Doreen

[edharvey17]

Hi,

 

We're having a few problems with one of our older hens. About 3 months ago, one died and so we just had the one left. We successfully introduced two new young ones and all seemed to be going ok (apart from the older one only laying soft eggs then one normal one every few weeks (she's 2 years old).

 

However, for several weeks we've not been shutting them in their house, just locking the run so they can get up and eat and saves us letting them out early. The older one now makes a real racket about 5.30 / 6am until we let them roam in the garden.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? We are going to try locking them up again at night and putting the winter cover on the run to keep it a little darker but still feel the older one may make a noise to be let out of their house early....

 

The neighbours have mentioned it this morning and I do understand as it wakes me up too and is quite annoying!! I'm going to go round and apologise and say we are trying to sort the problem out - I dont want to have to dispatch the older hen but if we need to then there's not many options (i dont want the neighbours to complain to the council and we then lose all our hens).

 

Any help would be really appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Ed

[wooky]

Two things that seem to have worked for others is locking the main door at night and covering the eglu/cube with a blackout tarpaulin down to the ground but making sure air can still flow and also giving a little stodgy pasta type snack an hour before they go to bed so the chooks go to roost with a full crop and aren't so demanding first thing.

[chelsea]

Good advice above - we cover the cube with success.

 

Don't give in! Stick to your guns and try to keep routine and let the hens out the same time every morning. They will soon get used to it and should quieten down.

 

I have placed an old inner from a dog basket on the top of my cube - its not covering any ventilation holes, it just purely sits flush on the roof of the cube. I think it helps with sound proofing/noise muffling.

[Suzy]

Make sure you cover the bottom of the eglu as well. Sounds silly but the grey illuminates in the light and lets them know it's morning. We cover ours with tarpaulin, lock the door and cover the run at night too (green tarp folded over so it's about 4 sheets thick)

 

So as to not block any ventialtion holes I prop up a paving slab against the back and that dulls the light and makes sure the tarp doesn't cover the ventialtion they get from that gap above the poo tray.

 

End result is they get up at 7:30 or thereabouts (maybe 8am at the weekend) but we get no screeching and they seem quite chilled out. You can hear them having little chicken coversations. That's until they hear someone outside and all hell breaks loose (but that might be to do with porridge and grapes for breakfast)

 

The neighbours said they never heard them screeching but they even commented that they don't hear them in the mornings. Maybe taking some eggs round as a peace offering will help as well.

 

Good luck.

[Helly Welly]

We've covered our cube with a dark blanket but it doesn't cover the ventilation holes. We also shut them in as otherwise they see the birds on the bird table and start complaining as they do like to hoover up any spillages.

[Patricia W]

Ditto -blackout even works with our cockerel. The other thing is to make sure they have a relatively full crop before they go to bed so they are not hungry too early. I give their mixed corn treat before they go to roost - actually to get them in the run.

 

Tricia