Single hen

[CannyCat]

I've literally just moved into a new house - saturday before last, infact - and have only met one of my neighbours thus far.

 

The plan is to get some chooks in September. The house is a small victorian terrace so the garden isn't very large, and I'm concerned that I'll get complaints from both sides about the noise if I get chickens! (even though they have children, which are far noisier! )

 

Any advice?

[Guest]

 

Try not to worry too much - yes some of us have chickens that are less than silent, but living in a built up area, there will be far worse noises that your girls will be competing with!

 

There are ways you can minimise the noise your chickens make at unsocial hours - if they squark to get out of the eglu when day breaks then you have a couple of choices - you can drape something over the top of the eglu and run, to keep the worst of the light out, tricking them into roosting later, till you get up, or you can start training them to let themselves out in the morning, by leaving the door to the eglu slightly ajar. That way they aren't shouting to get out, for an early morning dustbath or bug hunt.

 

If they do a lot of shouting during the day, then you can try the hose squirting method - I had to do that when one of my girls started to make quite masculine crowing attempts, and it soon put her gas at a peep.

 

My lot still make a bit of noise - mostly when they have just laid - they like to announce to the world how clever they are! However, I've found that the odd tray of eggs for the neighbours soon sorted out any grumblings about noise, and the gentle clucking of the chooks is far more preferable to the barking of dogs and rumblings of traffic!

[Egluntyne]

They won't complain if you bribe them with eggs.

[parmaviolet]

Maybe I'm a bad mummy, but I've trained (Ha!!) June and Audrey to stay in bed till 8am. If they're really lucky I'll let them out of the eglu at 7.45am.

 

last spring & summer they were being let out a 6am and one of the girls who lives next door mentioned that they had woken her up very early one Sunday morning. She wasn't having a moan, she said thet she grew up in the country and that generally they didn't disturb her/she quite liked the happy noises they sometimes make. I did say that I'd try to keep the noise down for her flat mates. Since then I've been letting them out a little later each day until we got to the happy time of 8am. They don't seem to mind & they don't squark to be let out at all. I should know, as I've been sleeping in the spare room (overlooks the run) with the windows wide open due to the combination of; The Heat, Mr Os being a Radiator and since last week, listening out for scuffles between the two new hens!

 

 

The way I figure it is, they'te quite happy to get up at 8am and go to bed at 4pm in the winter, so they should be happy getting up at 8am and going to bed at 8.30-9pm in the summer.

 

I'm also paranoid now about FOXYLADY see post about my nasty neighbour and the visit from the council.

 

Having said all of the above, I know every one of my neighbours in my street and the one behind, so I'm sure if there was a problem we'd know about it. In almost two years we have only had one comment about noise. As I posted recently, the neighbours children, weekend DIY, Lawn mowing (7pm) and rowdy BBQs make a heck of a lot more noise than the Dixey Chicks. The biggest noise pollution round here are the police helicopters that buzz up and down the main roads nearby. Wonder if I can get an ASBO taken out on them?

[ubereglu]

I'd ask your neighbours whether they'd mind having chickens next door. If they don't think it's a good idea say you'll give them eggs from time to time!!!!!!