Talk to Your Chickens

You like your chickens in the backyard, but you want to be able to communicate with them? Its ridiculously simple and you can learn in a day! Most of this "language" you can learn from simply listening to and observing your flock.

Steps

  1. Listen closely and notice what your chickens are doing when they make a certain sound.
  2. A mother hen will instinctively make a certain clucking to her chicks when she is out and about with them. It means "Come here, I've found something for you to eat, scratch at, or play with." It sounds like regular clucking but has a very distinct difference. It will either be "kruk kruk," with a rolling r that you'll hear in Spanish accents. Roosters will often use this for the same reason as mother hens, as a sort of, "Hey, I found food, come and eat it." You can use this when you want to give them leftovers or something to eat, or if you need to do a role call because you've seen a fox lurking near by.
  3. If you are far away from your hens, you can sort of teach them to come when called. You cluck relatively similar to the food call, you just say, "Chick chick chick chick CHICKIES!" Generally use a higher tone when doing this.
  4. You can also sing in chicken to your hens. It sounds like a sort of "craaaaaaaaaaaw cruk cruk crawwwwwww." Singing to them can really be any kind of clucking-ish sound, you just draw it out sort of in a quiet low tone of voice.
  5. Chickens will have warning calls of sorts. You may find it impossible to imitate them, but listen and you might be able to hear them and go running to them to keep them out of trouble. The warning calls sometimes can be imitated. They are also useful, if you have to watch out for hawks that might eat the chicks.
  6. Chickens are capable of learning, and if you constantly use one specific call for one task (E.g, say "Scraps!" when bringing food out) they will respond in kind

Tips

  • Sit with your chickens, spend time with them while trying to imitate them and observe their reactions.
  • Chickens have warning calls for many different reasons, but two danger calls have been confirmed: danger coming from air (a hissing siren-like call), and danger coming from land (which sounds like "Cluck-CLUCK Cluck-CLUCK cluck cluck cluck"). This can be very handy in knowing your chickens' point of view on things. Chickens also use these calls for things they don't recognize quite well, just to make everyone in the flock aware.
  • Chickens use a lot of body language! The position and impotence of their tails and hackles (neck feathers) are a used often to show confidence.
  • If the chickens get very used to you, you can even teach them tricks! Flying on your arm and crowing on command (roosters only) are a crowd favorite!
  • It is sometimes possible to get panicked chickens cries mixed up with an annoyed hen's grumbling. After a while of owning chickens, you will be able to tell the difference.
  • If you want to train your little baby chicks they might not listen so don't get impatient!
  • A bird's best senses are her sight and hearing. Your chickens will appreciate when you speak to them even in English or any other language.
  • When a chickens neck feathers raise that most likely means they are about to attack something (chicken,guinea fowl) to protect another chicken or a baby.

Warnings

  • Chickens are not stupid animals despite what everyone might say. They are intelligent, curious, and social animals. The pecking order shows that they are smart enough to have a fairly advanced society. But even though they are smart, they won't always catch what you mean when you try to talk to them. Every cluck has a wide variety of what it could mean.
  • If you have a rooster and you give them food instead of him, he may attack you and flog you with his spurs.

Things You'll Need

  • Chickens

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