Solitary chicken - need advice

[Yolky]

Since joining this forum I have seen posts on peoples noisy hens and how, in some cases, it can cause issues with neighbours and, in rare cases, involve the environmental health.

 

My experience with my girls is that they rarely bok, they make quiet noises at me but they don't really bok and they have never egg announced. I would be worried about having noisy hens as I live in a cul de sac and 90% of the residents are retired and so home all day to hear and, I am sorry to say, a number of them are also misery guts and would use anything to moan. One of my neighbours I bumped into about 3 weeks after I had the girls and I made some comment about the compost I was bringing in being for my chickens and they said.....ohh yes I heard you had chickens, I will let you know if they are noisy don't worry.......Now if I was quick thinking enough I should of replyed that I had had them three weeks already and if they only way they knew I had them was from another neighbour then they cannot be noisy can they, but I just smiled and walked away.

 

I have been bitten by the chicken bug and I have been thinking of getting a couple of little bantam ladies and an eglu for them next summer but after reading the posts about noise I think I may reconsider, the three girls I have are totally gorgeous, friendly, and are lovely girls and so I would hate to put me keeping them at risk by getting some more hens.

 

On the poll you can answer twice, once for how noisy and once for the number of chickens. If you could write any experiences here too then that would be helpful.

[alexgirl73]

well as a newbie to the sport of keeping chooks I didn't know what to expect. But I'm pleased to say that apart from one of my girls announcing when she lays an egg, we don't hear from them at all. (although she has been tending to announce this at 7am ) I have 5 girls.

[helenc]

We have 4 hens. They don't make much noise at all, one does an egg announcement but its not too loud. They all bok when they see anyone near their run but we are next to a road so that is noisier than them plus we have a biggish garden and they are quite far from the house and any neighbours, so I think we are quite lucky. I would also like some more - 3 more I think when we put the run in its permanent place and extend it.

[Angels4]

At the moment I only have four. They aren't too noisy except when announcing eggs or something spooks them. I have plans to get 8 more. I'll let you know if things change.

I forgot to say, at one time I read on the forum about using the same bowl for treats and such so as to persuade them back to the run while they are wandering around the yard. While they are locked in the run and I'm enjoying my morning muslix, I use a bowl that is just like thiers (same set, but NOT the same bowl) and they pace to and fro making all sorts of racket, trying to make me feel guilty about not sharing.

[Steve.]

They are very quite compared to the ambulances, police cars, barking dogs, crowing crows, lawnmowers, children playing, cats fighting, dogs barking, turbo charged cars, buses, lorries, late-night parties and drunken teenagers. And a million other things.

[Chickvic]

Mine tend to be very quiet and only rarely announce eggs. I've had 2 early mornings (4.30 ish) and that's it. Nothing much spooks them either, they have to put up with 3 cats sharing the garden so not bothered by them and my cats have kept other cats out.

[Electricbarbarella]

I think I have replied wrong, I have said that mine are quite noisy, which they are but only when I am in the garden, which is most of the time as my dd's are always playing out, they are only nagging me to go out. I can not hear them at all from the house.

[Egluntyne]

Mine aren't bad. Just the odd BokBok if something bothers them, and the odd Egg announcement.

[mrsallen08]

Mine are quite quiet! Thats if you don't include Nuggets who has decided to be a cockerel now. I say this as we weren't sure for ages, anyhoo, no all are quite good except if there's a cat or something to spook them!

[Cinnamon]

My big girls are quiet,but the bantams make a bit of a racket

[Gallina]

When I only had two, they never made a sound.

 

Now that I have more, they all start shouting whenever they hear me coming: it's a sort of "Me first" cry. It stops as soon as I go back into the house.

 

They also shout with pride when they have laid an egg.

[bokbokbok]

We have 7. Three of them are laying and announce when they lay - one bantam announces EVERYONE'S eggs (common comment!). When we introduced our 7th there was a lot of noise that day which happened to be a Sunday with people in their gardens

 

When we are with them they sound loud to me but our neighbours are two gardens away, in theory, and I don't reaaaalllly think they have much to complain about. I agree that other people make more noise than we do. We have football mad boys on one side and constant dog barking on the other. (ACTUALLY!!! This is another topic altogether BUT - us making a little bit of noise has actually helped me cope with other peoples' noise a little better )

 

They are totally quiet in the shed and in the mornings - they are as quiet at 9.30am as they are at 7.30am if I want a lie in. IF there was any noise in the mornings I would know something was terribly wrong with them.

[Faye&Ant]

ditto - two just bok when they have laid an egg and all of them bok when they get spooked by something. Fearne is moulting at the moment and she seems to be noiser than the others and a bit more skitsy than usual - I used to worry about the noise but now I have put it into perspective with other noises and its not so bad

[Stevie]

My two arent really noisy,but will bok bok a bit when i come home cos they want treats.However,when spooked they are incredibly noisy like 2 weeks ago at 5.15am when i think there was a Fox on otherside of fence in the playing field.Although they were perfectly safe from it roaming my garden they dont obviously know this and sounded off big time.

 

Im a really heavy sleeper,but they woke me up in a split second!!!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I couldn't choose between "a bit noisy" and "not noisy at all". They do announce eggs but only for a minute or two once a day (and some days I don't notice them doing it at all) but they don't squawk when spooked.

 

I've got three.

[Jules.]

I have 4 & they are only noisy if spooked or when laying usually.

 

I have been leaving the cube door open so that they can get up when they want to, but yesterday at 6.30am I could hear Gertrude making a right racket, & so now I shut the door as I don't wish to upset my neighbours.

[ruth1]

I've got 7 but only one laying at the mo, Ive only heard her egg announce once, which only lasted a few mins.

 

When the girls first came my OH was working from home so we know you dont really hear them over the wild birds unless something is up, I too have retired neighbours who think any noise they make is fine but anything they hear from us isnt on

 

Im hoping the others wont be too noisy when they start laying

[mum2boys]

I have 3.. they sometimes egg announce and bok to be let out if they see us (i try and let them out most of the time we are home)...

 

we have neighbours who have moaned about the noise they hear however.. everyone else who has heard them doesn't think they are noisy at all...

[Angels4]

I should change my answer as I was just out with the girls. I chose not to allow them out today with all that was going on, and the way they were carrying on, you would have thought I already had all 12 girls (my goal).

[The Brown Clan]

Only 2 of my girls bok after laying and its not everyday either some days they can't be bothered , My squeels whan having feathers pulled out by others, which is still happening despite everything i have tried but then who wouldn't it must hurt

 

I have good neighbours though who would now also like some girls of their own (yipee)

 

and others down my road get eggs and are always asking after my girls so I am very lucky

 

But like others have said not as noisy as dogs ,lawnmowers, police sirens ,teenagers, cats fighting .......................... the list is endless !!!

[Hen Watch]

I need a catagory in between Quite Noisy and A Little Noisy.

 

Last year I would have said "A Little Noisy" but now the 4 girls have been with me for 16 months, they are more vocal. They are actually quite clever and know how to get my attention - a really loud bout of bok bok bokking usually does it.

 

I keep mine in the run until 9-9.30am so they eat their pellets and I can do school run etc. But the chooks have some kind of internal clock. Today 8.55am, boking so loudly the whole neighbourhood can hear (and that was just one of them). I try not to give in, but today is Sunday, so I relented and let them out, boking stopped immediately they saw me open the door (little madams ).

 

So I would say 99% of the day they are very, very quiet and just gently cluck. But I do get egg announcements every day now (and never used to) plus this attention thing (which is OK if I'm home......and if not, well I can't hear it to comment can I.... )

[Gamebird]

My six chickens are usually quiet as they rummage around in the soil.

 

As soon as they see me coming towards them then they start to bok a bit in anticipation of treats

 

I have never heard them announcing the arrival of an egg.

 

Ironically we don't have any near neighbours so even if they were noisy it wouldn't be a problem.

[Olly]

There was one heck of a racket in the garden this morning. No - not my chickens, some wild birds (I think magpies) were kicking up no end of a din! I live within sound of the Central Line tube and on a busy road, and there's almost always a helicopter, police siren or a lawnmower to be heard. Not to mention the woman two doors down shouting at her children in words I couldn't repeat on a family forum.

 

Only one of my four makes 'egg announcements'. They do squawk a lot when spooked - there was a strange cat outside the run the other day and they really let me know! But generally they are not noisy at all. No complaints from my neighbours, anyway.

[Abbey Road Girl]

My four hens can be quite loud, especially announcing having laid an egg (and why not?), but theirs isn't a constant or irritating noise like a car alarm and my neighbours have all remarked with a smile, "It's like being in the country".

 

I take this as a compliment as we're in a near central part of Cambridge with a noisy traffic bridge going past the back garden.

[RubyReckless]

I've voted "very noisy" but it is a slur on 7 of our 8 chooks.

 

Over the 3 1/2 years we've had 8 hens - 3 now, 5 in the past (a bad incident with 2 roaming Alsatians in the middle of the day aobut 18 months ago )

 

All have been great and no bother at all except for one. We have some shouting about eggs, some shouting at disturbances. Biffer the RIR used to have a go at the foxes prowling in the early morning, and several have yelled at cats from time to time.

 

Sadly, for the past 6 months our Speckledy shouts at the top of her lungs to be let out to free range. This starts somewhere between 6:30 and 7:15. Even shut tight inside the Eglu with the door closed she is loud enough to be heard from the house with the doors and windows closed.

 

One of our neighbours has hated the girls from the start. The noise has made matters so much worse, which is why our Speckledy is going back to the farm she came from in a few weeks (they are happy to have her join their flock)