Part 0800.0005

[hunkydoory]

I have started to noticed the emerging and very different personalities of my chickens who are a little over 30 weeks old now.

 

They have had a bit of a weekend - some feather plucking ended in a very large and nasty nasty wound (feeling a lot calmer about that now ), so I have had to separate them whilst the beaten-up chick heals. But out of this adversity I have had a little window of opportunity to get to know her She is ranging - the naughty girls are confined to barracks - and although she can see the other girls all be it through the bars she has started to seek out alternative company. The dog was the first, she lay on the grass next to him wings out sunbathing yesterday and has had a few affectionate pecks at his feet and fur, thankfully he is a big softie But she also wonders up to the back door, stands on the step and chats. A lovely unassuming, bok bok sound. She tilts her head to listen to the reply and then either wonders off or responds with a slightly faster bok bok bok.

 

Cookie the no 1 bad girl seems to have let the power of her 'top chicken' position go to her head and is really quite rude She shouts, not a gentle bok bok, more of a core-bok-core, very loud, neck stretched up and generally she refuses to be ignored. Pecky no 2 bad girl is just behind her saying yeah! so there!

 

- Pecky

- Cookye

- Totty

RIP Betty (Psycho Chicken) 10/4/10

RIP 2/4/10

Anyway just a few musings, maybe I should start to worry about my sanity?

[Alis girls]

Yup mine do - if I bok at them they bok back - and if I tell them not to peck my flowers they give me a defiante look and carry on - bit like my son really We bok away happily for ages. I think I was a hen in a former life

[jennydavies]

Our three are extremely chatty in a really nice way. They only have to see us at the french doors and they start chatting. You can hear them saying to each other "look - our hooman is there - has she got anything for us - is she carrying a bowl ????" when we are in the run, they chat to us all of the time, they follow us and watch what we are doing and help wherever they can. When we are in the veg garden, they are looking through the fence chatting away saying "just throw a couple of those lovely strawberries over here - no, not the little ones - those big ones there !" Charlie thinks it is so comical to hear me chatting away to them while I'm cleaning the hen-house or the run and they answer me. We feel very lucky that our three all have really lovely temperaments and all get on well, there is no arguments over treats and only Bluebelle (our top girl) gets a bit overzealous and jumps quite high for treats sometimes, trying to snatch lettuce leaves from head height. I like nothing more than sitting in the run with them and listening to them chatting and cooing, they are a real joy to own

[docsquid]

Yes, ours chatter among themselves but also to us if we talk to them. They are much more sociable than we thought they'd be. You can almost imagine them like a bunch of old ladies sitting around doing their knitting and commentating on the world from their armchairs, bless them.

[lillybettybabs]

My other half works from home and doesn't hear a singal bok out of my lot,

As soon as they hear my voice Lilly will screech then continually bok until i go and see them.

[Guest]

My chickens will only talk to me.

 

If mum goes out to see them they ignore her or just stare until she gives them s"Ooops, word censored!"s. But if she is with me and she still has the treats i get the attention because they seem o have missed me.

 

They are so vocal even if i stare out the window they will see me and jump on the roof of the coop to see if I am coming out and of course I do.

 

My little 6 and a bit week old pekins are so cute they still have the baby cheep. It is so sweet when i go in they just cheep and stare.

[Foot-tapper506]

Yep, mine do this. When I am in the garden they love to be nearby and bok bok to me quite gently and then a sort of purring sound, quite high pitched. I am convinced the neighbours think I am mad as I wander around doing my jobs bok bokking away! When I tell the girls off for being naughty and trying to fly into my bit of the garden, they start pecking at the bush as much as to say "I am not listening, I really am enjoying pecking this leaf!" When I get home I always try to peep out of the kitchen window without being seen just to check all is well, but I know I have been sussed when they start shouting and running to the gate

[Lavenders_Blue]

Yep mine chat chat away all day.

 

When I go out the back door there is an enthusiastic cooing noise, when I go back in there is a disappointed cooing noise and when I am gardening there is an interested/excited cooing noise generally accompanied by a hen trying to get itself decapitated under the spade!

 

Oh and when they get bored of being in their run (at about 6am) there is bok-bok-BOK-BWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAARRRK!

[whoopsie]

One of my students went down to visit them today and came back all excited they'd been chatting to her! I think she's getting rather fond of them.

[hunkydoory]

Yep mine chat chat away all day.

 

When I go out the back door there is an enthusiastic cooing noise, when I go back in there is a disappointed cooing noise and when I am gardening there is an interested/excited cooing noise generally accompanied by a hen trying to get itself decapitated under the spade!

 

Oh and when they get bored of being in their run (at about 6am) there is bok-bok-BOK-BWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAARRRK!

 

Oh yes, I recognise this one - it's the get up you're late - in a very disapproving manner alarm call. But you'd pay good money in a hotel for this sort of service

 

It's just my pied sulfolk (Totty) that's particularly person orientated.A bit shy she'd, rather follow you and chat than have a face to face but the RI's seem to have a 'Vulcan mind meld' going on and prefer each others company - hence their picking on poor old Totty.

[Seagazer]

Of course!

 

I love chatting with them all but Augustas my Light Sussex loves a really good natter. She has a very deep voice though.

[cavysqueak]

Our two also like to chat and my has a special noise just for me! She makes a cross between a coo-ing noise and a chicken bok - I think it's because I usually talk 'rodent' to animals to calm them down. I had a rat who taught me that a cross between a click and a kiss is how they communicate & I've found that it seems to work with all animals! So Holly now answers me.

 

I like the way that when you say 'hello' they bok back

 

Today Holly seems to have gone a bit broody, so our stood at the gate and called and called until we noticed and went out to see what was the matter. She then clucked at us as if to say 'You're going to have to do something - I can't get her out of the nest'. Very funny!

 

They make the most wonderful noises.

[hunkydoory]

Yes, beyond 'bok' or 'coo', they loose something in translation.

But the special noises they have for those 'private' chats that noone else quite understands are heart-warming

[chickenopolis]

When I let the girls out of their run, they make a low kind or burbling noise, a bit like Homer Simpson when someone mentions donuts!

The girls waddle down the garden talking to themselves, like old ladies having a stroll down the prom.

They then stand by the kitchen door bok boking at me and OH - OH then does his "bok" talking, and they talk back.

When the treat box goes in the run (sweetcorn, mealworms, cooked rice, grapes, tomatoes, sunflower seeds etc), they waddle up the garden with that low burbling noise again, which I take to mean "ooh treats" . They don't do that with their normal food!!

I love opening the egg port on the cube and having a little chat with them when they are busy egg laying. I sometimes take some mealworms with me, and hand feed them while we have a chat... a girl has to have her comforts don't you know!!

[dannablue]

My speckled sussex does a kind of "do-do-do-do" noise, its really sweet. I like hearing their squeals of delight when they find mealworms on the grass (which I left there when they werent looking) or when having a dustbath, and their purring..awwww. When I am cleaning their run out I can often be seen inside with the 4 of them on the outside of the mesh looking in bok boking as if to say "thats our run" and "what you doing in there?". They are amazing creatures, and so interactive. Better than my cats were and one of them thought he was human I'm sure!