Used Omlet outdoor rabbit run Width 2.2m Height 2.05m Length 3.1m vgc.

[Patricia W]

Have you tried filling them up the night before so they aren't as hungry early in the morning? I've certainly noticed it has an impact on my Phillip if he misses the mixed corn and treats I give them at about 7.30 ish ( to get them in the run actually)

 

And try ignoring them if they make a noise in the morning. I know it's not easy, but explain to OH and neighbours in advance that you are doing Behaviour Therapy with them!

 

Good luck - I'm sure they'll settle down.

 

Tricia

[Jules.]

When I was new to chicken keeping there was a thread about the chooks always shouting when someone appeared in the garden, & how offering them food/treats to shut them up only aggrevated the problem. A bit like Pavlov's dog

 

Anyhow, now my lot only get treats every few days, & then only in the afternoon.

 

I also leave them locked in the cube/eglu till just after 8am most days. This I think is a reasonable hour, & most folks who will be getting up are up.

They are used to the routine, & suffer no ill effects.

Sometimes it's kind to be a bit "cruel" IYSWIM?

 

Show them who's boss!!!!!

I hope all calms down again soon for you. It will probably get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.

[Valkyrie]

OH has been opening downstairs windows - put a stop to that PDQ! They think it's the back door. This morning it had gone 8, so better than the 7.30 yesterday.

[Jennyhenny]

This is what I did because of early morning noise and it worked perfectly, they stay quiet til I pull the covers off at 8 am

 

Jennyhenny

[Valkyrie]

Good one. Here, just to make up for the early mornings, the little demons have been bokking and whingeing virtually all day long - every 20 minutes or so. Very stressful because I rush out to try and stop them. In the end I had to get the hose out and squirt them. All has been quiet for a while now - except for Apache who has been locked out of the cube because she is having a broody day (already laid an egg this morning), and she whines when Sioux is in the nest box too. At this rate they are going to be the Sunday roast. I'm not sure whether the baby birds around are triggering this all off.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

It's hard, but I found that ignoring the hollerings of my Orpies eventually led to them getting the idea that to shout does not mean to get!! Tough love in our house!!

 

Mind you I did want to record their egg announcement, which can be very loud and go on for ages - for each bird!! - but they seem to have stopped that too

 

Sha x

[chelsea]

 

Show them who's boss!!!!!

I hope all calms down again soon for you. It will probably get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.

 

 

I agree , these chooks rule our lives here in so many other ways (naughty little monkeys!) that they are not disturbing mine or my neighbours sleep. So keep perservering and stay tough.

[Valkyrie]

When they do lay - they don't make any sound at all - very much drop and go.

[Doodle]

Koojie.....are you me in disguise? Seriously, I ended up with an all day racket and resorted to the hosepipe too. I figured it works on marauding mobs, so why not chickens? At one point, I was eying up the jet washer but OH talked me out of it and sent me back to bed because I was obviously losing the plot!

 

I'm bringing the little Silkies in to the garage at night, so their teeny-tiny peeps don't wake the established Holy Horrors up and I'm continuing with Cube Covering. Order has been restored (ish). I do long to go back to the days when I could just leave the Cube door open and they got on with it quietly though.

 

Millymollymandy - make sure you cover all the gaps and cracks if you can - around the door etc. Any wee shaft of light can start them off. Also, as someone has mentioned on here, the grey coloured bit of eglu's and cube's is the 'lightest', so cover that too.

[millymollymandy]

Covering the cube with carpet and a tarpaulin and shutting them in I think seems to have worked ish,

 

I say ish as I they are still making some noise but it is so muffled by the carpet that it is hard to hear. I could still hear them this morning but that was because I had the window open and was listening for them so I doubt the neighbours noticed unless they were hanging out the window

 

On of the problems is that I live on a new estate that they are still building everywhere and it was the diggers and JCBs that woke me and then the chickens this morning AT 630!!

 

I figure if the neighbours can live with the builders then chickens aren't that bad

 

Also I think I am regaing control of my two and I may be back up the pecking order after some tough love and shutting them in the run, they don't swalk now everytime I go in the garden and trying to teach them that they free range when I say not when they shout

 

I am supposed to be getting more chickens hence upgrading to the cube but I am not sure I can handle it, some intros on here seem to be a nightmare perhaps I will just keep two chickens in a cube but that sounds a bit silly

 

must stop waffling now

[Valkyrie]

Koojie.....are you me in disguise? Seriously, I ended up with an all day racket and resorted to the hosepipe too. I figured it works on marauding mobs, so why not chickens? At one point, I was eying up the jet washer but OH talked me out of it and sent me back to bed because I was obviously losing the plot!

 

I'm bringing the little Silkies in to the garage at night, so their teeny-tiny peeps don't wake the established Holy Horrors up and I'm continuing with Cube Covering. Order has been restored (ish). I do long to go back to the days when I could just leave the Cube door open and they got on with it quietly though.

 

Millymollymandy - make sure you cover all the gaps and cracks if you can - around the door etc. Any wee shaft of light can start them off. Also, as someone has mentioned on here, the grey coloured bit of eglu's and cube's is the 'lightest', so cover that too.

 

I hope you're thinner! Sorry - only just found this, the naughty notifications are not getting to me.

Yesterday they started at 7.15 which saw me bolting down the garden - I have no recollection of the steps at all! I covered them over with extra black plastic - the whingeing gradually got quieter. I then let them out at about 8.15 with breakfast and did not allow them out of the cube run. Cue more whingeing, so they got squirted. They wouldn't eat their brekkers, but they stopped the racket and I let them out about half an hour later. Another session of 20 minute whingey rackets and more squirting - anything that interrupts my lunch deserves a splashing. By the afternoon they were much better behaved and last night I set up the black plastic over the top - treat them like budgies going to bed for the night! This morning not a peep - even though the plastic had blown mostly off the top and they were exposed to more light than before! Rain might have put them off a bit though. I let them out just after 8.30 which is much better for our neighbours and my stress levels - and I had 2 lots of coffee so I was wide awake by then! We have had one session of squarking/whining which was dealt with in the squirty manner and all quiet on the western front. Phew. Sinking in. Plus I had 2 crumpets for lunch and I wasn't disturbed in the middle (cold congealing butter on a cold crumpet not as nice as hot and dripping). Fingers crossed.