4 AM: A problem or totally normal?

[21hens-incharge]

Im not sure why everyone is blaming this on the motion light.
My rooster starts talking very early in the morning. Like around 4 or 5. We don't have a motion light. However we DO have a set of neighbors that get up for the day around that time and another one coming home from work before dawn. They're turning on lights, letting pets out etc.
My chickens are very far away from the house but can apparently still hear us. The rooster starts talking about the neighbors before dawn and then everyone starts demanding breakfast and to be let out when they hear us get up. Thankfully we live in the country and no one cares.
So. Um, maybe it's NOT the motion light?
If you live close enough that the neighbors hear your chickens the chickens are probably reacting to something going on in the neighborhood every morning. Maybe someone is up getting ready for work? Turning their house lights on and moving around? Someone suggested covering the windows at night to block out light. That might help. Also maybe if you put a dish of scratch in their coop when they go to bed they'll just wake up and eat that? It's worth a try.

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I am thinking the same thing. Car headlights, someone turning on a porch light while their dogs to out etc.

I know my motion light triggers to leaves and branches blowing around.
Yes the birds could be reacting to the sudden loss of light as it goes off too.

 

[Bob 1313]

Occasionally our birds will start crowing and making noise in the middle of the night. At first we would check on them. Never found anything wrong. As their enclosures and runs are quite secure, we now just roll over and go back to sleep.

 

[NatJ]

Ever since Saturday, our hens have been waking me up at 4am every day to get food.

Probably something changed--maybe a neighbor getting up earlier than before.

Anyway, I go out there to see why they're making noise and feed them as well. I know I probably shouldn't do that but it's the only way to shut them up. I let them out into their fenced yard while I stand out there for a half hour despite it being cold and raining. I then put them back up into their coop and head back to sleep after drying myself off.

Is this a problem that I need to fix or should I just let them be?
Is this normal?

It's probably normal and could be ignored, except that you said the chickens' noise bothers the neighbors.

You could try covering/blocking the coop windows, in hopes that the chickens will sleep through whatever has been waking them up (I know someone already suggested this, but it seems like a good thing to consider.)

You could try re-training the chickens a bit.
If you've been standing there for half an hour while they eat, make it 25 minutes, then 20, and keep reducing it. At some point, maybe you can just skip it and they'll shush and go back to sleep.

You could try just walking into the coop and talking to them a bit, in total darkness. You'd have to skip the flashlight, and either avoid the motion sensor or turn it off, but it might be worth trying. I don't think it could make things any worse (unless you get hurt trying to move around in the dark, of course. That would be worse.)

I can't think of anything else to suggest

 

[joydix]

well now you have conditioned them to want to get up then. just stop feeding them and if you go out to check and dont see anything just go back to bed. if THEY are turning it on it is pointed in the wrong direction. its like giving a dog a treat to make it stop barking! if they dont get the reward they will stop....

 

[bobbi-j]

So make sure the windows are blocking all light at night - street lights, headlights and neighbors’ porch lights. It’s possible there are mice getting into your coop that your dogs aren’t alerting to. (Your dogs are kept outside all night?)

Bottom line is, it sounds like they’re getting into a habit that should not continue. Unless you like getting up at 4:30 am every morning and feeding them.

 

[JoCoKS]

Ever since Saturday, our hens have been waking me up at 4am every day to get food. I know it isn't because of a predator because the motion light on their coop isn't on when I get up to go out there and plus their yard is shut. Another thing, our dogs would be alerting us to predators if there were any. They're great at alerting us to predators. Yesterday during the afternoon, they thought a squirrel was a problem and alerted us to it. All it was doing was sitting on the fence possibly cleaning itself? Not sure.

Anyway, I go out there to see why they're making noise and feed them as well. I know I probably shouldn't do that but it's the only way to shut them up. I let them out into their fenced yard while I stand out there for a half hour despite it being cold and raining. I then put them back up into their coop and head back to sleep after drying myself off.
At least with our drake and duck, they just keep quiet up until I pour the feed and then they waddle over and quietly make noise towards each other.

Our cockerel is the only one who stays quiet and stays in the coop until he hears me pour their feed. Then he jumps out clucking quietly.

Is this a problem that I need to fix or should I just let them be?
Is this normal?

Maybe I am doing everything wrong but I have food available to my girls 24/7 and they seem to be real happy to eat when they fell like it. I had some lights on in the house so if one of our 4 children got hungry or wanted a drink of water in the middle of the night they could safely get to the kitchen. I used to have the feeder for chickens sold on line but I got tired of the waste so I made them the one using PVC pipe and now there is no food all over the coop any more. I give them what I call their dinner in a plate around noon which is always sunflower seeds, bread, nuts from a bird seed bag, table scrams, etc. and remove what they do not eat. Later in the day I feed them meal worms and when it is cold I give them scratch to help them stay warm at night and they seem to be happy pets. I also give them fresh water everyday and I scrub out their water dish when it gets grungy and I try to clean their coop everyday pulling up the dirty newspapers and disposing of them. When it warms up I am going to scrub the painted walls of their coop because they can hit any surface with their BM. In my 70 years have having pets I never have had a sick one, chickens, dogs, pigeons, hamsters, frogs, chipmunks. etc.

 

[VirginiaLowe]

Replying to whether chooks (as Aussies call them) recognise you or not, and whether they are intelligent.
I've done no tests, but mine start talking as soon as they hear us say anything in the bedroom which is right by their gate. They know food could be on the way. I don't know that they recognise our voices, though.
However what they can't do, is learn from others. For a long time we had one who could escape from their yard by balancing on the grapevine growing along the fence. HOwever none of the five others copied her, so it was only the one free ranging the back yard. Next door neighbours have chooks too, and say four of the six recognise the gateway when opened to the back yard, but two run up and down looking for it and sometimes never find it. He wonders if they were traumatised as chicks somehow so turned out dumber than normal ...

 

[Incubator Madness]

Being that this just started, one possibility is a predator maybe where the light won't detect it. 2nd, don't feed at 4am, good lord, you will train them to do this all the time, and anytime! You usually hear the rooster who crows at this time waking up everybody, (and eventually he will) yet he stays asleep until you put down the food?!!? A solution; Is there a way to close them up in the coop at night? If not, make one. Than you can open it in a more appropriate hour to feed. Don't worry about having to put water or food in the coop, they should be sleeping, not eating or drinking. If you have a predator problem, get an electric fence, they are worth it.

 

[Birdman Jr]

im just confused on what the op wants. This whole thread kinda just makes me annoyed lmao. Either take your light down and stop going out to cater to your chickens every whim or deal with it.

 

[21hens-incharge]

im just confused on what the op wants. This whole thread kinda just makes me annoyed lmao. Either take your light down and stop going out to cater to your chickens every whim or deal with it.

The OP has stated several times that the light sensor is not pointed at the coop....It doesn't mean the light cannot shine into the coop so....

I believe the issue is noisy birds at a before dawn time is aggravating the neighbors.

Best solution I can come up with is the black out the coop windows option.....but if light can shine in the vents.....