Noisy chickens?

[Initiation]

Hi everyone, first post here :)

Basically i am 17 and still live at home with my parents who are always very sceptical of any 'weird' plans i have. I have always want to keep some chickens so asked my parents if we could get some so we can have fresh eggs + the meat at the end of it.

Now they seemed to have come around slightly from their first impressions but my mum keeps on saying that hens are very noisy and would annoy the neighbours. We live in a fairly normal suburban house with a relatively big garden so the neighbours are not to far away but we would only keep 2 or 3 hens anyway.

Now I keep on saying they will not be an annoyance but my mum is still not convinced. So my question is how noisy are hens? Would you hear them in the house? next doors garden? etc..

Big thanks

Gareth

[Shirley]

Hi Gareth

Welcome to Ish!

I reckon you'd be safe enough with hens... but the cockerels do get noisy! The hens do make a bit of a racket when they lay and egg (understandable I reckon!!!) You would need to check that the keeping of hens is not banned (in your house deeds)

[red]

welcome to ish

as Shirlz said.. its the cockerals that are really loud. you should be ok with hens.. a lot of people keep neighbours happy with being open about it, not getting any boys, and the occasional box of eggs.

[CaundleMama]

when I first had hens in our old place in the town,our neighbours to the side & at the bottom of garden stuck heads over & went ooooo! & they commented how nice it was to hear the odd cluck & buk buk,
when they lay an egg you get a bit of a string of cluck cluck buks but what? a mintute?maybe if that.
They are far less noise than a dog,barking,or a yowling cat at night
hope you can convince the folks & am sure they will agree you then cant live without them,they bring the place alive

[AnnieR]

Well Ive just got chickens,
(3 beautiful girls, Murtle Tonks and Bellatrix)
and am a real newbie to all the chick thing,
well they arrived two weeks ago, and my neighbours still say they havnt heard them at all! They have just started laying eggs - four days ago, and although there is a little gentle bokking and clucking - but the noise is minimal, far less then my two young dogs,

Good luck with trying to get your chickens, they are certainly great fun!
Annie.

[red]

I've always thought it strange that in books hens go 'cluck cluck' when really the noise they make is more like 'boik boik' (I might have spelt that wrong....)

but when one of ours hatched some chicks... the noise she made to tell them to come over and get some food was 'cluck cluck'.... you live and learn....

[Millymollymandy]

That's interesting Red!

[ChickenChaser]

Hi Gareth,

Get your mum reading these posts - we have 6 hens currently in our back garden and, just like others are saying, our 4 dogs make more noise - and they are all well behaved (the dogs, that is, the chickens are just naughty).

Noise levels from girly chickens are actually quite soothing, or at worst, funny They do like to announce when they've laid an egg, but quite frankly, I don't blame them. It's nothing like a cockerel though. Our neighbours have been great, in fact, when we told one side they told us that our next door but one neighbours have had them for 2 years and we have never heard them.

They are so rewarding and you can always blag your folks by demonstrating what a perfect son you are and not 'on the streets', as it were

The worst the chooks will do is eat your plants, but they are selective - basically they love veg (a sore point) and grass. Oh, and digging up bulbs....

Good Luck!

Miranda

[red]

That's interesting Red!

do I detect a certain level of sarcasm there ?


seriously, chickens are a lot less noisey than dogs - our neighbours have a dog and it barks at us all the time we are in the garden.. their window is right on the boundary of our garden. still I don't complain.. afterall, I'm planning on getting pigs...

[ChickenChaser]

OOh Red - Pigs - tell more - we were only talking about keeping a pig each year last night - would love to hear your plans....

CC

[red]

we dont have any pigs yet - a few here do - Stonehead, and Thurston Gardens to name two.so I am new to this.

we have a building that was used to keep pigs intensively.. all concrete - we are clearing ground at the mo to give them some actual mud to dig in too. by law you have to provide pigs with something to root in (but deep straw will do apparantly.. just i prefer them to have mud). We intend to fence it using corregated iron.. we have a fair bit and was advised by a local pig keeper. lots use electric fence but we dont have mains there , and we also have sheep who are likely to blunder through the lecky. we are only considering buying and raising weeners, for meat for our own consumption. in order to transport pigs more than 50 km(i think) you have to go and pass a test proving you are competant.. so it is worth checking out that there are local breeders and an abatoir that takes pigs nearby, which we do have.. so thats cool.
so now its just a matter of finishing moving things and putting up fences.. which is taking forever cos other aspects of life (our jobs, home ed, major house DIY and trying to grow a years worth of veg!) keep getting in the way!

(sorry for hijacking the thread....)

[Initiation]

OK big thanks for all the advice everyone, seems my argument was right Just got to try and persuade them now

[Fatima&Tim]

Just a note though, we had a hen last year (Auntie Mable) who was a 'silver wyn dotte', SHE REALLY WAS NOISY! A mate of mine has her three sisters and she complaines about their noise too.

Currently we have 5 laying hens, 11 three week old chicks (and of course the mother hen). None of these cause any noise bother at all, like you say the small noise they do make is quite soothing.

Go for it, chickens are great!

[CaundleMama]

strangly enough my gold laced wyandottes are noiser than the silver sussex!but not noisy in an awful way

[Fatima&Tim]

strangly enough my gold laced wyandottes are noiser than the silver sussex!but not noisy in an awful way

Ours was definatly nosiy in a bad way, I was constantly worried our neighbours would be complaining any moment!
I still thought she was beautiful and was gutted when she suddenly died, but I have to say I'm glad the noise has stopped. All our others hens are perfect examples of nice, quiet, naughty girls though!