Knowing all chicken behaviors for poultry raisers is most important. This will help every chicken farmer to understand their chickens.
Backyard chickens are fun! They provide fresh eggs and a cool connection to nature. More than just the practical stuff, seeing what they do every day is fascinating—their behavior is really intricate.
These actions require more than intellectual understanding. Don’t underestimate chickens! They’re intelligent, social, and live full lives driven by instinct.
This guide helps you understand your chickens’ behavior and creates a happy home for them.
Vocal Chicken Behaviors: The Language of Clucks and Crows
Chickens use different calling behaviors to talk to each other and stay alive. Backyard chicken keepers who learn these chicken sounds can better understand their flock.
Crowing:
You mostly hear roosters crowing, but a hen might sometimes if a rooster isn’t around. These chicken crowing behaviors are super crucial for their society.
It’s a way for roosters to figure out who’s in charge, especially in flocks with multiple males.
The alpha rooster, the strongest, constantly crows to maintain control over the other chickens.
If the top rooster weakens, or younger ones get stronger, they’ll start crowing to show they want to be the boss.
This loud call often goes with other bossy chicken behavior and sometimes turns into fights to decide who’s the top bird.
Besides showing who’s boss, crowing warns the hens about nearby threats. When a rooster sees a threat, he’ll crow to alert the others.
Also, a rooster’s crow is just saying “I’m here!”, staking his claim, and letting the hens and other roosters know who’s leader.
This sound is familiar, but you hear it more often in the mornings or when they fight for power.
How much a rooster crows depends on his age, health, and how things are in the flock.
Clucking:
A hen’s clucking is a typical chicken behavior and is helpful when talking to other chickens. What a chicken’s cluck means depends entirely on the situation, tone, and body language.
For example, soft clucking often means a happy hen. Chickens might do this to show they see you, particularly if you’re holding food.
Clucking or singing may signal hunger or nest-seeking in hens. Mama hens use soft clucking to keep their chicks close and safe.
They sometimes purr quietly to keep their chicks close. After laying an egg, a hen often makes a loud clucking and squawking noise—that’s her “egg song.”
When one starts this call, other hens often join in, like a celebratory chorus. Hens sometimes cluck more before laying an egg, as if they’re announcing it.
Chicken clucks are super informative! By listening carefully, you can learn a ton about your hens’ happiness, needs, and plans.
Alarm Calling:
If a chicken spots danger, it usually lets out a loud, squawky alarm. These calls warn the others that danger’s near.
Lots of things can set off alarm calls, like hawks, owls, cats, dogs, or even raccoons. A sudden change can make them sound the alarm.
Rosters and hens warn of danger, but hens are extra protective of their chicks. Sometimes, even the boss hen sounds the alarm.
When trouble occurs, the top birds sound the alarm, causing the whole flock to run for cover or become extremely alert.
Studies show chickens might have different alarm calls for aerial vs. ground threats, so the flock knows how to react. Understanding alarm calls helps backyard keepers protect their flock.
Food Calling:
When chickens find food, they often make a unique noise – a “food call”. These calls tell the others where the food is.
When chickens find food, they often “tidbit” it, picking it up and dropping it to show others.
Roosters often use food calls to attract hens, especially in spring and summer. They try to get mates by finding yummy snacks and calling them.
Broody hens also teach their chicks what’s safe to eat by showing them and letting them try. Better food leads to longer, more intense calls.
Chickens are social and communicate to share food and care for their young.
| Vocalization | Potential Meaning(s) | Typical Context |
| Crowing | Asserting dominance, challenging authority, warning of danger, announcing presence | Throughout the day, especially in the morning, during social tension, near predators |
| Clucking (General) | Contentment, casual communication, and greeting | Relaxed flock, interactions between hens, arrival of the keeper with food |
| Clucking (Maternal) | Rallying chicks, attracting chicks to settle | A broody hen walking with chicks, a hen settling down |
| Egg Song | Announcing the laying of an egg | After a hen has laid an egg, sometimes before |
| Alarm Call (Aerial) | Warning of danger from above (e.g., hawk, owl) | Sighting of a bird of prey |
| Alarm Call (Ground) | Warning of danger from the ground (e.g., cat, dog) | Sighting of a ground predator |
| Food Call | Signaling the discovery of food, inviting others to eat | When a chicken finds a food source |
Social Interactions and Hierarchy-Related Behaviors
Chickens have a complex social structure with a strict pecking order. Knowing how your chickens act together is key to a peaceful flock.
Pecking Order:
Chicken social dynamics involve a pecking order, a clear dominance hierarchy within the flock.
A chicken’s social standing dictates its access to food, water, roosting spots, and dust bathing areas.
Several factors establish and maintain the pecking order, such as a chicken’s age, size, physical strength, and temperament.
Chickens show dominance or submission through pecking, posturing (feather puffing, wing flapping), chasing, and even chest bumping.
In all-female flocks, dominance is less aggressively displayed, relying on subtle actions instead of overt displays.
The alpha chicken protects the flock and settles disputes. Introducing new chickens or losing one can upset the pecking order, causing a period of readjustment while establishing a new hierarchy.
Knowing flock dynamics helps backyard keepers anticipate and prevent conflicts and ensure all birds thrive.
Fighting:
Chickens mainly fight to determine and keep their place in the flock’s hierarchy. Social pecking orders in chickens begin with squabbles as early as a few weeks old.
Rooster fights are more frequent, intense, and dangerous than hen fights. When introduced to an existing flock, new birds frequently fight to establish their place in the social hierarchy.
Likewise, a bird gone from the flock for a while might have to fight for its place back.
Chicken fights are characterized by several behaviors, which can include:
- Direct pecking.
- Jumping at each other.
- Beating each other with wings.
- Intense staring,
- Eye contact.
- Circling each other.
- Feigning to peck at the ground.
- Raising hackle feathers.
- Pointing wings towards the ground.
- Spreading wings out to appear more prominent.
- Standing as tall as possible.
It’s okay for chickens to establish their hierarchy through squabbles, but watch out for nasty fights that could cause serious harm. Giving people enough room and stuff can help stop fights from getting worse.
Chasing:
Chasing in chicken flocks is normal; it’s how they show who’s boss. The mean chickens always chase the others to keep their power and get first dibs.
This might be a quick peck and chase or a push to get the other bird out of the way.
New birds joining a flock often lead to much chasing as they settle into the pecking order.
In the rooster pecking order, chasing is a common way to establish dominance. Moreover, roosters chase hens in their courtship, often leading to mating.
Backyard keepers should watch the frequency and intensity of chasing, even though some flocks behave normally during pecking order maintenance.
One bird getting chased a lot might mean the flock is stressed, overcrowded, or has bullies—you may need to step in. Giving chickens more room helps stop them from chasing each other so much.
Submissive Squatting:
Hens use the submissive squat, a characteristic posture, to indicate their lower social rank or sexual receptivity.
A submissive hen squats low, flattens her back, and lowers her tail, appearing vulnerable.
This chicken behavior primarily signals a hen’s receptiveness to mating with a rooster. During mating season, a hen’s squat near a rooster signals her readiness to mate.
Interestingly, the appearance of squatting in young hens frequently aligns with egg-laying maturity, which may be hormonally driven.
Besides showing they want a mate, hens squat to show they’re lower in the pecking order, even to other hens.
This chicken behavior may help avoid conflict or aggression from a more dominant bird. Some hens will squat submissively if their human keepers approach or pet them.
People commonly see this behavior as the hen acknowledging the human’s higher social status.
People frequently see the hen’s behavior as evidence of its instinctual deference to humans, illustrating the power of such instincts.
Chicken keepers should know that a hen squatting has several meanings, relating to her social standing and whether she’s ready to breed.
Grouping:
For safety and companionship, chickens instinctively form flocks, demonstrating their inherently social nature.
The advantage of living in a flock is significant protection from predators for prey animals. More people mean more eyes and ears to spot danger; a big group can scare off predators.
Being together helps younger chickens learn from older ones. In contrast to hens, which usually stay close, the dominant rooster forages a larger area.
Subordinate birds might stay further away from dominant birds to avoid aggression. Staying near the roosters might be a survival tactic for hens.
If you have backyard chickens, give them enough space and resources so they don’t get stressed from overcrowding.
Daily Activities and Habits
Essential activities such as foraging, scratching, pecking, drinking, and eating occupy a significant portion of a chicken’s day. Figuring out their actions helps us understand what they need and what’s natural to them.
Foraging:
Chickens love to forage—it’s a big part of their day, about 61%. They actively search for food, scratching and pecking at the ground for insects, seeds, and plants.
Interestingly, chickens surprisingly prefer working for food, even if it’s free, showing their enjoyment of foraging.
Foraging helps their mental and physical health by keeping them engaged and reducing boredom.
Backyard keepers can encourage natural foraging instincts by providing access to grassy areas and scattering treats.
Scratching:
Scratching is a natural chicken behavior for chickens of all ages. They dig around with their feet for a bunch of reasons.
They dig shallow holes in the ground mainly for dust baths. Scratching helps them find bugs, worms, and seeds under the ground.
Also, hens often scratch around nests to make them comfy. This chicken behavior creates bare patches in the open.
Chickens scratch for lots of reasons: cleaning, eating, and mating.
Pecking:
Chickens naturally peck at things—it’s just what they do. It has many uses.
Baby chicks explore by pecking at possible food items when they hatch. Chickens peck to show who’s top in the pecking order—that’s how the pecking order starts.
Also, pecking helps them eat and check things out. This adaptability is key for chickens to survive, learn, and socialize.
Drinking:
Drinking in chickens uses a distinctive pecking action at their water source, involving short, rapid jabs.
Their drinking habits exhibit social facilitation, meaning they prefer to drink in groups. Because of their unique beak shape, they use gravity to fill their crop with water.
Chicks must be taught to drink initially, often dipping their beaks in water.
They must be the right height for waterer, drink enough water, and avoid wet bedding. Clean water is key to their health.
Eating:
At sunrise and sunset, chickens are usually busy eating. They spend a lot of time eating and looking for food.
Chickens may also copy each other’s feeding behaviors, making it a social activity. Top-ranking birds get to the food first.
By understanding feeding patterns and social dynamics, we can ensure adequate nutrition for all birds.
Grooming and Comfort Chicken Behaviors
Ensuring chicken comfort and feather health is key to their well-being. To achieve this, they use several key grooming behaviors.
Dust Bathing:
Chickens naturally dust bathe to clean themselves, using dirt instead of water. They make a little ditch, using sand or soil to clean their bodies.
This process cleans their feathers, removes dead skin and old preen oil, and controls mites and lice. Dust bathing is a relaxing social activity, often enjoyed in groups.
Dominant chickens may take the best spots first. Lack of dust baths may cause infection, parasite infestation, and stress. A dust bath area is super important for them.
Preening:
Preening is a grooming behavior where chickens run their beaks through their feathers.
This natural chicken behavior keeps feathers aligned, clean, and waterproof by distributing oil and removing debris and parasites.
Sunbathing:
Chickens love to sunbathe, often with their wings out. This helps them eliminate bugs, stay warm, dry off, and get vitamin D for healthy bones. It can happen when they’re dust bathing.
Feather Ruffling:
Chickens puff up their feathers for lots of reasons. It could be to stay warm, show off, preen after mating, or mean they’re sick.
Wing Flapping:
Wing flapping can show excitement or frustration. Loud wing flapping and a high head posture show dominance; a lowered head and wing flapping indicate submission.
Fights and broody hens use wing flapping defensively. Furthermore, it serves as a tension reliever or stretching method.
Wing Stretching:
Wing stretching differs from flapping—it’s a more controlled way of extending chickens’ wings. It helps chickens relax and stretch; it’s like a comfort thing.
Tail Wagging:
Hens may wag their tails if they are comfortable, excited, or superior. This could be connected to the movement of oil from the tail gland during preening.
Scratching Wings:
Chickens often scratch their wings during dust bathing to help toss dust onto their bodies. It can also be part of general feather cleaning.
Reproductive Chicken Behaviors
Chicken behavior includes reproduction; actions such as nesting, egg-laying, mating, and parental care are all involved.
Nesting:
Before and during egg-laying, hens engage in nesting behaviors. This involves finding a suitable nesting spot, constructing a nesting box, and laying eggs.
Hens much prefer an enclosed, comfy nesting box with bedding. Lack of nesting boxes may cause stress, and hens may lay eggs in unwanted places.
The nesting behavior is learned, and hens return to their previous nest sites.
Egg-Laying:
Hens will become restless one to two hours before laying an egg and try to find nesting areas.
They could inspect multiple nests often before choosing. The broody chicken may start searching nests just before laying eggs.
Particular hens make noises after laying eggs. A hen often squats before laying an egg.
Brooding:
A mother hen’s instinct to sit on eggs (fertilized or not) until they hatch is called brooding. When hens get broody, they quit laying eggs to sit on them.
You’ll see them nesting constantly, getting aggressive, changing their calls, gathering eggs, and plucking feathers off their chests.
Hormones and eggs affect broodiness. Stop the hens from incubating eggs if you are not raising chickens for breeding.
Mounting:
When the rooster mates, that’s called mounting. Roosters sometimes perform wing-dropping dances or offer tidbits to hens before mating.
Hens crouch to show receptiveness. The rooster climbs, using feathers for stability, with a cloacal contact for transferring sperm.
Rooster Dancing (Courtship Display):
Roosters perform dances to attract hens. This involves dropping one wing and circling the hen (wing-dragging dance), often with specific calls and sometimes tidbitting (offering food).
Tidbitting (Offering Food to Others):
Roosters attract hens by dropping small food items while making specific calls.
Providing food is part of their courtship and shows their capability. Mother hens also give chicks little bits of food as a lesson.
Other Instinctive Chicken Behaviors
Many instinctive chicken behaviors go beyond the common ones, and backyard keepers should know them.
Roosting:
Roosting is when birds rest on a high perch, usually in the evening, to be safe from ground-based predators. It enhances security, bone strength, and feather quality.
Molting:
Chickens naturally shed their old feathers and grow new ones in late summer/fall. It is called molting in chickens. The event is annual, and daylight changes start it. Egg laying usually drops off during this time.
Free-Ranging:
Chickens in free-range systems have outdoor access for foraging and roaming. This means better bird health, natural food, cheaper feed, and fewer pests. However, it could also attract predators or damage the garden.
Chilling (Resting with Eyes Closed):
Chickens rest and sleep to conserve energy. They prefer perches for sleeping.
Daytime resting with eyes closed can be standard, but may also show heat stress.
Hiding (Escaping Predators):
Chickens naturally run and hide from predators in safe spots. Submissive birds sometimes hide from the more dominant ones.
Running and Hopping:
Like human chickens, roosters move around for many reasons—fun, escaping, or getting somewhere. Hens might engage in playful running, and roosters might hop and kick in attacks.
Caching Food (Hiding Food):
While more common in wild birds, domestic chickens may exhibit some instinct to hide food, especially young chicks (“food running”) and in social dynamics within the pecking order (“tidbitting silently”).
Inspecting (Curious Behavior):
Pecking and scratching are how naturally curious chickens explore their surroundings. Giving them new stuff and toys satisfies their curiosity.
Grouping (Staying Together for Safety):
Chickens have a powerful instinct to stay together in a flock for safety and social bonding. Being in a flock provides predator protection, and flock members recognize each other.
Summary
Backyard chickens display rich behaviors that reveal their needs, social structures, and innate behaviors.
Backyard keepers who understand these actions can create a thriving environment for their flock, going beyond basic care.
We can better connect with these engaging animals by recognizing subtle cues in their vocalizations, social structure, grooming, and mating habits.
Watching your chickens closely will reveal more about their unique personalities and preferences.
Happy, healthy backyard chickens result from providing for their natural needs: dust baths, roosts, nest boxes, and safe foraging areas.
Backyard chicken keeping is enriched by understanding your chickens, leading to a deeper appreciation of their fascinating lives.
I hope these chicken behaviors help you understand your chickens and raise them more happily.
