Wanted Please - Harrogate / York / Leeds area

[Shelley]

Yes, they're cute; yes, they're fun. But 'no' they're not compatible with suburban life. My four have been going at it since 6am this morning. No foxes, no cats, just attention seeking. If they were a neighbour's chickens I'd be livid. It is irresponsible to have any pets that are uncontrollable at that time of the morning. So if you're contemplating chickens first consider your own mental health - it really isn't any fun pacing the house wishing them to be quiet - and secondly consider your neighbours. The test of anything like this is would I do it again knowing what I know now - and the answer is definitely 'no'.

[sezra]

My four have been going at it since 6am this morning. No foxes, no cats, just attention seeking. If they were a neighbour's chickens I'd be livid.

 

I am sorry to hear that your experience has not been good so far. I was just wondering what type of hen house you have? Maybe they are seeing the morning light and thinking it is time to get up. You could try putting a dark blanket or cover over the house to prevent light getting in? It might trick them into thinking it is still night time?

 

Good luck and I hope that things improve for you.

[Space Chick]

Neighbours tend to not mind once they have tried the eggs

 

My neighbours dog is worse than my girls, although in saying that we did have a 5.45am egg announcement from Ace today

[Guest]

My neighbours love my hens. My immediate neighbours a lovely couple keep telling me to get a pekin cockerel.

 

Bribe them with eggs is what I always say. They get eggs we don't use.

 

Put something hanging up for the girls to keep them busy. Some people put mirrors in like budgies have.

[Mercedes55]

I've only had my hens for less than a month, but I wouldn't agree that they aren't compatible with suburban life any more than I would say that about owning a cat or dog. Yes they make a bit of noise, but I've only had one morning when one was being noisy early and I think that was at about 6.15am. Every other morning they are quiet until I go and let them out at about 7am and only one of them makes any noise during the day.

 

Maybe hens are like other pets and are all different. I know I've had times when for months on end our dog would be barking to go out at like 4am every morning. Luckily we live in a detached house so the neighbours weren't affected but over the years I've had to endure countless noisy situations from neighbours when I lived in my previous house. Years of living next door to neighbours who have young children who are playing musical instruments from morning to night makes the noise of a few hens nothing

[patsylabrador]

That's a shame that you feel like this. I live in a surburban area and agree the noise they make can sometimes be worrying. As Sezra says a dark blanket or blackout curtains will help enormously with early morning noise. I got mine last August so still learning lots, but one thing I did learn to do was to listen to the sheer amount of noise from everywhere else, the chickens don't seem so bad then. Although if they do want to be noisy, 'happy egg song time' for example, they choose the moment when everything else is dead quiet.

I've spoken to my neighbours and they say they quite (emphasis on the quite) like the noise that the chickens make. It's different to the usual noises you would expect to hear.

I also planted some bushes between them and the house so they can't see me which has cut down a lot of the attention seeking noise.

Have you done things like hanging up cabbages etc to distract them? Sometimes if they're being noisy I pour a bucket of water in their WIR and they play quietly in the mud for ages.

Good Luck.

[Tutti Frutti]

As much as I love my girls, I have to agree that they CAN be noisy and it's getting to me, let alone my neighbours, so I really do sympathise

 

I've been outside at least a dozen times this morning - thankfully they didn't start until 7:30, I'd be tearing my hair out if it was earlier. It's one culprit who shouts whevever anyone lays an egg I wonder if bantams are quieter? Does it depend on the breed or the character of the girls? We have two who are quiet as mice when they lay - could it be because they're bottom of the pecking order and don't want to attract attention to themselves? I wonder if I removed the culprit for a few days and reintroduced her, would she be quieter then?

 

Sometimes I think i should have stuck to 3 (I have 6 now), I NEVER noticed any noise then Funnily enough, the noise kicked off when we got the Whitestar I was so desperate for and she started laying

[Chucky Mama]

Yes, they're cute; yes, they're fun. But 'no' they're not compatible with suburban life.

 

There are a huge number of members who keep chickens in a suburban setting who would disagree with you Sherbet. I admit that it is worrying that your chickens may be upsetting your neighbours but they may actually not have been disturbed by them at all. There are lots of threads and information on the forum if you do a search on how to keep early morning noise to a minimum. I keep my cube door shut if they are going through a noisy phase (neighbours actually like hearing them - I don't ). I learned early on that rushing down to let them out was a bit like the Pavlov's dog syndrome and it made them worse.

[Mercedes55]

My 1 hen who can be noisy is also head hen and she does tend to make a noise when the other hens lay an egg. Maybe I haven't had mine long enough for the noise to get to me yet, I hope it doesn't start to get me down as my OH is the kind of person who will never give up on any pet we have.

 

Does everyone have their hens close to their house and neighbours houses too Our coop is about 50ft or so away from our house and is probably further away than our neighbours.

[amateurkeeper]

We have two who are quiet as mice when they lay - could it be because they're bottom of the pecking order and don't want to attract attention to themselves?

 

Tutti Frutti - You've spark a "Eureka" moment with me there! Our bully of the group (or the chicken at the top of the pecking order!) is the only one who crows when she's laid, and the others don't. Never even occured to me why this was until now!

[bennett]

Sorry that you are having noise issues Black out curtains are a really good idea to keep them quite. Mine dont lay untill lunch time so an egg call then doesnt really disturb anyone. I live in a terraced town house in the middle of an estate and my neighbours are fine with it, although i have bantams so they are alot quieter, i I did stress about it when we first moved here however my neighbours are now thinking about getting quails which are far noisier! I hope things quiet down for you. Maybe you need to do controlled crowing like they do with babies! lol

[Guest]

I wonder if bantams are quieter?

 

Trust me bantams are not quieter. My sussex bantams are the noisiest. Squawking every hour until about 12 then i give them their treats and quiet.

 

Their voices don't carry as far though so that is good.

[Guest]

Also it might not have been cat fox or dog but think of sky predators. Early morning hunting.

 

The head chicken will send up the alarm call.

[Bramble]

Oh Dear, I'm so sorry to read your post. I have only had my chucks for ten days and I have to say I was INCREDIBLY stressed for the first few days. They made SO much noise on the first night when I tried to get them to go to bed, my neighbours came round thinking a fox was trying to kill something in my garden. I explained and they were absolutely fine with it. I would have to agree with the other posts, you need to be objective about it. If you sit and listen to ALL the noise around you, (loud TVs/radios, children crying/shouting/playing, footballs being kicked against fences/walls, cars starting/idling, delivery vans with noisy diesel engines,doors being shut, cars driving past etc etc) I think you might be suprised about how much noise your neighbours make just getting on with their daily lives? Give it some time to settle. Keep smiling.

[craftyhunnypie]

The longer you have them, the more you & your neighbours get used to the noise. My neighbours worry if they don't hear them. My cockerels are excellent at alarming us to intruders up the drive. Our neighbours like that! We haven't been noticing the cockerels crow recently - but they still do. We have just become so used to hearing them.

I agree they can bok bok very loud - girls are worse than the boys sometimes.

I would speak to the neighbours & ask them to be honest on their thoughts of your girls. Then if they are ok with them..breathe & relax.

 

Emma.x

[EmmaJC]

This hits home for me a little, as mine have been awful all summer. They start shouting any time between 5 and 6 and crow and call until we let them out of the omlet run into their larger run. This thankfully shuts them up straight away and we hardly hear a peep out of them for the rest of the day (except alas for this morning when the decided to have a mad 10 minutes).

 

I do feel awful for my next door neighbours who never make a peep, though less awful for the people behind me who spend every sunny day with their kids in the back garden making a hell of a racket. I'm convinced they hate me though which is sad. One of the children of the house behind me called over the fence on Sunday asking where the chickens were and when I answered the parents shushed the child up which is sadly indicative of their opinion of us. I'd give them eggs but I never seem to see them and I'm terrified of going to knock on their door in case they give me what for.

 

Needless to say, we're on the hunt for a new house. I imagine the neighbours will be thrilled. Ho hum.

[Egluntyne]

There is quite a bit of advice on this forum and elsewhere about ways of darkening the Cube/Eglu and quietening the hens until a reasonable hour. Black out curtaining being the most favoured method. Why not give that a try?

[chickiepiggies]

sorry you have noise issues. i live on a very built up estate house are very close together BUT with barking dogs @ 11pm when i'm trying to sleep, car alarms, house alarms, fighting cats and squarking parrots so on

my chickens are angles compared to all the other surrounding noises. i also have neighbours that enjoy doing work in there house and garden at weekends at 7am!

 

i have a cube and they don't get let out until 7:15, sooty my big black chicken honks like a sealion for about half an hour i figured its after 7am and not constant so i dont really care.

 

hope its gets better for you.

[Mercedes55]

I do think we forget about the ordinary noises that other people make and focus just on hen noise because it's so different to what people are used to. I am always very aware of any noise we make and when I am outside I will listen to my iPod rather than disturb the neighbours with my music. I've spent my whole life trying to be aware of other people's feelings and quite honestly there are times when you wonder if it's worth it as most people don't seem to give as much though to other people. Even though we are detached and our houses aren't all on top of each other one of our neighbours decided to put one of those huge basketball things right next to our boundary and in the Summer evenings all we used to hear was thump, thump, thump as the ball hit the back of the net. They then went on to build a tree house that looked straight into our bedroom window and it was only after a polite word that they realised it was against council regulations and stopped building it. Honestly I could write a book about some of the noisy and inconsiderate neighbours I've had over the years, so right now I really don't give a flying fig what my neighbours think of my lovely hens and the bit of noise they make

[clootie]

good for you!

[EmmaJC]

I can't quite get my head around the blackout idea. I leave the door open on the eglu in the summer so I can't see that blacking out the eglu itself would help, so I'd have to do the run too, but then I'm worried re: ventilation.

 

Can anyone provide pictures of their blackout solution please?

[sezra]

We live in a big housing estate. I spoke to my neighbours either side first and one couple seemed a bit off initially (not that it stopped me getting the chickens anyway!). Since I have visited them with eggs they have reassured me that the girls are no bother. I am with everyone else on the noise front. I have felt completelt paranoid but I think it is because it is a noise us town dwellers are not used to hearing. I am sure my neighbours would rather listen to the chickens than my noisey children, I know I would sometimes!

 

Sometimes things just dont work out and you have to ultimately do what is right for your personal situation. I do hope that you manage to quieten the hens or maybe have a chat with your neighbours and see what they think. They may not have even noticed!

[Smudge]

When we spoke to our neighbours about the idea of getting chickens, they were all very excited about it and one side in particular were looking forward to hearing the chickeny noises. Our girls have subsequently arrived and we've found them to be fairly quiet so far - maybe we've just got quiet ones, or maybe it's because we only have the two. Our neighbours actually seem quite disappointed that they can't hear anything now. Even if they were noisy, I agree with other posters that when you listen to the amount of noise just around you anyway, chickens can't be that bad, and with the amount of noise neighbours generate themselves they surely could put up with a bit of chicken clucking.

 

If it really bothers you, then you have to do what's right for you, but I think you're worrying too much and it doesn't hurt to be a little bit selfish sometimes.

[beulah59]

Shelley - have your neighbours complained at all? I'm so sorry it's worrying you. We had only positive reactions from our neighbours so far, although I know one was adamant we shouldn't have a cockerel (I'd love one, but it's completely understandable that he feels that way so I won't).

 

Someone on this thread mentioned having the coop 50ft away from the house ... so many urban gardens are much smaller than that these days ... big houses, small gardens not good proportions IMO. We're fortunate to have a garden 16x18m, but that's huge for a city, most only have yards or small gardens.

[Roobaloo]

I live in a mid-terrace house, behind us we have two rows of garages so all the noise echos around and seems magnified.

 

My chickens rarely make a racket...partially because the eglu is in a walk-in run with the eglu door open, I also get up at 6am anyway and so they've been fed and watered before 7am..usually any noise made is the egg announcement!!

 

If any of the neighbours complained, I'd merely refer to the motorbike that is revved at 7am on weekend mornings or kid learning to play piano at 6:30am on a sunday/the screaming baby/kids or the barking dog or the ...or the slamming of garage doors at 11pm...or 'boy racer' driving...or the cats screaming at 3am...

 

That's suburban life. There's always noise!!