Family Encyclopedia >> Home & Garden

Learn about chickens

Learn about chickens

For the proper functioning of your chicken coop it is very important to know the hens well. As such, and on the subject, here is some information to get to know the hens better. Chickens are very sociable animals and also very attentive, so it is important to know how to tame them correctly and to offer them a beautiful environment and a healthy habitat...

To understand the behavior and language of hens

The hens produce different sounds and, according to each of their cackles, they thus transmit their language.

This language is of course used to communicate between hens but also to make you understand what they expect. But to understand this language, you have to pay attention to your animals, the hen is a very sociable animal contrary to what you might think. The hens thus emit sounds, they discuss all day long, and, moreover, language already begins in the shell...

For the human ear, it is not always easy to detect these different sounds so it is advisable to take an interest in the behavior of your hens which can help you to better understand things.

  • If the hens cackle loudly enough, something is happening, they are scared and therefore usually warn of danger.
  • If they cackle peacefully and softly, they are fine.

Detecting stress in your hens

Hens love to scratch the ground, like to feel good in their environment, if this is not the case, they can therefore be stressed and this inevitably has an impact which prevents them from laying eggs normally, for example.

To raise your hens well, you must detect their stress. You can once again observe their behavior. The signs of stress are most often if your hens lose their feathers, if they eat little, if they pull the feathers of their congeners and therefore if she no longer lays or lays very little...

On the contrary, if your hen cackles peacefully and lives her little life, it is because she feels good and is in good health. A healthy hen has good plumage, a good comb, scratches the ground calmly, eats well and lays well.

The hens do not like to be alone, each of the hens in the henhouse has its position within the group, obviously the rules change if there is a rooster in the henhouse, moreover this one is not recommended if you just want harvest eggs and not have chicks.
A rooster has very high ardor and it needs no less than 7 to 8 hens for itself, moreover its song is quite loud, so if you live in town, you might as well avoid…
In the absence of a rooster, a hen will take charge of the group…

It may be that a hen has a bad temper or asserts its dominance in a rather brutal way, in these conditions, it is better to isolate this animal for a few hours before reintegrating it into the group and then observing its behavior... You You can spread the group out a bit with lettuce leaves strewn around the pen, along with treats, your hens can learn a lot about what you expect of them!

Chickens learn very quickly and you will be surprised at how tame they can be. A chicken coop therefore offers a really fun activity for children, it should be highlighted... The younger your hens are, the more easily they tame...