for egg size, could it be that the eggs are getting too big for their anatomy, and thus it is painful? Perhaps in a world driven by natural selection, hens would lay more modestly and make less noise, attracting Mr. Roo but not broadcasting to predators? I know in the beef cattle industry, cows can have difficulty delivering the huge calves that selective breeding / crossing to oversized bulls has produced.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I don't know about the eggs getting bigger theory. My mother's hens and my grandmother's hens ba-gawked over 50 year ago. Shrug.

 

[Momo]

I think it's selection pressure from humans. Up until very recently (and currently in many parts of the world), chickens free ranged and partly fended for themselves. When you wanted chicken for dinner, you would catch one and process it (no fridges or freezers, right?). Typically this would be a young rooster, but older or less productive hens are also fair game. So, if some hens were clandestine layers but others laid an egg every day *and made sure you knew about it* ... well, which one are you gonna eat? The traits for reasonably consistent laying and for singing the egg song would quickly become established in a population under that sort of pressure.

 

[MetalSmitten]

i agree with the selective breeding thing. grandma's chickens don't count if it was only 50 years ago, chickens were domesticated looooong before that

it'd be interesting to see if there remained any truly wild chicken-ancestors, if they clucked or not.

 

[allpeepedout]

Fred's Hens :

I don't know about the eggs getting bigger theory. My mother's hens and my grandmother's hens ba-gawked over 50 year ago. Shrug.

Chickens have been selectively bred for much longer than 50 years. Again, just guessing--maybe laying an egg is a blast, feels great to get it out, YEAH! Mr. Roo, come look at what a swell hen I am, got a date tonight?

 

[jynnjynn]

I thought they laid the egg, and then walk AWAY from where they laid it and sang the song to draw predators away from the nest.

 

[Momo]

Mine are just as likely to belt out the egg song *before* they lay.