We’ve got chooks at the moment, four very pretty ladies of the ISA variety, who each lay us an egg every day. We’ve had some issues with three of them ‘hiding’ eggs (choosing to lay in more novel locations, like under the bamboo, behind the blackberries, everywhere but IN the henhouse…).
But each and every lay is accompanied by the most vocal of announcements to the world!
“Oooh, LOOK, LOOK, I’VE HAD A BAAAAABY…AREN’T I CLEVER?? LOOKIE LOOKIE”.
Which got me thinking about the advisability of broadcasting your egg-laying to the predatory world. Surely keeping quiet would help to ensure that some of your chicks survive until hatching, whilst loud proclamations would guarantee that the local foxes and other predators would hone in on your spot and nick yer’ eggs.
Or maybe ‘clucky’ hens don’t go quite so mental as my girls.
I’ve always wondered if that noise was because it felt really painful, or really good. :eek: Still have no clue, and I’m not sure which answer would squick me out more.
The codfish lays ten thousand eggs,
The homely hen lays one.
The codfish never cackles
To tell you what she’s done.
And so we scorn the codfish,
While the humble hen we prize,
Which only goes to show you
That it pays to advertise.
Surely there’s very little in the behavior of domesticated chickens that would benefit them in the wild. Humans have interfered extensively and molded them into a bird that behaves in ways more beneficial to humans than chickens.
Best theory I have seen is that it is a residual distraction behaviour. For the most part, they leave the egg while they are cackling so it might just be designed to draw predators away. Of course chickens have been so extensively modified from the original, that the whole process will be faulty and some will cackle at the wrong time, or not at all.
Another theory is that it is a signal to any available rooster: “Come and get me I am ready”, or “Keep well away you bastard - I’n not going through that again.” Take your pick:)
My mom has hens, and in my experience, they loudly announce when they’ve laid an egg because they loudly announce all the time, no matter what they’re doing.
Well, “loudly” is relative, here. They’re not as bad as roosters at any time.
My experience is that as the hen clucks after laying her egg, another companion (not sure if it is always the rooster) joins in and they enter into a cacophony back and forth. Seems to go on forever. However, if i am around and shout something like WTF!, they will stop.
Yeah, the Storey’s chicken bible sticks to the distraction theory as well with the other hens joining in for a group effort to lead predators away from the nest. But anyone who has chickens knows it’s really all about the drama. Chicken drama, all day long. It’s pretty hilarious.
