If you’ve ever spent time with a flock of chickens you’ll have become aware pretty quickly that they aren’t all cut from the same cloth. You can learn from the pecking order who is at the top, or bottom, of the hierarchy based on dominance. You’ll see some birds hang back, while others are full of confidence, seeking out connection with their humans. You’ll also find all of the individual quirks and idiosyncrasies in a flock, just like you would a group of people. Sometimes it might feel like you could benefit from a course on Poultry Psychology 101 to understand what’s going on in their little bird brains.
The following stories depict some interesting chicken behaviours. Let’s just say that once you get chickens your flock will keep you on your toes and challenge you to open your eyes (and hearts) to a whole new world of quirkiness.
Katina Choiniere
Chicken psychology is so weird sometimes. Egg laying anxiety is a thing. I just want to hug those poor ladies some days. The frantic back and forth, looking for the ‘right spot’ even though it’s the same spot everyday. I think I figured it out for a couple of my hens, and definitely one in particular.
Sally lays her eggs in the same spot everyday. She’s the only one who uses that spot so it’s not like she has competition over the space, but everyday she is frantic, pacing back and forth, jumping on top of the nest box, looking around the backside to see if there’s a better vantage point, going in and out of the box repeatedly and scratching around building and demolishing her nest repeatedly. And the whole time she’s crying and squawking and carrying on in the most worrisome way.
Today while she was rebuilding her nest after breaking it up for the fourth time, I said, “Sally, what is going on with you? Why do you carry on so?”. I was also collecting eggs from the other boxes at the time, so I said, “Do you want a starter egg?” and rolled one of the eggs into her nest. I thought at first she would run away when she saw me get too near to her, but then she spotted the egg. She rolled it under her with her beak, adjusted herself over it and has been quiet and calm since. I’m expecting her to lay egg in the next 40 minutes or so.
I was thinking maybe I should get ceramic eggs to put into the nest boxes, but they get so dang cold in this weather.
Jacqui Parker-Snedker
My chickens love my border collie, who bounces at them from the other side of the fence. It wasn’t long before they started bouncing back and now they bounce for everyone who approaches.
Tegan Hanlon
Help: Meet Diane, the screaming Easter egger.
Has anyone actually had luck quieting a screamer chicken? I’ve read posts elsewhere from folks saying you shouldn’t be surprised about noisy chickens. And I get that. But I’m wondering if anyone has had any success lessening a chicken’s screech? And if so, what did you do?
A little background: Diane is two years old, lays regularly, and is in a backyard flock of four. The other three will cluck or sing the egg song. But Diane shrieks for long stretches, almost all day, starting at about 6 a.m. (It’s worse and longer in the summer with more daylight.) A shriek/yell is really the best way I can describe it. The chickens have a big run area, and a clean coop with multiple perches and branches. We’ve never had any predator issues. They always have access to food and clean water. Even when I let them free range in the backyard, Diane still screams.
We can hear her all day from inside of the house, and as much as I’m really, really hoping we can keep her it’s hard not to imagine sending her to a space with more property where she can’t be heard as clearly all day by us and the neighbors.
Over the past couple of months, I have tried (sorry, Diane) spraying her with a water bottle when she screeches. She’ll stop for a bit but start right back up. If I bring out snacks (mealworms) she’ll stop until they’re gone. (I stopped doing this pretty quickly because I didn’t want to train her to scream and get a reward.)
Any help appreciated, feeling bummed as my partner’s patience wears thin.
Cheryl Goobie
A couple weeks before Sweet Pea passed she started hilarious antics outside with the girls from the A-frame coop.
Here’s a little background on the A-framers’ relationship with Sweet Pea: when the chickens all lived at the neighbours’, the A-framers would gang up on Sweet Pea, determined to dispose of her. Henny, meanwhile, got along well with her.
Once we changed the dynamics by moving them all to our place, ALL the chickens would try to take Sweet Pea out, especially Henny! Henny reigned supreme, indoors and out, and she did not like Sweet Pea indoors at all.
Now, mind you, we never left the two of them together unsupervised, indoors or out. And out in the yard everyone had their own big fenced in space set up for protection and companionship where they could interact without trying to kill each other.
In the evenings we would put them all together, with one of us supervising and using a squirt bottle to stop any bullying/pecking. It got to the point where all we’d have to do is say, “No!” and the bully/bullies would just stop. They didn’t like projectile water landing on them seemingly “out of nowhere”.
Over time Henny and the A-framers stopped picking on Sweet Pea, which was nice. All she ever wanted was to just hang out with the big girls!
Within about a week of the chickens’ peaceful evening hangouts Sweet Pea got to the point where she felt somewhat emboldened. I say ‘somewhat’ because she wasn’t bold enough, or dumb enough, to approach the A-framers head on. She was always smarter than all the other birds. Instead she would fake them out by stretching out one wing slowly (as though she was actually just stretching) then she’d let that wing drop to the ground while slowly tilting her head to the same side as the wing – as though she was injured. Then she would slowly sidle over to an A-frame chicken, who just ignored her because Sweet Pea wasn’t a threat. I watched the comedy unfold until Sweet Pea was close enough and about to jump on top of the A-framer! I intervened, of course, stopping things before they got out of hand. What a character that little girl was! So much personality and intensity in that little black bird. I understand completely how people become attached to their chickens, they all have their own quirky and endearing personalities.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories and photos.
Bitchin' Chickens 
My sweet Black Marans was a screecher. She was non-stop talking day in and day out. Yak, yak, yak, all the time. Now that she has passed on, I miss her noise. She always had something to say about everything.
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