Best chickens for city living- Silkies and cochins? need quiet birds!

[Chickenaddict]

Silkies have been by far the loudest breed I have ever had here, the hens NEVER shut up! I had to rehome mine because of this. I am in a suburb where chickens are now illegal to have but it doesn't stop me from having close to 50 when counting all the chicks running around as well. My brahmas were very quiet. Cochins can be loud and obnoxious too when they are singing the egg song. Ee's are pretty quiet and so are seramas. My lil buff japanese hen never makes a peep but then again she is older then dinosaur poo. I guess every breed CAN be loud depending on the temperment of the specific bird. Your brahma hen was biting because they LOVE attention. I have a few cochin/brahma pullets who if I don't pet them will come up and bite until I do. Every bird and breed are different, some may say their birds are quiet while others with the same breed will beg to differ so it's hard to say what the best breed for you would be. Best of luck on your chicken adventure

 

[allmypeeps]

Thanks BCSilkies, ok, I am not so scared now....like I edited to my above post, I don't care if they squawk- as long as they squawk quietly!!!!

 

[allmypeeps]

Chicken Addict- confirms my theory that its all relevant on individual bird temperment. I do not plan on having a roo at all. I KNOW they are not allowed. Actually my town never really thought anything of chickens i guess and I had mine 3 years w/out an issue until some one complained to the town (because she though my 'cooped birds' were leaving seeds in her yard when it was SQUIRRELS!) lol anyway, the town dog officer told me the chickens have to go but I could protest it at the town hall. So I did. They sent some one to 'look' at my birds- just an office worker that hadnt seen a chicken in her life. She was like 'um, they look clean and they seem quiet so you can keep them'....a year later we had a chicken stock a few towns over and our town did an article in the paper on how they were and always have been 'chicken friendly'....???say WHAT!??? I was a little confused...a perfect case of the left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing....

Anyway, what ChickenAddict said about my light brahma...yes, she LOVES 'attention....she'll follow us all day BUT i really feel she 'agressively' bites- it wasnt like when she comes over and pecks our pants or wipes her beak on us...if you put your hand on her back it was full fledged puffs up her neck feathers, trying to 'stand tall' to intimidate us and then lays into us!! Her behavior reminded me of a roosters, she seemed to drop one wing sometimes too like a roo does .....for as sweet as she was she was just as nasty!

 

[cobrien]

My cochin is the quietest chicken I've owned, but I've only had 1 cochin and noisiness does vary from chicken to chicken. If you get older birds (7-8 months) you might know a little more about how noisy/quiet they are, but things can change as they get older and also when their living situation changes. still, I think a 7-8 month old quiet cochin would be as safe a bet as any. your neighbor sounds like a pain in the butt, you have to put up with city noises, he will have to put up with your noise or else he should buy a few hundred acres and become a hermit!

 

[onthespot]

I think if I were you I would concentrate on making the quietest coop, instead of the quietest chicken. Maybe on the other side of the house, with a short strawbale barrier to muffle the noise, and a steep pitch roof to deflect the noise either back to the house, or down to the ground, which, hopefully is not smooth concrete, but something else that will muffle the sound, like grass or some foliage.

 

[ParrotsNPullets]

Our loudest birds are our Barred Rock (volume and frequency) and our Light Brahma (volume) when she actually calls out (which is VERY rare and seems more of a warning call). But our chattiest and most noticeable is our bantam Cochin / Pekin hen. She fusses constantly about everything all the time; she is definitely a diva and she even annoys our other chickens. They avoid her company most of the time because she is such a whiner. Not all bantam Cochins are like this, but I've read that a lot of people share this experience with them.

Obviously when you read threads on people's experiences you will see for the most part it depends on the individual birds, their surroundings, and possibly positive reinforcement of their squawking (do you throw a bone to your dog every time he starts barking? I wouldn't!). There may be some trends worth checking out such as EEs (although ours was really loud), but for the most part all you can do to minimize noise is to keep a small number of birds, provide enough nest boxes so they aren't kicking each other out at egg and causing more complaining than necessary, and DONT throw treats to shut them up. Give them treats when they are quiet, and when an egg song starts usually just picking the hen up will quiet her right away.

Bantams will be the quietest when they do make noise, and their eggs are really not that small (obvious exceptions being small true bantams such as Sermas, Sebrights, Belgians etc.) so possibly some bantam EEs, Faverolles, Brahmas, and/or Cochins with good temperament.

With a neighbor like that he will most likely be listening for any noise ever coming from your yard, as evidenced by him complaining about a cat. That is a tough situation and I have experienced it myself a few years ago when at the time we only kept had our parrots in our old rented house. All I can really think of is possibly giving some free eggs to your other neighbors every once in a while so if this ornery renter's complaints escalate you have some allies.

 

[CalebtheChicken]

My quietest bird is white cochin, she never makes a sound, not even when she was a chick. Also my silkie/rosecomb cross roo is quiet (other than the crowing). My Red Star is quit to. I wouldn't suggest EE's or BR's, tey are VERY talkitive.

 

[ZooMummzy]

I have a couple loud Silkies...complain about everything and anything. My cochins (other than the roosters) are so quiet and docile. I literally never hear anything from them, barely a cluck...most times just a coo when I'm holding them. Out of all the chickens I have, cochins are my favorite. They aren't little divas, they are very loving and for me - quiet.

 

[allmypeeps]

Thanks Everyone!

I will be checking out the silkie and 2 cochins today, apparently they were raised in a class room so have been handled ALOT, and also by the guys kids at home...so I am sure they'll be good and friendly- I will just pray they will not be big mouths.

Thanks to those who suggested trying to 'sound proof' the coop. We are selling our 8X8' shed-like coop, and will be building something smaller for the small birds we will be getting- which are 3-4 mo. old- but they will still have a large run of the yard. In fact I saw a coop I really want to copy here on BYC. I WISH I could put it somewhere else, but we live on a street corner and have a sidewalk all along 2 sides of our house- so it doesnt leave much option but between my house and the big ugley apt building next door....
AND...funny enough, we found an old indoor hutch we built for when we had chicks and kept them inside. My husband suggested just letting them live inside since I keep reading articles about silkies being good 'indoor' pets. LOL So, I set the hutch up in a spare room we use for crating our dogs, wood floors, lots of dog blankies about- they will be there just until we can build the new coop- and once outdoors, if they are ruckus makers then I can bring them in and have a place to put them on days I work or can't be home to shoosh them.

I will NEVER be able to make friends with the neighbors unfortunately- the elderly woman next door has hated us since we moved here 6 years ago! She complained our 6' stockade 'fence was too tall' (yeah, cuz now she can't SPY on us!!) and not to mention called the town on us to make sure we had a permit when we built our deck. And the guy on the other side of us that complains about such things as my CAT meowing to be let in, well, he lets his kids scream and swear all over the neighborhood...So, alas, I have come to the conclusion that I don't give a poopy tail feather what anyone thinks anymore. We are in the process of rennovating our house and hopefully it will be sold next spring---had no luck last year because it needed repairs...so we sucked it up and are spending money we will never get back on doing the dumb repairs so we can get the heck outta here and away from the complaining crazies!!!!

Thanks everyone for your input- alot of you said EE's were quiet- not th eone I had- OH boy! and yes, light brahmas are generally quiet except when they do announce themselves- they do it to the world! LOL, so I think even if these newbies wind up being chatty, at least because of their size and tameness (and the fact we will most likely only have 3 of them) we'll be able to create both indoor and outdoor accomodations for them as both house pets and free rangers....Our dogs/cats are VERY accustomed to chicks/chickens- we trained them to be so we hope to train th enewbies to be accustomed to THEM as well- hopefully being so well socialized and adjusted they will not spook and make commotions!!!

Thanks!!!! I think I will start a new thread on who's pets LOVE and coexhist with chicks/birds and how many have to keep their dogs/cats far far away...I have to say I am so lucky to have 4 dogs and 2 cats that adore the fluffy feather butts! I think they know they'd be tarred and feathered if they didnt lol!

I didnt set the chick on the cat or dog...! The chick would hop all over them and they would just let it.

Sharing a warm spot!

 

[swimmy44]

Truthfully I am planning on one rooster and am hoping my proximity to a freeway will muffle the crowing - I plan to get a bantam ? not sure which - was interested in Seramas but their cost is alarming.