Do your girls sing and purr? :-)

i to love hearing them when they have gone into roost, its a very humbling sound isnt it.  I dont think my girlies like the fact that the days are getting shorter, especially cassie who is always last to bed, she clings on to the last specks of light pecking at the grass frantically or filling up on pellets shes very funny to watch.   Cassie infact is the chorus girl of them all, i believe shes constantly posted as a watchout, if i walk into the garden and they havnt seen me and then they do at last minute she lets out this almighty 'cluck cluck' sound, thats my favourtie.  Nickyx

Yes I certainly think chx are a lot more intellegent than people give them credit for.   They do adopt specific roles within their community.  I once had a mixed flock of Light and Buff Sussex and it was always one particular buff who was the guard chicken.  When danger threatened in the form, for example, of our cat she would run out to meet it making a hell of a row and the rest would cower behind.  Then one day she was taken by a fox though I suspect she did her job until the end and the rest escaped.  The next chicken to take on this role was another buff and sadly she met a similar fate, so that was the end of their entirely free ranging lifestyle.  After that they lived within an electric net and have survived without mishap since.

Either the buff's self sacrifice was a complex communication to say "we'd like a nice safe electric net please!" or it just goes to prove that foxes prefer the brown ones best! 

Regards

What a good idea, a dictionary of chicken calls.  What do you think it means when they purr the humming chorus from Madam Butterfly??

They're a particularly cultured bunch ? 

When I listen to mine talking softly I swear I can almost understand what they are saying to each other.  They really do have close relationships!