Chicken "Crying"

[courtneyytags]

My hens used to put themselves to bed at sundown. For the past week or so, my mom has gotten interested in my chickens and started to chase them into their coop "so they can lay eggs" a couple of hours before the sunset. I have no idea why she thinks that my chickens don't know where to lay eggs and it was extremely irritating trying to explain to her that chickens know how to go into their homes themselves. Just tonight (already dark), I went out to close the door to my coop and I found my hens still outside. They were squatting on a small table quietly. I went to go put the girls into their coop, one already made her way over to her nest and one started to... cry? I never heard her make that noise before... they're relatively quite most of the day and won't even make noises when they lay eggs. I feel like its because she has been stressed from my mom chasing them into the coop and now she doesn't even want to go inside by herself. Any other thoughts on why she might be making noise?

 

[50-45-1]

Typically hens lay there eggs in the morning. Mine always before 2 pm.
Yes the crying is an unhappy sound probably from stress of the routine being interrupted. They will make this sound when one is separated from the flock also.
Did you make sure nothing was in the coop before you herded them in?
Sometimes a possum or raccoon will slip in before dusk, and chickens will stay out for that reason.
Mom, God bless Her, needs to chill.
Good Luck!

 

[aart]

Mom, God bless Her, needs to chill.

Ditto Dat!

 

[linguini]

We are new chicken mom and dad, so since our chooks started laying eggs last month, we started keeping logs of every chicken's egg laying time and weight daily. We have a baby monitor inside the coop aiming at the nesting boxes, so we know who is working on laying and when! What we found is that each girl has her own cycle, quite predictable. (their cycles ranging from 24-28 hours - some still evolving). We also let them out of the run and into the yard during the day when weather is nice - so they can go freely into their nesting box regardless of what the activities of the flock are. From what we observe, even though once in a while they may get distracted and deviated from their laying time by an hour or two, they follow their biological clock, pretty much to the T! So I believe nothing you do can trigger or deter their egg laying, their bodies are in charge.
And perhaps because they are young hen, some lay eggs as late as 4:30pm! Mostly finished by 3:00pm, and will follow by a day of rest when they lay in the afternoon.

 

[Agam]

Ni

My hens used to put themselves to bed at sundown. For the past week or so, my mom has gotten interested in my chickens and started to chase them into their coop "so they can lay eggs" a couple of hours before the sunset. I have no idea why she thinks that my chickens don't know where to lay eggs and it was extremely irritating trying to explain to her that chickens know how to go into their homes themselves. Just tonight (already dark), I went out to close the door to my coop and I found my hens still outside. They were squatting on a small table quietly. I went to go put the girls into their coop, one already made her way over to her nest and one started to... cry? I never heard her make that noise before... they're relatively quite most of the day and won't even make noises when they lay eggs. I feel like its because she has been stressed from my mom chasing them into the coop and now she doesn't even want to go inside by herself. Any other thoughts on why she might be making noise?

Nice story

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What I've found to help with crying is I try to carry my birds in groups of at least too. Usually then they don't make as many sounds since they aren't being taken away by themselves. I also leave my flockmaster as las so his hens that are outside aren't as frightened