Poorly chicken

[ThreeChooks]

First of all, I apologise for talking about a subject which appears to be done to death, but I didn’t want to drag up an old thread from years ago.

So I have two Pekin bantams, about 6-7months old, and a silkie cross, about 5-6 months old. One of my pekins started laying eggs about 2 weeks ago, and the noises have started. When I go to work they get let out of the eglu at around 7.45am, no problems, no real noise. However this week I have been off and they have been let out at about 8-30am. Just before this time I can hear an egg song (no eggs though) and today heard really loud honking from inside the eglu! I understand they just want to be let out, but what really worries me is that if they’re making this racket at this time of year, then what will they be doing in the middle of summer when the sun rises at 4am?! I live on a new housing estate of 9 houses, two houses either side of me but luckily no one backing on to me as we back on to woods. I feel it’s just one of the pekins, my silkie makes cute little noises and the other Pekin doesn’t appear to be the instigator (but she isn’t laying eggs yet). 
 

I don’t mind the noise during the day as it isn’t constant and everyone gets up and goes off to work during the day, but the early mornings worry me a lot when they will be going off on one. It’s the really annoying sqwark sqwarkkk raspy noise they do that bothers me (it bothers me during the day a bit as it isn’t a particularly nice noise is it?)

 

i actually bought some black out fabric to hang on the back of the eglu in case any light gets in there, and is held in place by the weather jacket for the eglu, but what about the light that creeps in around the door and the air vents at the front? I obviously can’t cover them up.

I have always stuck to a routine with them, they get let out at around the same time each day (no earlier than 7.30-45) but the fact that they are protesting at 8.30 now when they haven’t done before, does worry me and I don’t want to annoy the neighbours. I did give the neighbour to the right of my house some eggs yesterday and he didn’t say anything about the noise. He’s a young man in his twenties so I’m hoping he won’t complain, the people to the left did make some comments about them right at the beginning (mainly telling me they’d smell which they don’t and attract rodents which they don’t) and never seem to be at work during the day on a regular basis.

Anyway, I guess I’m just hoping for some reassurance from you guys and some hints and tips on how to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand.

[ThreeChooks]

I should add that they were quiet before this egg laying business, and the noise doesn’t bother me.

I also don’t want the chickens training me. I thought that seeing as I’m off this week I’d let them out (they’re currently wandering around the garden being quiet) but when I go back to work next week I don’t want them expecting me to be there at 10am to let them out and then the squarky whiny noises start!

I also feed the wild birds every morning in the hope that they come into my garden and their noise drowns out the chicken ones, I feel as though I could be overreacting as if I lived next door to my chickens I wouldn’t care but not every one likes chickens!

Edited January 29, 2020 by ThreeChooks

[Beantree]

They will want to get out of the coop to eat and drink as soon as possible so they will be showing their dismay at not. Some hens are noisier than others and it's not just a matter of breed in my experience, although I know Pekins can be loud. Problem may be due to being let out of the run; you either do it every day at the same time or not at all. Ours now get very stressed and noisy if they are not let out, but previously they were not let out at all and were quiet.

Unfortunately you may find yourself in the position that your chickens will have to be re-homed. It all depends on whether anyone makes a noise complaint.

[DanTheChickenMan]

You can't stop chickens being chickens I guess.

You could have a dog barking very early or kids screaming...

I wouldn't worry about it, it isn't a rooster, but keep teh neighbours sweet with eggs sounds like a good way to go.

my rooster already starts going at 5am, i have no complaints and I do have two relatively close neighbours.

[ThreeChooks]

10 minutes ago, Beantree said:

They will want to get out of the coop to eat and drink as soon as possible so they will be showing their dismay at not. Some hens are noisier than others and it's not just a matter of breed in my experience, although I know Pekins can be loud. Problem may be due to being let out of the run; you either do it every day at the same time or not at all. Ours now get very stressed and noisy if they are not let out, but previously they were not let out at all and were quiet.

Unfortunately you may find yourself in the position that your chickens will have to be re-homed. It all depends on whether anyone makes a noise complaint.

When my partner and myself are at work, they stay in the run, if we are at home then they can be let out into the garden, we’ve been doing this for months before the noises started. Would putting a bowl of food in the coop help keep them quiet for a bit before they are let out?

4 minutes ago, DanTheChickenMan said:

You can't stop chickens being chickens I guess.

You could have a dog barking very early or kids screaming...

I wouldn't worry about it, it isn't a rooster, but keep teh neighbours sweet with eggs sounds like a good way to go.

my rooster already starts going at 5am, i have no complaints and I do have two relatively close neighbours.

I kind of wish there was a noisy dog about and screaming kids. The fact that it’s a quiet estate with not that many houses on it makes their noise seem so loud.

I’m looking forward to the summer days again as people will be out in their gardens making noise (music, BBQs) so the occasional SQUARRRKKK won’t seem so bad.

[Beantree]

Bit confused with the reference to food in the coop, which is always a bad idea as it gets thrown about; coops are too small for chickens that are awake. Perhaps fit an auto door for the early mornings? They get noisy when they start laying so previously they were too young. Can you extend the run? 

[mullethunter]

Hi ThreeChooks - I know it’s not a funny situation for you but your post made me a laugh because I recognise the noises!!

Firstly - I agree with Beantree - don’t put food in the house.

What is your set up? If you have an Omlet house and run which is secure you don’t need to shut the coop door so they can come out into the run when they’re ready. Or if not, Beantree’s suggestion of an automatic door opener is a good one.

Some of my relevant experiences - pekins can be incredibly noisy and whiny when they’re in lay but are much quieter when they’re not. I’ve found them to be particularly whiny when they want to actually lay and egg, especially if somehen else is in their spot. However - I’ve now kept my girls at two properties - the first an end of terrace / housing estate and now a bungalow with a big garden on a quiet road where just about all the neighbours are retired. Where I am now I had a cockerel for a while who crowed from about 5 in the morning. Just before I got rid of the cockerel I went around to all my immediate neighbours to apologise for the noise, but they all said they either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care! We thought it was awful!!! No one ever complained at the old house either except for when the children next door told their mum they wanted chickens now!!
 

 

 

[ThreeChooks]

47 minutes ago, mullethunter said:

Hi ThreeChooks - I know it’s not a funny situation for you but your post made me a laugh because I recognise the noises!!

Firstly - I agree with Beantree - don’t put food in the house.

What is your set up? If you have an Omlet house and run which is secure you don’t need to shut the coop door so they can come out into the run when they’re ready. Or if not, Beantree’s suggestion of an automatic door opener is a good one.

Some of my relevant experiences - pekins can be incredibly noisy and whiny when they’re in lay but are much quieter when they’re not. I’ve found them to be particularly whiny when they want to actually lay and egg, especially if somehen else is in their spot. However - I’ve now kept my girls at two properties - the first an end of terrace / housing estate and now a bungalow with a big garden on a quiet road where just about all the neighbours are retired. Where I am now I had a cockerel for a while who crowed from about 5 in the morning. Just before I got rid of the cockerel I went around to all my immediate neighbours to apologise for the noise, but they all said they either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care! We thought it was awful!!! No one ever complained at the old house either except for when the children next door told their mum they wanted chickens now!!
 

 

 

They are adorable but how do they make so much noise?! Haha. I’m not sure if I’m just stressing about it this week as I’m off and I can hear it. I feel as though when I’m going to work and let them out and they aren’t noisy I assume they will be quiet all day, almost “out of sight out of mind” mindset.

I have a Go Up with a 3m run. It’s pretty secure and the doors have extra clips on. I shut them in the coop for a couple of reasons: in case rodents try and get to them, I don’t want them dictating what time they get up and out (I was hoping they would be used to this by now and not make a noise until I came down at their set time), and shutting the coop door muffles the noise they make inside the coop, I don’t want them out in the run at 5am causing a ruckus!

They were out in the garden today from about 10-5 and didn’t make too much noise apart from one little whine and when they went over to the coop to go to bed, Scrambles (the problem hen) started screeching and whining and then they all went up into the coop.

Sorry what do you mean by “in lay”? Do you mean whilst they are actually laying an egg or do I get some down time from this? Will she ever grow out of it? Sorry I’m a bit new to all this!

Edited January 29, 2020 by ThreeChooks

[Cat tails]

I have a Go Up with bantams too, but I don’t close the coop anymore. I used to, but then would have to get up at ridiculous-o-clock to let them out in the morning. I have a tiny garden and neighbours all around. I finally have them trained that they get themselves out in the morning, and just eat their breakfast (which I leave in the Pecky toy when I go to bed).

chickens are often louder in periods they are actively laying eggs as the hormones will be surging. Winter and old age is their “quiet” time if there is such a thing in chickens,

But chickens are beast of habit, so if you let them out in the garden they will come to expect it and in the end demand it. And they do that by making a ruckus.

[mullethunter]

By ‘in lay’ I mean for the period of the year when they are laying rather than when they are physically laying an egg.

[The Dogmother]

I wouldn't worry - I think we're all more concerned about possible noise than our neighbours. I sometimes think that my lot are shouting a bit, but the neighbours say that they've honestly not ever heard it. Considering that we have crows and magpies around here, they make relatively little kerfuffle.

[Patricia W]

I used to go to ridiculous lengths to quieten the noise from my Cockerel.   When he died, neighbours complained!  Because they couldn’t hear him any more... So I got another....

I think we are ultra sensitive to the noise our chickens make.   I’d give the neighbours eggs from time to time and invite them round to visit them.  Pekins are very cute.  

Edited January 30, 2020 by Patricia W

[ThreeChooks]

11 hours ago, The Dogmother said:

I wouldn't worry - I think we're all more concerned about possible noise than our neighbours. I sometimes think that my lot are shouting a bit, but the neighbours say that they've honestly not ever heard it. Considering that we have crows and magpies around here, they make relatively little kerfuffle.

 

4 hours ago, Patricia W said:

I used to go to ridiculous lengths to quieten the noise from my Cockerel.   When he died, neighbours complained!  Because they couldn’t hear him any more... So I got another....

I think we are ultra sensitive to the noise our chickens make.   I’d give the neighbours eggs from time to time and invite them round to visit them.  Pekins are very cute.  

I really do try not to worry, but I really don’t want the neighbours to hate me or complain! 😞

Today I let them out at 8 o’clock and they hadn’t made a sound before that, but by about 8.15 the honking noises start! They’ve been going on and off for a bit and it’s now 9am. They’re currently shut in the run.  In the mornings when I let them into the run I scatter food, give them some veg to peck apart and they have digging trays in there too.

Most people are at work now but I’m dreading the weekend when everyone wants a lie in. My bedroom backs onto the garden so I know if I can hear it the neighbour to the right can hear it. Luckily the one to the left has his bedroom at the front of the house.

Im seriously thinking of bringing them inside in a dog crate at night then letting them back into their house on a weekend at a reasonable hour, or eventually problem hen will have to go, which I really don’t want to have to do, but it can’t carry on like this all year.

Edited January 30, 2020 by ThreeChooks

[Cat tails]

Keeping your chickens in the house, won’t make her squawk less once back in the garden. Mine have this in Spring too, just a few days/weeks of too many hormones and wanting to let the world know. They will settle down.

I in fact once swapped one hen for a different one, because that particular hen didn’t BOK or Squawk, but would SCREEEEEECH and she would keep it up all day. And it was ear piercing and frustrating me to no end, up to the point that I would avoid being in the garden.  I didn’t swap her for my neighbours, but only for my sanity. 😉

Incidentally I swapped her for a close lookalike and this hen does the screech too, but only occasionally.

[The Dogmother]

9 hours ago, ThreeChooks said:

 

I really do try not to worry, but I really don’t want the neighbours to hate me or complain! 😞

Today I let them out at 8 o’clock and they hadn’t made a sound before that, but by about 8.15 the honking noises start! They’ve been going on and off for a bit and it’s now 9am. They’re currently shut in the run.  In the mornings when I let them into the run I scatter food, give them some veg to peck apart and they have digging trays in there too.

Most people are at work now but I’m dreading the weekend when everyone wants a lie in. My bedroom backs onto the garden so I know if I can hear it the neighbour to the right can hear it. Luckily the one to the left has his bedroom at the front of the house.

Im seriously thinking of bringing them inside in a dog crate at night then letting them back into their house on a weekend at a reasonable hour, or eventually problem hen will have to go, which I really don’t want to have to do, but it can’t carry on like this all year.

I think you just need to relax and enjoy your chooks. Tell the neighbours that you have some 'quiet little hens', and offer them eggs when they settle into laying, and ask them to let you know if they find the odd 'egg announcement' annoying. You will find that they are all soon asking to meet the birds and bringing their children round too.

Really, honestly, they are heard by the neighbours less than you imagine... I sleep with the window open and I can almost never hear mine, not even the pekin madam who lets out a seagull shriek when she lays. A new neighbour 2 doors up has been there 6 months and has only just realised that I have 15 bantams! They brought the ankle biters round last weekend to sit quietly and hug a chook.

[ThreeChooks]

1 hour ago, Cat tails said:

Keeping your chickens in the house, won’t make her squawk less once back in the garden. Mine have this in Spring too, just a few days/weeks of too many hormones and wanting to let the world know. They will settle down.

I in fact once swapped one hen for a different one, because that particular hen didn’t BOK or Squawk, but would SCREEEEEECH and she would keep it up all day. And it was ear piercing and frustrating me to no end, up to the point that I would avoid being in the garden.  I didn’t swap her for my neighbours, but only for my sanity. 😉

Incidentally I swapped her for a close lookalike and this hen does the screech too, but only occasionally.

I really hope they do settle down as I’ve loved having them up to this point, now I am finding it a bit stressful!

22 minutes ago, The Dogmother said:

I think you just need to relax and enjoy your chooks. Tell the neighbours that you have some 'quiet little hens', and offer them eggs when they settle into laying, and ask them to let you know if they find the odd 'egg announcement' annoying. You will find that they are all soon asking to meet the birds and bringing their children round too.

Really, honestly, they are heard by the neighbours less than you imagine... I sleep with the window open and I can almost never hear mine, not even the pekin madam who lets out a seagull shriek when she lays. A new neighbour 2 doors up has been there 6 months and has only just realised that I have 15 bantams! They brought the ankle biters round last weekend to sit quietly and hug a chook.

Thanks for trying to calm me down a bit about them, as I am finding them quite stressful at the moment, and it’s really sad as up to this point I’ve loved having them! Say if they do find the odd egg noise/random screech/honk annoying if I ask them, what could I say to that? I’m going to give my next lot of eggs to the slightly more difficult neighbour to the left. My garden is very open and there are no trees to block noise or anything like that. Do your bantams make noise early in the morning in the summer? I’m worrying about the neighbours being woken up at all hours as everyone sleeps with their windows open in the summer. 
 

Attached is a really bad photo I’ve just taken of my garden, you can just see the coop in the back right corner and the shed behind. Besides that it’s quite open so I guess the sound is quite amplified. We will get on to doing more with the garden, but will small trees next to the coop help muffle the sound a bit?

Edited January 30, 2020 by ThreeChooks

[Patricia W]

Believe me, I have done all the things with my Cockerel, that you are suggesting and more!  I’ve tried to muffle the sound by putting bags of compost on the cube, tried taking him in each night, blacking out very scrap of light ( gave him a chest infection!) etc etc.  And in the end, the neighbours were more than fine.   Invite them all round?  

Edited January 30, 2020 by Patricia W

[mullethunter]

If you plant shrubs and trees around the edges, yes it will muffle any sounds. Also your chooks will love to have something to forage under, and it’ll encourage more wildlife in general into the garden. Win, win, win 😃

[The Dogmother]

9 minutes ago, mullethunter said:

If you plant shrubs and trees around the edges, yes it will muffle any sounds. Also your chooks will love to have something to forage under, and it’ll encourage more wildlife in general into the garden. Win, win, win 😃

Agreed- bare fences will amplify any noise.

Mine are up early in the summer, and straight out in the run. They do make some noise, but nothing that worries me and the neighbours have never complained. I think you might be worrying to much.

[Microstead]

On 1/29/2020 at 7:32 PM, Cat tails said:

 I finally have them trained that they get themselves out in the morning, and just eat their breakfast (which I leave in the Pecky toy when I go to 

This is such a good idea. I'm going to implement this when I get my chickens. 

[Luvachicken]

I have had some of the noisiest Pekins I've ever known but then I've also had some that don't make any noise at all.

I bought mine an auto-door last year and it is great. In the summer the door opens at about 4.30am and they tend to have a little natter but not anything awful unless something frightens the life out of them. Then I do get up and sort them out as quick as I can but the noise doesn't last for long. It is actually very beautiful at that time in the morning, especially if it is sunny. Sometimes they do start again by the time I've got back into bed but I just go back out.

Mine are confined to a run all of the time.

As yet, no one has complained about the noise my chickens make - I have them for 11 years now - Pekins for the last 7.  My next door neighbour said he liked the sound because it reminded him of being in the countryside.

I think we worry too much about how much noise the girls can make, but when you look at everyday life, it can be very noisy. Although I had one Pekin that did not stop all day, and she really annoyed me with her noise, no one else around noticed.

I find people's dogs far more noisy in the mornings, especially when they get let out at 5am and bark their heads off, like they did this morning.

[Cat tails]

2 hours ago, Microstead said:

This is such a good idea. I'm going to implement this when I get my chickens. 

Well.... better to just give them pellets available in a automatic feeder. But mine are spoiled rotten and expect their mixed grain breakfast. Shhhhh.... don’t tell Dogmother...

[Microstead]

My omlet packages came yesterday so I have a lounge full of chicken stuff including the glug and grub and a hanging pecking toy, so, not having an automatic feeder but giving them breakfast in a pecking toy and keping them quiet for a bit seems like a very good use of the product to me. The toy is then utilitarian not merely recreational.

 

I've just learnt another thing thanks to you CT, how to use the little love heart at the bottom of posts to react to comments. 

Edited January 31, 2020 by Microstead

[Cat tails]

Mine use the hanging Pecky toy every day and does really work for me. I just fill it with they breakfast once it’s dark outside, otherwise they’ll scoff it all before bed. I used to get up at first squawk and sleepwalk outside to feed them. It would be 5:15 in hight of summer. Not too bad in the weekend when I would just stumble back to bed, but no so fun when having to work and being too awake to enjoy the last 30 minutes of “sleep”.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Cat tails

[The Dogmother]

2 hours ago, Cat tails said:

Well.... better to just give them pellets available in a automatic feeder. But mine are spoiled rotten and expect their mixed grain breakfast. Shhhhh.... don’t tell Dogmother...

Haha... BUSTED!!!!

I give mine a handful of mixed seeds between them when I let them out of the run, there's no corn (fat and sugar) in it and no oily seeds like sunflower. Our local feed merchant sells it as 'Poultry Tonic Seed Mix'. It looks like this one