How to make them SHUT UP!

[dretd]

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Katy, with all due respect this is what the OP said:
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No where does she say she wants to 'make them shut up' and most especially did not scream it at us. I believe that is something you must have read in to her plea. She asked for SOLUTIONS and also asked to keep the responses to solutions.

 

[Katy]

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My chickens are loud and I can promise you it isn't because they think it'll get them a treat.....or that they want out into their run.....they're just being chickens. There is nothing wrong with the treat suggestion or an automatic door.....just as there is nothing wrong with the statements that the noise levels were normal behavior for chickens and they go along with having chickens.

 

[Katy]

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Katy, with all due respect this is what the OP said:
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No where does she say she wants to 'make them shut up' and most especially did not scream it at us. I believe that is something you must have read in to her plea. She asked for SOLUTIONS and also asked to keep the responses to solutions.

You might want to read her thread title....don't think it's something I read into her plea.

 

[RHRanch]

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I never said get rid of chickens - although that is one way to deal with the noise problem. I said that chickens make noise, that it is normal and natural. I said that they may be able to get a very small difference in the noise problem with some "training", but that I am pretty sure the overall noise problem will not be significantly diminished. I also never said that there was anything wrong with trying the treat thing - but I pointed out that I don't think it will make a big change in the noise the chickens make - because: chickens are vocal creatures. I do think that you mistaken in assuming that the chickens have learned to make noise to get out - I don't think they are actually that likely to connect the action of the person letting them as the result of the amount of noise they are making. They are probably just excited about the prospect of going out and in thier excitement they are making noise. "Going out" is the stimuli that makes them noisy, not the idea that if they are loud the person will let them out. They are not that sophisticated.

 

[RHRanch]

Ok - I thought of the only thing that will work at all - in my opinion: Don't let them out - ever. Keep them in thier run. For a few days or weeks they will squak incessently. Eventually they will realize they are not going out and they will stop squaking to go out. They will still squak, however for food, when they lay, when they fight/squabble and probably anytime they see you. But the "noise when they go out" problem will be solved.

 

[matimeo]

So how does everyone explain the fact that in about a week I trained my chickens to make nothing louder than a cooing noise before eight in the morning? Mind you just a week before they were sounding the alarm as early as 5:30 and completely disturbing neighbors as many as three and four houses down? They still do their crazy egg song and make a racket from time to time but not super early like they used to. They will always be noisy, that's not the argument. The question was if there was anything that could be done to minimize it and telling someone there isn't is not helpful.

 

[RHRanch]

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Actually, I'm not clear on it, maybe you can explain - and if you know the way to do it, tell the OP. My solution is to remove the stimuli that makes them loud - in this case "going outside".

 

[matimeo]

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Actually, I'm not clear on it, maybe you can explain - and if you know the way to do it, tell the OP.

I think I already did but if I was unclear the OP can ask for clarification.

 

[RHRanch]

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Actually, I'm not clear on it, maybe you can explain - and if you know the way to do it, tell the OP.

I think I already did but if I was unclear the OP can ask for clarification.

Actually, I followed the thread you had that ws similar, and it really didn't seem to me that you had a very specific method. As I recall you shot them when they were loud. Perhaps I missed something?

 

[matimeo]

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I never said get rid of chickens - although that is one way to deal with the noise problem. I said that chickens make noise, that it is normal and natural. I said that they may be able to get a very small difference in the noise problem with some "training", but that I am pretty sure the overall noise problem will not be significantly diminished. I also never said that there was anything wrong with trying the treat thing - but I pointed out that I don't think it will make a big change in the noise the chickens make - because: chickens are vocal creatures. I do think that you mistaken in assuming that the chickens have learned to make noise to get out - I don't think they are actually that likely to connect the action of the person letting them as the result of the amount of noise they are making. They are probably just excited about the prospect of going out and in thier excitement they are making noise. "Going out" is the stimuli that makes them noisy, not the idea that if they are loud the person will let them out. They are not that sophisticated.

Well in the end it really doesn't matter so long as they stop associating that excited feeling with being let out. It will become extinct with a consistently different approach. Chickens are very hard wires creature. And while that does present some limitations to what they can be trained to do, it also can be beneficial when a little creativity and creative thinking is applied.