CAN YOU TRAIN CHICKS TO BE LESS VOCAL?!

Fawn and Fam

Songster
10 Years
Apr 2, 2013
270
16
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We got our 1st 2 pullet chicks now 2 1/2-3 weeks old. We decided on EE's (supposedly the quietest) because we live in a subdivision. They are much noisier than we anticipated. Is there anything we can do to train them to be quiet? Is there anything we may be doing that is teaching them to be loud? Thanks
 
All chicks will peep pretty much the entire time they're awake. Quiet in breed reviews refers to their adult behavior. They don't make noise nonstop as adults, but they will make chicken sounds regardless of the breed.

Chicks peep loudest when unhappy, which usually means they're too hot or too cold in a brooder setting. I noticed with my last batch that they were super vocal for the first few days and then they got much softer; the sound was still present but it was a calmer, quieter, "happy" sound rather than the loud peeping they were doing at first.
 
It is for the most part happy, just constant. It is very loud and unhappy when they are being aggressive w/ each other like flying on top of one another. I do know that loud sound you mean that happens for ex: when they get separated. When one of my children is holding one the other one that is left out peeps loudly. I'm trying to do everything by the book so I don't think it is that their needs aren't being met. I'm just wondering if our actions or the environment they are in causes/teaches them to be hyper/louder?
 
I don't think it's your fault.
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Like I said, that's pretty much just what baby chicks do... the only quiet chicks I've known have been lethargic ones that wound up not making it. Constant happy peeping is just normal chick behavior and it shouldn't translate into constant clucking as adults or anything.

Which isn't to say I don't feel your pain. I had to brood my chicks in my house for a whole month because bad weather prevented their outdoor coop/brooder from being ready sooner. And they were right outside my room... even though it was quiet I thought I was going to go insane sometimes. Especially since I had 22 in there and not 2!
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Wow, 22! , My hubby is already threatening to turn our layers into fryers, lol. We have ours right in our small master bedroom because I'm afraid of the bulb burning out in the night. Even w/ earplugs it is not quiet. They won't be able to go out for a long time as weather hasn't permitted us to even begin building the coop/run
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. Thanks for your reassurance that when grown they should be quieter
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At 2.5-3 weeks old and in a heated house, they'd live until morning if the light went out. Get them out of your bedroom and restore peace in the house. JMO.
 
I think you said you just got 2 chicks....I may have read that wrong...
but what you might want to do is add a little stuffed animal in there.....that they can
climb on or under for warmth.... It kinda takes the place of mom...
Or maybe a feather duster....
I have noticed that young chicks really like going under things...
where they think they are hidden from the world...
Maybe build a foot long by 8 inches... by 6 inch high....little house like structure....
for them to run under to sleep and for cover...
anyway just an idea..!
 
Thanks for those cool ideas. I plan on trying one or both if I can talk my 7 year old into giving up one of his too many stuffed animals and talk my hubby into building that house
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My crew of six are a week old and peep-peep-peep all the time. At night, I put a dark towel over about 2/3 of the brooder, leaving an opening where the lamp shines through. This immediately quiets them but you just have to make sure you're not creating a fire hazard and that the bulb is far enough away from the towel so as to not catch fire.

Are you using a red heating lamp? Some feel the red keeps the birds calmer, too.
 

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