Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Fancychooklady]

Makes the hawk the peewees chased off today look rather insignificant . As much as they take chickens I can't imagine shooting one, they really are beautiful aren't they.

They have been nesting on our land for several years now. I haven't lost any chickens to him yet, but he does sit in the gumtrees overhead licking his lips.
His nest is straight opposite my main pens. I had been down the driveway taking pics of the horses when he soared directly above me. He turned his head on the side to have a look at me and then circled round and came back. In this pic he is looking directly at me.

 

[Teila]

Hey there Annie I did not think you were being critical and I am familiar with anthropomorphising.

I think that sometimes we can mistake anthropomorphising with the use of human characteristics as a description of an action. Putting a human characteristic on the action gives people the ability to imagine the action.

For instance while Dusty might be described as “whinging” she isn’t whinging, she is vocalising that she is going to lay an egg but ‘whinging’ aids in the imagination/description of how that action appears.

If I can, I agree that chickens would not deliberately misbehave or cause a fuss just because they want attention but ‘misbehave’ or ‘cause a fuss’ are also human characteristics that we use to describe their actions.

I do, however, believe that they understand action/reaction or cause/effect and have learnt that some of their actions result in the appearance of a human and possibly because we are well trained, food or free range.

Dusty was whinging [

] that she was going to lay an egg this morning and KiKi was honking in response. Now that Dusty has quietly settled onto the nest box to actually do the deed, KiKi is quietly pottering around the run. None of that was for my benefit and was simply chickens being chickens and what I need to do is work out a way to allow them to be chickens without annoying the humans.

The girls do not free range in the morning except on the weekend. However, at the risk of sounding silly, I do believe they know when it is the weekend because of the environmental sounds around them. Fewer cars, quieter streets, different noises from inside the human house means that they get to free range around 10-10:30am and use their action [vocalising] to achieve a reaction [free ranging].

On a week day free range is nearly always started at 4pm and they start vocalising around 3-3:15pm until they are let out.

Sometimes they get their days wrong and vocalise at 10ish for a while during the week and then actually settle for the day and start up again around 3pm.

I see this in Chimee [cat] also. She loves being in her outside run and during the week, starts doing a little dance around the 4pm mark because she is going to go outside and ‘asks’ to do just that. However, again by using environmental triggers, she seems to know when it is the weekend and starts doing her little dance in the morning.

I doubt that I will ever be able to ‘keep KiKi quiet’ per say because she is just doing what the other girls do with the difference that she is louder. But, hopefully, I can come up with a ‘distraction’.

If the planned addition of more space does not help, I am considering separation and using the ‘hospital’ coop for those times her vocalising may be annoying others.

I am actually enjoying the discussion, thoughts and differing opinions around chicken behaviour.

Edited to add: I thought I should add here that we are a very routine household, may be moreso than others and many things are done at around the same time every day or on the same day every week etc.

I believe our animals have picked up on this routine and use it as their ‘clock’.

Hey Fancy I think I need to have “Beautiful Pictures, as per usual” as a macro or copy and paste because yep, once again, you have shared some beautiful pics!

 

[User395221]

we are a very routine household,

I wonder whether "mixing it up" where the chooks are concerned might help? If they get their free-range time at different times, they might not vocalise at a set time? (yes, they could start yelling ALL the time, but I think that'd be too hard to sustain?)

 

[Teila]

Morning potato chip yep, I had thought of ‘mixing it up’ but like you have suggested, I have this awful fear that they could start vocalising all the time

As you may know, I work from home and being in an IT Triage role basically I need to be sitting in front of the computer between 8am and 4pm with short breaks 5 days a week which makes ‘mixing it up’ a little difficult. Unless I let them free range unsupervised which just adds dangerous to the mix.

Their general vocalising is not really the problem and they have been doing that for the 3 years or so I have had chickens. Basically it is that while KiKi is not doing anything any different to the others and is just being herself; herself happens to be loud

Like you suggested, she may be better suited to a rural environment where she can make as much noise as she likes but as Fancy has suggested, I am going to try some of the suggestions you guys have offered before doing anything drastic.

 

[User395221]

herself happens to be loud

I understand, when I had australorps before, one of them could get me out of the house when she announced that she'd left me an egg.

Someone already suggested it, but have you asked your neighbours whether she's annoying anybody? If she isn't, you really don't need to try to get her to be quieter, she can just be herself. Acoustics can be strange, I hear nothing from inside my house. When the carpenter was putting up my chook house, the people over the back had their stereo up loud, doof doof doof noise. He asked me how often that went on. I could honestly say that I had no idea, I'd never heard it before. I'd not heard it when I was out the back and I'd never hear it from inside. The noise doesn't necessarily mean anybody's even hearing it, let alone getting annoyed by it. You could be stressing about it when it's not bothering anybody????

 

[Teila]

Again, I can not thank everyone enough for taking the time to discuss and help .. Thank You!

potato chip you are right! The neighbours probably can not hear her. When I had a couple of roosters from a hatch start crowing at 04:45am 18 months or so ago, I quickly found them homes and then chatted to the neighbours with apologies and explanations that they had been rehomed .. none of them had heard them! Lol

She is probably not making much more noise than the cooing Turtle Doves, cawing Crows, barking dogs etc and yep, I am probably guilty of overreacting and feeling guilt but she is waking up my son.

He closed his window at 05:30 this morning and hopefully donned the industrial strength ear plugs I bought him

She is not annoying me or hubby as we are early risers and we would probably not be having this discussion if my son was not living at home but I have this need to ensure that everyone is happy. Up until KiKi started this honking, the chickens were never a problem for him.

I apologised to him last night and mentioned that I know KiKi was waking him up and that I had considered rehoming her but that was upsetting for me and I was going to try some other options.

I probably do need to adjust my feelings and emotions on the subject because even if I was to rehome KiKi something else would probably be waking him up, like the doves, crows, dogs, cockatoos etc.

 

[User395221]

I apologised to him last night and mentioned that I know KiKi was waking him up and that I had considered rehoming her but that was upsetting for me and I was going to try some other options.

I'd be trying that blackout box thingie, try to trick her that it's night-time until you go and let them out.

Otherwise, how about an "intervention"? Get Kiki inside, your son can explain how she's interfering with his lie-ins.. LOL

 

[appps]

Again, I can not thank everyone enough for taking the time to discuss and help .. Thank You!

potato chip you are right!  The neighbours probably can not hear her.  When I had a couple of roosters from a hatch start crowing at 04:45am 18 months or so ago, I quickly found them homes and then chatted to the neighbours with apologies and explanations that they had been rehomed .. none of them had heard them! Lol

She is probably not making much more noise than the cooing Turtle Doves, cawing Crows, barking dogs etc and yep, I am probably guilty of overreacting and feeling guilt but she is waking up my son.   

He closed his window at 05:30 this morning and hopefully donned the industrial strength ear plugs I bought him 

She is not annoying me or hubby as we are early risers and we would probably not be having this discussion if my son was not living at home but I have this need to ensure that everyone is happy.  Up until KiKi started this honking, the chickens were never a problem for him.

I apologised to him last night and mentioned that I know KiKi was waking him up and that I had considered rehoming her but that was upsetting for me and I was going to try some other options.

I probably do need to adjust my feelings and emotions on the subject because even if I was to rehome KiKi something else would probably be waking him up, like the doves, crows, dogs, cockatoos etc. 

We do get used to noises and your son will too. People live next door to train lines and never wake as they go by because eventually the brain just shuts it off. Years ago I would wake to our alarm because I had to get up and go to work. Now that I work from home I sleep straight through it but it still wakes hubby who has to get up. The sound never changed but my brain knows it's not for me anymore.

I'd just tell him to give it a few weeks and he will get used to her noise and it should stop waking him.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Teila, your a smart lady and if your boy is anything like you, ne will see that this is causing you grief.
Some pics from around the farm especially for you.

 

[Pork Pie]

I've lived in both Sudan and northern Nigeria and initially the mosques used to drive me bonkers, but after a couple of weeks the brain seems to block out the noise. I think that one has to have the mindset to accept whatever the noise is before the brain will block it out though cos if the noise riles you, you are snookered.

CT