Peacocks

[Clur]

....a day, I would swear blind Arial (the Suffolk Star) was a cockeral. Not only is she big and beefy, she is noisy as anything as soon as it's light.

 

Aha, thinks me -- I'll just keep her in the eglu until a decent hour. Well, firstly we could hear her making a racket regardless. Secondly, despite us closing the eglu at night, the little so-and-so is barging the door until it opens just enough and then stands in the run cock-a-doodle-doing to get out!

 

She also announces her egg laying, plus that of the 3 others.

 

Now for the serious issue - she is so noisy she's been waking our kids. If she's waking our two as soon as it's light, you can guarantee the (very close by) neighbours are also being disturbed and I really feel stressy about it. It's not too bad at the moment as we have resorted to letting them out of the run early after trying to ignore things. The main problem is when we go away in the summer for a weekend, we were planning to leave the eglu door open.

 

We're now desperately trying to work out a way around this without resorting to gaffer taping her beak (joke!). Seriously considering trying to build a bigger run in their favourite dustbath spot in the bushes, before the Summer and trying to come up with the funds to do so.

 

I know noisy hens has been a popular topic on the forums, but has anyone come up with a solution that works? So far a swift squirt of water's not worked and only letting them out of the run has.

 

Getting pretty desperate about this now!

[Lewis]

Have you tried covering the eglu, so its a bit darker inside?

 

Do you think she's taking on the cockerel role?

 

From people that have had to re-home noisy girls, they're normally quieter at their new home, (probably because lower down in pecking order) so it could be that ...

Not sure what to suggest thought, without her going on holiday for a week (or kept in a spare hutch for a few days) so she comes back and is lower down in the pecking order?

[Porkypie]

I can understand your stress. Your scenario sounds very similar to what I experienced throughout last summer - one of my three was very vocal at the sames times your hen is. I went on holiday in September and left them for one week with their door left open and no one to respond to the noise . Very strangely after that Ms Noisy calmed down. It may be just pure coincidence or a 'winter break'... I've started leaving the door open now it's warmed up and in the last month or so I've had one early morning noise problem.

 

I've also stopped going out to them in the morning. I check their water the night before, hand up greens and carrots in a string bag (hopefully out of reach of rats...) and their feeder is a treadle feeder so always out there. All three hens have been calmer since.

 

I hope you find a solution. Good luck

[Space Chick]

Oh I'm sorry Claire, and can sympathise too. I have an ex batt that woke me and probably all the neighbours up at 6.05am this morning, for the 3rd morning in a row

 

I was going to try the closing the cube door, but I have one little madam that is insisting on going to bed on the perch in the run, and I worry that if I close the door, she'll get to cold, will try and go to bed with the others and won't be able too

 

So no advice I'm afraid, but sending sympathy..... and possibly some ear plugs

[C&T]

Haven't had such an extreme case, but when ours were upping the noise, ignoring them certainly seemed to help.

 

Hard - but they do seem to make a noise to get attention - in some cases at least!

 

Shutting them up also helped - but ours weren't as determined as yours!! As someone else suggested, covering with a blanket or similar to keep the light down may help????

 

 

We also make a point of walking up and down the garden, ignoring them, just so they don't always associate us with food or getting out.

 

Good luck!!

[patsylabrador]

I was given advice on here to get blackout cloth or a dark picnic blanket. Frankly I've done both and it is as dark as I can make it. They were early risers but at the moment I don't let them out until 8am and don't hear from them at all, long may it last. Good luck - it does take the fun out of things if you're worrying about neighbours. I also have ignored them and purposely hung about near them without talking/feeding them - very rude I know but they've calmed down a lot!

[Clur]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try putting something dark over the eglu and the feed into the main run (the old eglu run) and see if that stops her barging the door to get out.

 

Going to start checking food and water last thing and not go out to them in the morning too. Half the problem is the racket she makes to be let out from the run into the garden, but it's not practical in this weather - we don't have a lot of grass left!

 

Will let you know how I get on!