Natural Chicken Keeping: Do You Speak Chicken? Flock Social Behavior and How Chickens Communicate
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/09/do-you-speak-chicken-flock-social.html

By Leigh -

OK - so I'm not exactly the Rosetta Stone of the chicken world, but I think most people who keep poultry in a natural setting soon see for themselves that chickens communicate with each other. While much of their language is nonverbal, chickens do use a wide variety of vocalizations also.

So, what do chickens talk about?

The Flock:
We've all heard and witnessed flock pecking order. Every flock develops their own hierarchy within days of being put together in a coop, run or free range environment. This hierarchy also changes as new birds are added or removed from the flock.

Flock status is developed through both verbal and nonverbal communications. Birds working to establish themselves as being of a higher rank than another bird will growl, screech, peck and jump at other birds. This behavior will continue until one bird relents and submits to the other bird by running away. This can often be seen at roosting time when older birds refuse to allow younger or birds of lower status on the same roost. (For this reason, multiple roosts are helpful in larger flocks.)

Chickens do develop lasting relationships with each other. It is very common to have various sets of BFFs within the flock. In fact, if something bad happens to one of the partners in this kind of friendship relationship, the other bird will often behave in an 'off' manner for some time following it's friend's disappearance. The remaining bird may search the yard daily or refuse to leave the spot it last saw its friend. Interestingly in cases where one friend has been isolated due to an injury and then reintroduced to the flock, the bird's friendship partner will usually instantly recognize it and the bond will resume right away.

Cockerels and roosters will spar with each other to decide who will be the dominant rooster in the flock. In most cases no blood is drawn and the argument will end when one rooster runs away. Many roosters can happily coexist in a free ranged flock provided there is a rooster to hen ratio of at least 3 hens to every 1 rooster. (More hens per roo is better.)

A flock's pecking order becomes very obvious at feeding time. The top hens will eat first, chasing off the lower-ranked and younger birds. Only when the top hens have eaten their fill will the lower-ranked birds be allowed to eat. Usually roosters will eat last, but it is not uncommon for a head rooster to eat before younger cockerels are allowed to dine.

If any of the flock witness a potential danger, they may take up a group cacophony danger call. I can only guess that this particular call is meant to frighten off predators. It is very similar to the Egg Song (more on the egg song later) and starts with a loud, frightened "buk-buk-buk-buk BAGAWK!" The end part of the call goes up not only in volume but in tone. A story - last winter my family went to visit a farm with Silkies that were kept in a barn. One of us sneezed and we were instantly almost deafened by this warning call as it was taken up by perhaps 200 Silkies all at once! If I were a domestic cat or small dog, I might think twice about getting any closer.

Of course there are times that blood will be drawn by hens or roosters alike. The roosters of some breeds are more aggressive than others and these birds may continue a fight after another rooster has backed down. Research your breeds and observe the interactions between roosters regularly to make sure you don't have problems like this in your yard.

It's also not uncommon to hear of someone who has a hen that is being picked on by flock mates to the point of being bald and bloody. While it is normal to have some pecking and disagreements among flock members, it is rare to see this kind of abuse within a free ranged flock. Free ranged birds can stay away from a nemesis throughout the day. Picking and bullying is most often seen in flocks that are kept in a coop or run for most or all of the day. It can be a sign of boredom, not enough meat protein in the diet or over-crowding. Feeding plenty of meat protein each week and placing stumps, toys and a variety of perches in the run can help, but in the most severe cases either the main abuser or the main victim should be removed from the flock. If the problems continue, it is time to assess the amount of coop and run space your birds have. Check out our article on space requirements here:
How Much Coop and Run Space Do I Need?