peeping in the corner...why?

[hensonly]

HI,

I have my first flock, 15 RIR (actually sex-links) just coming up to 8 weeks old.

Almost every night since they were 4-5 weeks, they'll crowd into a corner (first in the brooder box, now in the chicken house), and peep. They raise and lower their heads, stretch their necks up, the ones in the corner will come out and others take their place, round and round. They aren't fighting, nobody sounds upset, nobody's getting squashed, it's just like part of their bedtime ritual. It's always been at dusk.

When they were little, I thought they were cold, so I put on the heater lamp. They'd go to another corner, away from the lamp, and keep right on peeping. This goes on for 15 - 20 minutes, then some settle in the corner to sleep, and some go off to roost for the night.

I'm not worried, as they seem quite calm, just determined. I'm just curious about what they are trying to do.

Anyone?

 

[MaryT]

Ours do that too and my guess it is just a night time ritual....
It is quiet funny because after they settle and get quiet if you peek in there and don't know they are there you can't see any chickens the coop looks empty...... 20 chickens can pack themselves into such a small area.....LOL

 

[SpottedCrow]

Maybe it's like the Waltons:
Good night, Ma
Good night, Pa
Good night Johnboy
Goodnight MaryEllen
and so on

 

[Guitartists]

I have one little Showgirl that peeps at night... if I take her out and cover her with my hand... she purrs and goes fast to sleep. I think that even though they start out motherless.... I think that want or expectation for a warm, fluffy mother to cuddle under is still there. Just MHO

 

[basicliving]

I'm glad I found this post. My chicks are 5 weeks old, and they do this same thing every night. I started letting them out in the chicken yard each day starting last Friday. Around 7:30 each night they all start migrating to inside the coop and when I go to close them up, I find them all in the corner peeping. I thought they were cold too - but they go outside first thing in the morning when it's much cooler, and seem just fine. I guess it's just a comforting, nightly ritual. But it does make me feel better to know it sounds fairly common!

Penny

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Quote:
I think that's it !

 

[basicliving]

My husband took it personally. He thought they hated the roosts he built them.

They get on the roosts off an on all day long though, so I assured him that's not the case. They may sleep on them at night after their "routine", but it's too dark for me to peek in the windows and tell.

 

[LynneP]

Mine are RIR crosses (6wo) and they do all those things- use roosts in the day, sleep together in different spots on the floor at night, the peeping, which I originally thought was a distress call. But hey, they're gaining weight, they're friendly, they love their coop/run and sand baths and they love to be supervised in the run. Life is good...I'm new to all this, too.

 

[mandomama]

Mine do that too. Kinda comforting sounding I think.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Even when your chicken's get grown they will still go through this ritual. It usually take's all mine quite a long time to figure out who is sleeping where & when you think they have got it all settled here they go again. After year's of having chicken's I still go out and watch. They are a trip. Going out to watch mine now. PEACE