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others of the same species
    Evans does not, however, imply that chickens have a language comparable to that of humans. For one thing their vocabulary is extremely limited. For another, chickens don’t, as far as we know, discuss abstract concepts or past or future events, but limit their communications to the present.
    A significant feature of human language is that it must be learned. A chick isolated from other chickens will grow up to make typical chicken sounds. On the other hand, chickens associating with other chickens have a richer repertoire, indicating that some degree of learning takes place.
    To date no one has developed a definitive list of all the sounds chickens make or determined with certainty what each sound means to the chickens. Still, plenty of words in the vocabulary of chicks, hens, and cocks are clearly recognizable by anyone taking time to listen.
Baby Talk
    A chick peeps even before it hatches from the egg, and shortly after hatching, it makes a number of different sounds by which you can tell if it is content or unhappy. The happy sounds tend to swing upward in pitch, while the unhappy sounds descend in pitch.
    Pleasure peep is a soft irregular sound chicks use to maintain contact with each other and their mother.
Its meaning:
“I’m right here.”
    Pleasure trill is the soft rapidly repeated sound chicks make when they’ve found food or are nestling under the hen, happy to have a warm, safe place to sleep.
Its meaning:
“Life is good.”
    Distress peep is a loud, sharp, group of sounds chicks make when they’re cold or hungry.
Its meaning:
“I’m miserable.”
    Panic peep is a loud, penetrating peep of a chick that’s scared or lost. The sound is similar to the distress peep but louder and more insistent.
Its meaning:
“Help!”
COLOR RECOGNITION
Chickens sometimes segregate into groups of like feather color while foraging, leading one to wonder if their organization by color is deliberate. Nicholas E. Collias of UCLA showed that chickens do recognize each other by color. He took chicks brooded by a red hen, a black hen, and a white hen and put them into a room with three hens of the same color as the mother hens. Most of the red hen’s chicks went to the red hen, the black hen’s chicks to the black hen, and the white hen’s chicks to the white hen.
    Fear trill is the sharp, rapidly repeated sound made by a chick that sees something strange or potentially threatening, such as a small unfamiliar object or a hand reaching toward it.
Its meaning:
“Don’t hurt me.”
    Startled peep is the sharp, surprised cry of a chick that’s been grabbed abruptly.
Its meaning:
“Whoa!”
    In communicating with chicks, make sounds that are low pitched, brief, soft, and repetitive to attract, calm, and comfort them. Sudden, high-pitched, long, and loud sounds (such as the noise made by active children and some machinery) frighten them.
Listen to Mama
    When a chick starts peeping before it hatches from the egg, a setting hen will respond to the unhatched chick. Through this early communication, chicks learn to recognize the sound of their mother’s voice. After the chicks hatch, the hen uses three specific calls to keep them together, help them find food, and warn them of danger.
    Cluck is a short, low-pitched repetitive sound made by a hen with chicks. Some setting hens start clucking well before their eggs are due to hatch, especially when off the nest briefly to eat or eliminate. Most setting hens start clucking when their chicks peep prior to or during the hatch. The frequent cluck of a mother hen, sometimes accompanied by the ruffling of her feathers, encourages her chicks to follow.
Its meaning:
“Stay close.”
    Food call is a high-pitched sound repeated more rapidly than the cluck. Sometimes a clucking hen, upon encountering some tasty tidbit, will segue from clucking to the
tuck-tuck-tuck
food call that inspires chicks to come running and look for food, which the hen indicates by pecking the