A noisy chicken who digs!

[Aussie Chook Owner]

We have had our chicken for a year and are novices at this. She is quite entertaining and now that Spring is here is laying again. She is free ranging in our backyard.

However, she is extremely noisy - with a call that is somewhere between a loud cluck and (we are struggling to describe it) a "deranged turkey!:
Her call is so loud in the morning particularly that we have taken to throwing a cup of water at her so that we can get some sleep!!!

Next issue is the digging in the garden - she is worse than any dog that I know - how do we stop her from this?

She is also extremely fussy with her food - we buy laying mix from an animal produce place but she won't eat the wheat or the laying pellets in the mix - needless to say the neighbourhood birds love our backyard.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[shirlthegirl43]

hello and welcome to the Vine.

I am not sure if it is the cause of the problem, but maybe she is lonely? It is not usually recommended to keep a single chook and they are happier in a group of at least 3.

The digging is just something chooks do - they love to dust bathe. We have restricted ours to a fenced enclosure and they are let out for a couple hours per day to enjoy the grass and bugs.

[bluemoon]

We do the same as Shirl, a large run and a couple of hours supervised outside it. Chickens really aren't happy on their own and it's usually recommended that you keep a minimum of three. That would probably be your best course of action, introduce two new ones together, as a really bossy chook would terrorise a newbie on its own.
Welcome to the vine, but please don't go using the S word (spring) too often as we're liable to become jealous.

[MaureenHall]

Welcome to our madhouse The "S" word? isn't that "sun" or "summer"? something they have in Australia?

Like the others have said, 3's better than 1 so they've got company, and someone else to bokbok to

As regards the food, it's not really recommended (here anyway) to feed too much that isn't layers pellets. Given the choice, all chooks would ignore the pellets totally if they could have corn all the time, but that's not a balanced diet. The pellets are formulated to give the chooks the correct balance of exactly what they need (not necessarily what they want) Is it possible for you to get layers pellets on their own, feed that ad lib, and just give a little corn as a treat just before bedtime?

Good luck and keep us updated

[Aussie Chook Owner]

Thanks for the advice - and yes, the "S" word is Spring - predicted to be 28degrees tomorrow!!!! But the downside of that is we are also desperate for rain & heading into a terrible drought situation for this summer

As for the food - our experience is that Ginger will NOT eat if only offered the pellets!!!

Hi! I am Cian,Aussie Chook Owner' s daughter.Mum is right,our chicken Ginger is a very noisy one!Also,I would deserve ONE chicken more than THREE(Onlyif the other two were not as noisy as Ginger)!I am nine years old and I am in year three.

Thanks from Australia

[Flummery]

I have one chicken more than 3 - I have FOUR! They aren't too noisy - only when they want to make an Egg Announcement! I'd not keep a single chicken on her own either. They do love compamy. Mine act like a litle flock and when one decides to eat pellets, they all think it's a good idea. Then one will have a drink, so they all go for one. Then when one decides a dust bath and preening session is called for, guess what? All of them do it. I'm sure your girl would calm down a bit with some friends. Can't promise she'd dig less though!

[MaureenHall]

If you got another 2 or 3 to keep her company, and only offered them pellets I'm sure Ginger would eat them too just so she's not feeling left out