When I was a little girl, I heard such expressions as ‘If that don’t beat it all!’ or ‘If that don’t take the cake!’ After reading HOW TO SPEAK CHICKEN by Melissa Caughey, Storey Pub. 2017), those expressions came to mind. I’ll just try to hit the high points in this unusual study.

I actually bought the book for my daughter, Scarlette, and husband Dean, who have been learning to raise a few chickens for eggs. But I began reading the book and couldn’t put it down. I then felt compelled to share a few things here.

You may not believe any of this, but the author has been raising chickens for years, and her friend has traveled the world to study the life of chickens with some amazing results. If you want to check out what they learned, you best pull up a chair and sit quietly in a chicken yard for weeks and just observe these sweet critters.

Chickens have more than 2 dozen sounds (vocalizations). Some include ones for relating to territory, mating, distress, danger, fear, happiness, discovery of food, and nesting. The first time you make your presence known, notice a certain sound they make. Thereafter, every time they see you, they will repeat that sound. There is a distinct sound for each person they get to know. (So, apparently, they have a ‘name’ for you.)

Contrary to what you may hear from the industry, chickens are complex in behavior, can learn new things, show a rich social organization (heard of pecking order?), have a repertoire of ‘calls’ or speech sounds, and they exhibit different personalities.

After years of raising chicken (and obviously spending much time with them), the author learned there are sounds to express danger, signals, happy calls, hellos, and goodnight— in which you hear when they go to roost for the night.

Learning their body language is also interesting. They use their beaks like we use our hands. They use them for chastising others, for cleaning their feathers, eating, and foraging for food. They squat to prepare rooster for mating, they squat if someone reaches out to pick up a hen or attempts to gather eggs from under a hen. Another body language, tidbitting, is a rooster’s mating dance.

Dust bathing and sunbathing: Chickens keep clean by wallowing in dirt and flicking it up in the air to cover their bodies. They work particles down to their skin, in which they are able to get rid of mites and lice. This invigorating exercise is fun to watch. Sunbathing during dust bathing helps their feathers soak up the sun.

The book explains what each chicken noise means but you have to read the book to understand it. Chickens say goodnight to each other. One windy, chilly night the author entered the dark coop to check on her chicks. She said she could hear the chickens calling to one another from the darkness. She heard their sweet repetitive sounds. She stayed still to see if she could figure out what was going on. One by one they called out to each other, as if taking a head count. She listened for quite a while and then she chimed in, mimicking what she was witnessing. To her surprise they answered back. Saying goodnight was their nighttime ritual. (I guess you just had to be there!)

Amazing facts about chickens: they can’t see in the dark. An average hen lays 265 eggs per year. The chicken is the closest living relative to the Tyrannosaurus rex. You can tell what color egg a hen will lay by looking at the color of her earlobe. Red earlobes usually mean brown eggs; white means white eggs. Another fact: Chickens don’t sweat. They regulate body temperature through their combs and wattles.

The average chicken has between 7,500 to 9,000 feathers. They have eyes on the sides of their head to increase field of vision. Their brains take the sights from both eyes to create a 300-degree panoramic view without having to move their heads.

Like other animals, chickens can be taught all kinds of tricks. Some have learned by watching other chickens do tricks on TV, and chickens are not color- blind. I could go on and on….

So much more info is included in this fascinating chicken study, but I’ll end it now to answer two questions ‘Why didn’t the chicken fly across the road?’ They aren’t great flyers. They can fly up about 6 feet, managing spurts about 20 feet in length. Their wings allow them to fly into trees for roosting or to get away from predators. And then, the other question: ‘Which came first the chicken or the egg?’ Modern scientists agree that thousands of years ago 2 chicken-like birds got together and produced an egg that hatched a bird that resembles the modern chicken. Because the protein that builds the eggshell is made by the hen, scientist believe that it had to be the chicken that came before the chicken egg. Without the hen, there would be no egg. (Of course, if they had checked the Bible, they would have read that God made the animals and humans and gave them the abilities to reproduce. It would have saved them many conversations and speculations, but that would have been too easy!

Now, look how much smarter you are. Now, share your excitement! Have a blessed day!