Chattering—that’s what I call it when my three rescued laying hens are out in the garden scratching around. Their sounds are a mix of purring, humming, and whispering. It’s soft, calm, and sounds very content.
How different it is when you enter a chicken shed housing thousands of individual animals. A cacophony of sounds, where the animals seem to shout over each other, often accompanied by the hum of fans and other machinery in the barn. Do the hens not mind this noise, I wonder? How do they communicate with each other, can they even hear themselves above this loud background noise? And what does constant noise do to their mood? Research on noise pollution in chickens has never been conducted, as far as I can tell. (Any tips on this are most welcome!) However, there has been research on communication between chickens and the importance of vocalization. There is also extensive research on traffic noise and its effects on birds. From this, I draw a cautious conclusion: chickens in overcrowded barns may have difficulty communicating with their peers due to noise pollution, which diminishes their (mental) well-being. Isn’t it time we take this problem seriously?
Research on birds shows that a busy road disrupts their communication. It becomes harder for them to find a mate and form bonds because their communication is disturbed. As a result, their reproduction rates decrease. There is every reason to believe that chickens also suffer from noise, even when it comes from their own kind.
Like humans, pigs, cows, and other birds, chickens use sounds to express emotions. To warn their peers of danger, let others know everything is okay, or to indicate where the best food can be found. In the wild, chickens have over 24 different sounds defined. Positive vocalizations, like chattering, have different frequencies, amplitudes, and intensity than negative ones. The first are crucial for social animals like chickens to create and strengthen bonds. Negative sounds, however, are louder and have higher frequencies. As a result, chickens in a barn can no longer hear the positive sounds, nor can we tell if they’re even there.
How can chickens build and maintain bonds if they can no longer hear each other? Do they still have connections? Or are they thousands of individuals, lonely and lost in a sea of feathers? No one knows. No one hears.