thelurch Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 As the morning are getting earlier, the early morning bokking has started again!! This morning, at 5.50! I had to rush out and spray the little darling We had a bit of early noise in the late summer last year, but it got later as the nights got darker. I've made a blackout sheet for the cube which makes no difference, I've tried closing the door/leaving door open but for the past week every day at around 6.00 the bokking starts. It's not an egg announcement either. This will only get earlier especially as the clocks change at the end of the month. I can see this getting to 4am in the summer, and if that's the case they will have to go as I'm just waiting for the complaints to cone in. I have to say, I didn't appreciate that hens would make this type of early noise, if I did I wouldn't have got the hens in the first place. Definitely something for those thinking about getting hens, and close proximity to neighbours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneyolktoanother Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 we don't get any noise at all at a morning, could you try hanging up some cabbage leaves to keep them quiet ,just an idea or a treat ball to keep them occupied Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyhole kate Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 It sounds as though something is spooking them a cat maybe the only time mine start bocking is when alarmed If you can find out what is spooking them then perhaps you can take steps ie a super soaker to deter the intruder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollie333 Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 If they're bokking to be let out, why not leave the door open? So they can get out into the Run. Obviously make sure predators can't get in! I agree, hang up some cabbage, or corn on the cob, before bed time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I leave their cube door open all the time, and they just seem to scratch around in the run until I decide to let them out - often not until after 9am as I am retired. As soon as they see me though they get excited and start 'talking' to me. I do hope you don't have to get rid of them. Did you have complaints before? I live with bungalows all around me and everyone is retired - but not complaints. Fingers crossed no-one complains - it can't be noisy enough to wake up your neighbours can it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelurch Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Put it this way, our garden is 130ft long, the run is 2 thirds of the way down the garden. We sleep at the back and the bokking at 6am wakes us up with windows shut. There are houses at the back of us which are much nearer the run to us. I shut them in last night, and they were all bokking at 6.15am to be let out. They will have to go at this rate, we haven't had complaints since we got the hens in august last year, but I can't put up with this much longer. I've tried hanging leaves in the run, in feeders or just hanging loose, they destroy it in minutes and then start bokking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Our garden is 100ft long - and the girls are at the very end so a similar(ish) situation to you. I sleep at the back of the house and have never heard them! I leave the eglu door open but run shut so they get up when they want to. Maybe you just have noisy hens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevf1 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 our garden is no where near your length... our neighbors sleep at the back of the house.. with usually a bedroom window open. I have apologized before but they have said its not a problem... they aren't that loud.. maybe pop round neighbours and say something... see what they say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Ours are off at 7 - mainly because someone laid an egg early. Then they go quiet and then they hint at 10 minute intervals. I ignore them until 7.30 - which is difficult but seeing as someones dog was barking it's head off much earlier I thought blow it. I think in our case someone lets the dog out and the girls think I've opened our door and they want their grub. I've darkened the cube and there is a strip of carpet along the plastic corrugated roofing - this keeps the brightness down. Of course the blue tits nesting close by didn't help over the past 3 years either. The other day I heard the Canada geese honking across the fields and I thought it was my girls, rushed out only to find it wasn't and then of course they knew I was outside. Where's brekkers? Let us out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plum Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Sounds like its you they are upsetting more than neighbours. Double glazing? Move bedroom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollie333 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Leave the door of the Eglu open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelurch Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 Yep have left the door open all winter but the early morning bokking was at 8.30 in winter, but it's getting earlier by the day as the mornings get lighter. I left the door open last night and the bokking started at 5.50am! I can't really knock on doors in the road that backs on to our garden as there would be about 10 houses to knock on and I don't want to draw any more attention to them! I left for work the other morning at 7.40am and went to get in my car in the road and could clearly hear them bokking and that was at least 160ft away with a house in between! Guess I'm just unlucky that I have particularly chatty hens! ( I suppose they are female after all ) I am happy to be woken up at 6.00am, I just don't want the complaints to the council Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 160 ft away?!? Something strange there!! Do they have enough run space? How many girls do you have? Sorry.. got no other suggestions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chick wiggle Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Train em! Mine used to wake us up last spring/summer, so i started running down the garden in my croc wellies and dressing gown (thank goodness the neighbours couldnt see me! ) and really letting rip with the super soaker to shut them up. I did this every morning and after a week they soon got the idea and kept shtum! Ive not had any problems since. Maybe worth a go? although, like has been said, im sure its upsetting you more than your neighbours. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelurch Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 160 ft away?!? Something strange there!! Do they have enough run space? How many girls do you have? Sorry.. got no other suggestions Yes it's that distance from their run to the drive, as it's quieter at 7.30 in the morning, any noise seems to travel. There are 4 of them in a 5m x 3m WIR, which has 3 different height mezzanines connected by walkways which they love going on, plus 2 dustbaths, 2 grubs, a super glug and a gravity drinker too. It does bother me, maybe more than my neighbours, but the noise is sooo loud that it could quite easily be waking up over 40 households. We get a lot of cats in our garden and we have had a fox before, but haven't seen him since having hens. Every morning they get a good soaking with the sprayer but it still carries on. I guess I'm just too considerate to the people who live around me, not wanting to upset or annoy anyone. But if this gets to 5.30am or earlier then they may have to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkysmum Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Hello, If your run is 100ft + from your neighbours I don't think for a minute that they will hear them. I ask my neighbours all the time if my ladies bother them and they tell me they never hear them . Hopefully a few eggs & a friendly word will put your mind at ease. Alli xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Chick Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 I had a 6.50am panicked alarm call from the girls.... Imagine 18 of them all yelling out at the top of their lungs, better than any alarm clock I ran outside, and a neighbourhood cat was terrorising them (I knew it would be that, this cat is a git for it), soaked cat and came back in. The only person who has EVER complained about our girls is THAT cats owner, and the only reason my girls ever make a racket is when THAT cat terrorises them. I've told her if she doesn't like the noise they make, keep her cat in order Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelurch Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Hello, If your run is 100ft + from your neighbours I don't think for a minute that they will hear them. I ask my neighbours all the time if my ladies bother them and they tell me they never hear them . Hopefully a few eggs & a friendly word will put your mind at ease. Alli xx The neighbours in my road are 100+ feet away from the run but it's the houses in the next road that back on to the end of our gardens, their gardens are about 20ft long so the run is about 40ft from their bedroom windows, they are the ones I worry about. Anyway, this mornings bokking was 6.40am Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollie333 Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 . I am less than 10 meters away from the chickens.. Double glazed windows, but live in a bungalow. I have 19 chickens including one cockerel, and only occasionly hear him crow. Maybe you do just have noisy chickens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feleena4 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 I got so paranoid about my girls noise in the mornings that it was making me ill! I would run outside in my nightclothes (nothing sexy - usually hubbys tshirt and half-mast leggings ) and switch on the hose and give them all a quick shower. I was waking early in anticipation... must not upset the neighbours at any cost Eventually I realised that my girls were bokking at the same time as my neighbour was leaving for work? I'm pretty sure this was starting them off and I'm less concerned now as I was. However, I've just built a quail pen and am currently researching which quail are the least noisiest ! So my paranoia has returned! P.S. Forgot to mention that my neighbour is running a 'car repair business' on the side, from his front garden so lots of revving and 'blue smoke fumes' in my front drive! I bet he isn't losing any sleep about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clucker1 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Well we were woken up this morning at 5.15 am, OH sent out to see what the matter was with the girls. Mr Fox, we think. The four of them made such a noise, we have a largish garden, are about 200 feet away from them and they can really shout if they want to. As soon as OH had comforted them and gone back to bed, they started up again. With real concern at looking at next door (towards Mr Fox's route march). Will have to see what tonight brings. They did this about a week ago too. They are very very noisy, as they woke us up through double glazing too. I thought Mr Fox would frighten them too much to get a squeak out of them.....it seems they were standing up for themselves?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckmum6 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 I have started closing the cube door in an attempt to muffle Onion my cockerel (I open it at 7 am) he starts crowing from 4 am and pretty much continues until he goes to bed! I think he maybe living on borrowed time, my next move is to put him into solitary in the spare Eglu, in the shed during bedtime hours. The only person who has complained is my OH there are several cockerels around is and Onion is often responding to them. He is young and certainly feeling the rush of spring, so I am hoping he will chill a bit as he matures. The girls just make a horrid racket during nest box wars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoice Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 I got so paranoid about my girls noise in the mornings that it was making me ill! I would run outside in my nightclothes (nothing sexy - usually hubbys tshirt and half-mast leggings ) and switch on the hose and give them all a quick shower. I was waking early in anticipation... must not upset the neighbours at any cost I get like this. Sick to my stomach with nerves, lack of sleep. Even popping round the neighbours with eggs and they say they haven't noticed I still get worried. I think we get sensitive to their call but I DO have one girl who is very loud. She moans a lot generally but gets a bee in her bonnet at sunrise (Cloudrise?) I've been locking them in at night, well the first morning i did this Blanche was SO not happy she told the whole neighbourhood from inside her house at 5.15am on a saturday. She's settled down a bit now but will have to keep her shut in at night and hope she gets used to being kept in from 4am in the height of summer till at least a more reasonable 6.30am (Usual get-up-for-work time). As for weekend lie-ins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaysie86 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 I'm in the same boat... my girls have their door open all the time now and they've been up before 6am making their wailing/screaming noise because they know it'll bring me out to shut them up. I'm now at the point where I dont put the lights on/tip toe in the kitchen so they dont see me! If I shut them in the Cube they will scream until I let them out. I leave their food in overnight so I dont have to go out and they dont get too excited to see me. If they dont stop after a few minutes I do pop out with a tasty treat to keep them quiet, although I've been ignoring them so they dont get conditioned and leaving for work without seeing them. They already have a hanging treat in there so there is plenty to keep them occupied. My neighbours are now sleeping with their bedroom window open which they say they can hear them but cant hear them if their windows are shut. I'm hoping that the girls settled back down into a routine because they aren't laying and I have no eggs to offer as a bribe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 So, in nearly eight months you have had no complaints about your noisy hens but you are worried about their vocalising upsetting your neighbours and consider that you are "just too considerate to the people who live around me" Why is this upsetting you so much when it obviously bothers your neighbours not a jot? If you feel you can't keep chickens then by all means rehome them. Some people don't suit keeping hens and you shouldn't feel guilty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
