Chicken's "vocabulary"

[Margaid]

I've been spending more time in the run with the chooks since the attack and, without Pink hen who used to cackle a lot, it's easier to hear the sounds the smaller hens make. I know Cocky's vocabulary - apart from the crow there's a "what's this" and "ooh I've found something nice", but I'm not sure about the girls. Both the CLBs and the Leghorns make a similar quiet noise which sounds very mournful as they wander around searching for grubs. I'm sure the bigger Welsummers made a much more contented sound. Given their behaviour on Thursday after Henny disappeared, I'm concerned that they're still affected by it. She was also higher up the pecking order, if not top hen so that has presumably unsettled them.

They are of course shut in the (800 sq metre) enclosure and although that's plenty of room it doesn't compare with wandering around the site and scratching under the damson bushes - a favourite spot. I've created a dustbath in a large plastic box but they don't appear to have discovered it yet. I spent about 10 mins picking up handfuls of the earth/sand/ash mix and dropping it through my fingers when they were close to it and there were a couple of inquisitive cocked heads. Cocky later was looking over the side of the crate so maybe sometime ... I felt a bit of a twit telling them to come and use their nice dust bath!! I might try fixing a piece of timber to it - it has some convenient holes, so they can perch on the sides better.

To use an appropriate simile, I'm fussing round them like a broody hen with chicks (bit of displacement activity on my part probably) but I hate not letting them out although I know it's for the best. So, anyone anyone have any thoughts or reassurance on the sounds they're making please?

 

[chrismahon]

When the top hen goes no-one will step in automatically Margaid. In the wild the top hen spot is only taken by offspring of the top hen. When our Princess died no-one stepped in. They wandered around like lost soles. And three years later still no-one has stepped in. They still have no guidance even with a cockerel. The only way things will change is with a new tribe with a top hen mixed in with the oldies. Of course the oldies will hate that so we keep our oldies separate. Very complex things chickens with 2,000,000 years of evolution behind them, far more than us.

 

[Marigold]

I would think 800sq. Metres to range in would be beyond the dreams of 99% of chickens, certainly no problem with their feeling deprived of space or places to peck around in. Do they have anywhere to perch during the day? Mine seem to spend a lot of time on the perches I've fitted so they can get up a bit higher and see out of their run, and they look very companionable sitting there all together. I hunk at, as Chris says, the are suffering from the change to their social structure recently, not only Poor Henny but also the others you lost will have unsettled them.
I've been noticing that the coop is virtually clean overnight, so went down at 10.00 yesterday evening and found they were all perching together outside in the run - I suppose this is nice for them when the nights are so short and warm. Will be interesting to see when, or if, they return to the coop when the days get shorter and the nights colder. And yes, I have checked there's no redmite in the coop to put them off going in there!

 

[Margaid]

I have been thinking about a perch outside but don't know whether to put it under cover, where space is getting restricted what with the dust bath and feeders etc. The "sin house", which is the little house with run attached, is open and that has a slatted "verandah" they can perch on. They wander in and out of it but yesterday spent a lot of time sunbathing together. They seem to be keeping together a lot more - which is hardly surprising, but sometimes they split into "breed pairs" and wander in different directions. At one point yesterday Cocky was sunbathing with a CLB cuddled up on either side of him.

Although they have lots of space, it's all the same - grass and no hedges or trees. When they were free ranging they had lots of different places - grass, concrete, slightly stony patches, their dust bath, the loose bit at the bottom of the drive which was obviously full of bugs given the way stuff was scattered over the drive hedges and of course under the damson bushes which was favourite spot to chill. So as well as losing their social structure there is a significant change in their habitat. Also most of the grass is very long, but I did get a patch strimmed yesterday so it's better for scratching in.

My problem is that I don't know what sounds the smaller hens made before the attack - so I don't know whether they're different now!

 

[Marigold]

I think the fact that they have mainly open space may be contributing to any insecurities they are feeling - as originally they are forest edge and jungle birds, at risk from stalking predators, they feel more secure when they can shelter under ot behind something, hence the popularity of the damson bushes etc. I think this lack of variety is a bigger factor than how much space they actually have - my four girls appear perfectly happy and occupied in a 12sq. Metre run, with lots of places to get up on to, hide under, dig into, and perch on together.
Maybe you could create a shelter for them to creep under? Just a sheet of some some scrap material such as corrugated iron or old blockboard etc, supported in some way off the ground, not very high, (18 ins to 2ft?) would provide both shade and shelter and the ground underneath would become dry for digging in? A block at each corner on top to stop it blowing away will do the trick.

 

[Margaid]

I really ought to try and post some pictures. They have their house, 7' x 4' which is raised off the ground so \cocky can get underneath. Adjoining it is the big shelter made from three 6' long, 3 ' high fence panels so it's 12' long by 6' deep with a sloping roof. The hen house forms the third side and it's open along the long edge. There are two feeders, a drinker and the big plastic crate as a dust bath (which they haven't discovered yet). There is a bracing timber from front to back where the hen house is on which they sometimes perch. Facing this is a smaller three sided roofed shelter, so which ever way the wind is blowing they can get shelter. Then there is the "sin house" - the little elevated house with attached run which is open at the moment and they potter in an out of there during the day. Alongside the mesh side of the run seems to be a favourite face for them all to sunbathe or cuddle up together. Add to that at least half the grass is 2' high ( we've strimmed some patches so they can scratch more easily) so I think they have a certain amount of variety; their house is about 2 ' of the ground, the little shelter is about 3' high and the big one about 4 '.

A serious problem here is the wind. The "sin house" was blown over in one gust, and the big shelter has been rebuilt twice as it was blown over in spite of the fact that the roof is corrugated tin. We solved that by turning the house and shelter through 90 degrees so that (1) the wind hits the short side which is solid and (2) there is now a gap top and bottom of the panel. We think the freak north-east gusts were getting under the roof as the long open side faced that direction - it being the direction from which the wind blows least here. A block on each corner won't hold anything down here Marigold.

I had thought of moving the enclosure so it went around the damson bushes but then I can't see it from the caravan and most important, I wouldn't be able to see the fence alarm which alerts me to a failure or if I've forgotten to put the clip back on.

 

[Marigold]

That all sounds fine, not what I had imagined when you said in your earlier post 'although they have lots of space, its al the same - grass and no hedges or trees.' They sound very lucky birds to me, certainly no lack of shelter or variety in their enclosure, and plenty of places to hide if they feel insecure.

 

[Margaid]

Yeeeessss, but it just isn't the damson bushes, the dusty patch by the earth closet, the nice loose earth at the side of the drive or the boggy bit where the gravel in the foul drain trench acts like a stream bed!!!!!!!

 

[Margaid]

No they weren't paddling in mucky water - the foul drain is a plastic pipe in a gravel lined trench. The gravel acts like a land drain when it's wet - I was going to turn the are into a bog garden.