Rooster Alarm

[RockyRooster]

Just wanted to share with my homesteading friends something new I learned today.

This morning I was sitting on front porch drinking my coffee and enjoying the nice day. Well, you know how a hen cackles when she has laid an egg?

Okay take that cackling and listen to it for 5 minutes, by that time you want to go wring her neck. So, I decided to get up and find out what her problem was. It was not a hen it was my rooster, Rocky. He was cackling the same cackle over and over again. When I saw that, I knew something was wrong. I looked around for a snake, and then I saw some hay move in between the two trashcans that I keep feed in. I just looked and low and behold it was one of my black Austrolorps stuck between the trashcans.

Rocky was telling us over and over and over again "Chicken is stuck"
"Chicken is stuck" "Chicken is stuck". Once we freed her he shut up and the two went off together to forage. I was amazed and so proud of my rooster. From now on when I hear that sound, I will run to see was is wrong.

[bob clark]

turns out they are not as stupid as i thought. i guess i learned something new as well. thanks

[Maura]

Just when you think they are the stupidest creatures on God's green earth, they prove you wrong. I always check when the sounds seem off, or from the wrong place. a couple of days ago, a lamb's baa-aa seemed to be in the wrong place, and not quite loud enough. An investigation turned up one lamb who had investigated the turned over chicke coop (big storm) and had gotten herself, head, 4 legs and tail, in a nesting box.

[Tabitha]

I am not surprised. thanks for sharing that story. I think I'll start a thread about animal stories.

[mpillow]

My Rocky is a sweety....but Baldy is the caretaker of the hens....and they do make funny sounds especially when Lily (Border Collie) insists that they stay in

Snakes (thankfully) are not a problem here but HAWks can be and wild turkeys...the dog almost got one 2 days ago....Lily said "Big Frickin' Chicken get away"

[buspete]

We've got a fairly young rooster (less than a year) who struts and makes a big racket when his favorite hen lays an egg.

It's like he's strutting around bragging about his part in it all.

[fellini123]

It was late one night and all the dogs started to bark one at a time. It was very strange, so we went out to the kennel to look and one of the dogs was all tangled up in her blanket and couldn't get up. Each dog was taking its turn letting me know......It was like Lassie "Timmy's in the well" "Timmy's in the well."
Sound like your chicken does the same thing.....
Alice in Virginia

We often don't recognize it for what it is or sometimes can't understand what they are trying to communicate but chickens do have a very definite vocabulary. Every once in a while I'd twig to what a particular sound or call means.

Before the blasted predators got them my last flock was getting hopper hunting down to a science. I couldn't understand what the calls meant, but they were for sure communicating to each other while they were doing it. Made me think of velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

.....Alan.

[Jan Doling]

I'm amazed at the various (and musical) sounds poultry can make. They may only have a brain the size of a pea, but they know how to use what they've got. I mimic our roo and sometimes he takes it personally and gets agitated at me.

[menollyrj]

I get tickled at our "chick-chicks" (DD's words...) talking to each other too. Every once in a while, one will get separated from the other five, and it will sound pitiful, almost like it is crying, trying to find the others.

-Joy