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[Shelley]

If you didn't post with indifference to the feelings of your neighbours there's no reason to take offence. But some did and it was those to whom my comments were directed. I'm encouraged by the tough love approach. At the moment, the minute they leave the cube and enter the (secure) run they're squawking to be let out into the garden. We've done this in the past (and stood guard to deter foxes) and then got them back in with fresh lettuce leaves. I can see this amounts to over-indulgence - particularly as it's sometimes been at 6am in the morning! I'd considered it could be hunger rather than freedom causing the noise and so have been making up a big bowl of feed and leaving it in the run last thing at night so they can tuck in in the morning. But still the noise continues. So on with the blackout sheet

[Valkyrie]

I'm quite lucky because to be fair, they really don't make that much of a noise, but when they do it's like a panic button being triggered in me. I shouldn't really have worried, next door didn't know we had them until we already had them for a year and they saw them when cutting their hedge. We live in a cul-de-sac and out of the 5 other houses, 3 have been delighted with the chickens and only 2 have heard them. Of our immediate neighbours only 1 hasn't mentioned them at all, and the other side with the hedge has had eggs. They can't complain because their dog makes more noise than our girls (before they get up and long after they've gone to bed) and it has hurled itself at the hedge to get at us before we even had our birds. It has attacked people in the past, so it's quite scary. Today one of the other neighbours asked after our chickens and said "we can hear them" and I went OH NOOOO, I'm so sorry! "Oh no, don't feel sorry - we love hearing them - it's country sounds and we're in the country. Besides we can hear the cows and the sheep over the fields and they are a lot louder than your birds." And lots of other nice words were exchanged. So they were the last hurdle. I think I can stop worrying so much.

I do agree that you tend to notice them more than other people. The other morning I had forgotten to shut the cube door and so they were up a lot earlier. I walked down armed with treats and other bribes and stopped. They weren't making a noise, but the wild birds were and in the distance I could hear a cockerel, a house or car alarm, dogs barking and thought - good girls. In fact they were quiet the whole day apart from a brief egg announcement and she was scooped up by me pretty quickly. Today there was a bit of yelling because someone sneaked into the veggie patch and couldn't get out again. My poor veggies.

[johnandkymberley]

Hi sorry shelley but you sound very unhappy with your hens. Its seems no matter what people say you will always find a negative thing to reply with. I hope your hens dont pick up on your feelings and not only that but just ask your neighbours you have as much right to keep hens as the next person - did my neighbours ask me about their border collie? No but i wouldnt begrudge them for it! i asked my neighbours how they felt about hens and like so many others they were excited as us! Also they comment on the gentle clucking they hear over the fence - they absolutly love it and find it so relaxing!!!!! i think your being a bit paranoid, bite the bullet and just ask them, whats the worst they can say? "Yes i do hear them"!!!!

[coco]

We have close neighbours nad I do have one VERY noisy girl. I asked my neighbours before I went from 3 to five hens and they are quite happy with them, next door says its like living in the country. The man across the road regularly brings them treats over and is always the first to come and look when I get any new ones. they are all shut in their houses at night and let out about 6.45 Mon - Sat and 8.00 0n a Sunday. I can hear them mumbling when I go out to them but they aren't too noisy, they have to fit in with me not the other way round. The only person who complains about them is my son as they wake him up at 9.30 [school hols].

[sezra]

Hi Shelley

 

I just wondered if you have managed to source anything for the black out yet? Do let us know how you get on as although I have yet to deal with this problem things may change in the future when I add to my hens.

 

Do you get on with your neighbours? I was really nervous about approaching the subject with mine but thankfully it all went very well? Do they have children? Maybe you could invite them round to collect some eggs?

 

Anyway, good luck with everything.

 

 

(edited for bad spelling!)

[Mercedes55]

I think I put earlier that I don't give a flying fig what my neighbours think, which possibly came across as rather tactless. I think of myself as an extremely good neighbour in that we are always very quiet, we make sure our dog doesn't bark in the garden, we don't play loud music in the garden, we don't do DIY at unsociable times of the day, we never have loud parties and as I am home all day I am endlessly taking in parcels for neighbours I hardly know as I think it's important to treat other people with respect. However my hens are 50ft from my house, so they are even further away from my neighbours houses and I would be extremely upset if anyone complained about them as any noise they do make pales into insignificance to the noises we have to put up with

Edited July 30, 2010 by Guest

[crankycookie]

I know exactly how you must feel, as I live in a very high density suburban area with a smallish yard- my eglu is maybe 20 feet from my house and my home is 10 feet away from my neighbor's. Over the summer I leave my window open, so I can hear the slightest cluck from my girls and if I'm sleeping, I wake up in an instant because I'm so paranoid about disturbing anyone. I have had a few incidents of early morning bokking (and yes, it does seem quite loud and mortifying!) but I just throw a dark sheet over my eglu for a few days and this seems to break them of the habit. Sometimes I don't even let them out until 10am, but they come out quiet and uncomplaining.

 

Another thing I do is to take the offender and pick her up and carry her around the garden for a few minutes. Usually they are so peeved about being held that they stop clucking right away.

 

So far none of my neighbors have complained at all. Try closing them up at night, covering them up with blackout curtain or a thick dark sheet (you'd be surprised how much light gets into a closed Eglu), and letting them out late in the morning.

 

Best of luck!

[Shelley]

Thanks Sezra. I'll let you know how the blackout approach goes. And just to say, I get on very well with my neighbours which is perhaps part of the problem. They probably wouldn't complain even if they felt they had just cause. They are too polite. All I know is this; if I'm woken up at 6am by any sort of neighbourly noise I regard it as extremely anti-social. It doesn't make me want to match that noise in a tit-for-tat 'if they do it so can I' kind of way - that strikes me as the law of the jungle, a place I have no wish to inhabit. All I wanted to do with my original post was to make prospective chicken owners aware of a potential downside, and early-morning noise is something to take into account.

[Mollie333]

Sorry about your experience.

Luckily i have lovely neighbours who love the chooks!

[rachael_farnsworth]

I worry a lot about my neighbours hearing my chickens - I have no wish to upset them. But having faced any problems head-on and asked my neighbours if the noise had been problematic, I got back 'what noise? We haven't heard them...' We have single glazed windows while our neighbours have double, so it seems that their windows block out a lot of the noise. We also have low fences and I once went out when the girls were being particularly obstreperous to shush them, and I could see next door watching telly and not reacting at all to the girls. He hadn't even heard them...

 

If the chickens are bothering you that's one thing - but I wouldn't assume that they also bother your neighbours unless you've spoken to them or had communications to the contrary. Additionally, it is amazing what a box of eggs can do to keep the peace.

[sparkysmum]

Shelley, Hi, I totally understand how you feel . I constantly ask my neighbours if my ladies early morning calling upsets them and like others they always say they rarely hear them Whilst I don't think they are being entirely truthful I think it's further evidence that they're possibly not as noisy as we think they are. One lovely neighbour even let them out in the mornings while we were on holiday

[Clur]

When mine started to get noisy, I started feeding them some porridge or weetabix mixed with water just before they roosted for the night. I also got some thick black plastic (the type you get from a builders merchants) and covered the eglu and the first part of the run.

 

It's really made a big difference so far. Once I've let them out of the run, if they start announcing the latest egg laid etc, I throw some grain down for them which makes them forget what they were going on about.

 

I live in a very modern housing estate and our neighbours are close, and some of their houses overlook the garden. We live next to a parish counsellor who certainly would tell us if the chickens were disturbing anyone.

 

I've been extremely anxious about the noise, but these steps have worked wonders and it's been worthwhile. Also try hanging up, or hiding, treats in their run - that should keep them occupied as well.

 

Hope they settle down.