4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Raina]

Hi all,

 

I know this sounds really stupid but can chooks talk?

 

The day the girls came, Lady Lay sounded like she said Hello, but we thought nothing of it.

 

but yesterday we were trying to get Bedley in (he's a Bedlington Terrier) and kept saying his name! Well after we caught him and my mum picked him up I'm sure LL said Bedley

 

My mum thought she said it and even the dog looked

 

so i'm wondering can chooks talk or was it just coincidence?

[tidygirlsuk]

I'm glad someone is brave enough to ask i'm conviced that my bluebelle says hello.

[Raina]

lol,

 

i haven't heard her say anything else, just waiting to see if she says anything so i can get it on video

[Egluntyne]

Erm........ I would hazard a guess at them not being able to talk.

[C&T]

Well, they can be ingenious little things...

 

That is my mission for the weekend. To teach Ginger to say Good Morning!!

[dancing cloud]

Mine don't talk to me in human-speak, but they definitely chat away to me in chicken!

[Saronne]

I actually 'bok-bok' back to my hens. They seem to 'talk' more when I do that!

[Lewis]

I actually 'bok-bok' back to my hens. They seem to 'talk' more when I do that!

I have videos of me talking to turkeys (600 of the things ) and them talking back to me!

[Hangman]

Indeed they can - they are extremely social animals with a highly developed social order.

[Egluntyne]

They make alarm calls, and noises of contentment, egg announcements etc, but I'm pretty certain that they don't say hello.

[kerrie]

I talk to mine and bok bok at them too . I ended up having a 'converstaion' with the 3 of them at the weekend and didn't realise we were being so noisy-the neighbour came to see if the girls were ok because of the noise 'they' were making

[katieadams]

My 2 year old insists that they talk to her!

[Saronne]

They make alarm calls, and noises of contentment, egg announcements etc, but I'm pretty certain that they don't say hello.

 

You're probably right, but we'll never know for certain!

 

 

saronne x

[dame egna]

Oh yes, they defo chicken talk - but more than anything, they just sound as though they have swallowed a trumpet

[Chick99]

To chickens we are just another chicken so they talk to us in their way just as we do to them. Animals understand certain words, my dog knows what Walk means but he can't talk back (which I am sure you all know - I sound so crazy now!) so I assume chickens must know sounds/pitch if nothing else.

[Steph101]

Well, they mimic my boks when I bok at them - honestly! Bet the neighbours think I'm mad, but I don't care! For instance, if I bok-bok, they bok-bok twice, if I bok-bok-bok, they bok three times back to me. Tell me i'm not the only one!

[dame egna]

Well, I think you 'bokers'

[Hangman]

I actually a very short article on the matter - it may be of some use/interest

 

Chickens certainly don't appear to be too intelligent, they walk around, scratch rather instinctively, eat, lay eggs, and then squawk when provoked or when they have a bad case of paranoia (as demonstrated every day by our Cream Legbar hen, which certainly makes me think that particular bird is the most braindead animal with a pulse). Dogs are loyal, you can toilet train them, call them by their name, get them to do tricks - even our feline friends possess this ability.

 

I personally do not have any memory of a Chicken which knows it's own name; sure, if you make a familiar sound when feeding them they'll attribute that sound to food - but calling them by their name, no, I've had no such luck. They're impulsive animals, if you try to grab one when it's not expecting it they'll automatically try and escape whereas a dog or a cat would build up a level of trust and not instictively go into "fight or flight mode".

 

But, does this really mean the humble Chicken is stupid? In my opinion, no.

 

I was reading a newspaper article where the Chicken's ability to communicate was explained - they're actually quite intelligent. Research has led scientists to discover that Chickens can communicate with the rest of their flocks to inform them about different things; should you see a Rooster scratching in the dirt and making a "tck tck tck" sound, it means "I've found food, ladies, come on over" and the hens will probably walk over to check it out - the faster the "tcks" are in succession, the more they like the food. There are different alarm calls to alert the rest of the flock to different dangers, and where the danger is coming from - "danger above" has a different alarm call to "danger in the bushes". In these tests which were carried out by Chris Evans of Macquarie University, down under, the Hens could work out whether the food had been eaten by the time the Rooster started to call thereby proving they don't automatically search in a reflex action.

 

Research has also led to the discovery that Chickens can recognise each other through each other's facial features and feather patterns; since they're very social animals with a complex social structure (a la the "Pecking Order) they obviously prefer Chickens of their own flock, hence recognising each other is important.

 

So, it seems they're not such bird brains after all!

[Mrs Frugal]

My hens say "ick ick ick" if they've found some tasty morsel or other and usually get mugged for it by the other hens who come running! Clarry used to be the worst and would "ick ick ick" like crazy when she found some earwigs or a spider only for Jenny to barge her out of the way and gobble it up!

 

Jenny also has a growl in her repertoire which tells the others not to come near the food bowl while she's there! I hear the girls chatting away to each other and I'm sure all the noises must mean something to them.

[Boybeck]

Mine can speak Spanish, French and German.