How do I stop the Egg Song?

[SCOUT123]

Every day, my chickens start singing the egg song at 6:30 AM. My mom lets them out, they shut up, and one of them goes to lay an egg - but when the other one needs to lay, the start screaming again. My parents won't let me keep them if they continue to be this loud; how do I get them to stop? (after they lay they're quiet again, but one of them lays really early in the morning when nobody is up)
Oh, and we live in the city where hens are legal, but we're afraid that the neighbors will complain.

 

[junebuggena]

Um...Don't keep chickens.
You can't keep a hen from doing the egg song any more than you can keep her from scratching or clucking or laying eggs. It's part of having chickens.

 

[Stegs]

Every day, my chickens start singing the egg song at 6:30 AM. My mom lets them out, they shut up, and one of them goes to lay an egg - but when the other one needs to lay, the start screaming again. My parents won't let me keep them if they continue to be this loud; how do I get them to stop? (after they lay they're quiet again, but one of them lays really early in the morning when nobody is up)
Oh, and we live in the city where hens are illegal, but we're afraid that the neighbors will complain.

well id say this is a good problem to have. My 1 buff hen makes the song, but lays eggs all over my property. Atleast your chickens go to the coop to lay.....my hen has been laying for a few weeks now, only found 1 egg....its frustrating....


the only thing i can think of to help you out is you said they are quiet when you let them out...

Is there a way to let them out into a fenced in run, so they can stretch the wings and walk for a while, but leave it open back to the coop. I think in a way they are saying "im awake and im ready to get out"

Maybe build a attached run, so when they wake up they can go right there....thus making no noise

just a thought

 

[EggSighted4Life]

thanks for the replies guys!! Could I possibly put a mirror in their coop for them to occupy themselves with?

Try it. You can try all kinds of stuff. Getting creative is great. My last post was not meant to be harsh.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

oh cRAp i just realized my mistake - it's LEGAL to keep chickens here not illegal

sorry my bad

That changes things quite a bit. Even legal animals can be a problem if the neighbors complain is what the ag department guy told me since we can have roosters to. So basically, make nice with your neighbors. Share some eggs and make sure the hens are as far away from their bedroom windows as possible. Most of my neighbors when I lived in the city love to hear the song, but it was never that early.

 

[junebuggena]

Egg production is tied to daylight cycle.

excuse me... romance?

And yes, now you are facing the reality of keeping chickens instead of living in the fantasy land of 'wouldn't having a few chickens be nice'. Reality is that chickens are vocal, social creatures. Hens can make just as much noise as roosters. And egg songs don't just happen after laying eggs.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Partly depends on breed and age how often they lay. It is "supposed" to take 25 hours for an egg to finish forming. In theory they would get a little later each day until they took the day off and started early in the morning after that. So noon is kinda late and then the cycle began again. I can hear 1 of my neighbors egg songs at 3 pm this week. They will be hearing ours one day, and a roo or two also!

Barking dogs can be as bad or worse..

When I did live in the city, it was a corner lot & my closest neighbor had dual pain windows and ac on all the time. I had single pain and could hear tons of stuff. So that circumstance could also effect the situation.

Ultimately it's important to be respectful to your neighbors/parents and kind/humane to your hens.

Best wishes!

 

[threescompany]

So sorry you are in the situation to have to worry about the egg song. It is one of the enjoyable parts to me--but I don't have close neighbors. Hopefully it will not be a problem. Maybe if you share some eggs with them they won't mind as much and may come to love the noise!!

 

[SCOUT123]

So sorry you are in the situation to have to worry about the egg song. It is one of the enjoyable parts to me--but I don't have close neighbors. Hopefully it will not be a problem. Maybe if you share some eggs with them they won't mind as much and may come to love the noise!!

Haha I told my mom, and she was all like "Why would they want EGGS?" "??????"

 

[luckydawn]

Good Morning, I take a different approach to this. The chickens will sing, to me less offensive than a barking dog but hey, I like chickens. My approach to these types of issues is not to train the chicken but to change the surroundings. Fabric muffles sound. I don't know your setup so I can't make suggestions specific, but my approach is how to keep the chickens comfortable and muffle the sound. Does that approach give you any ideas?