Chicken Noise from 100 Ft Away

[MageofMist]

Lucky in my case there’s a roughly three allotments that have roosters in the area, and the neighbours love the sounds of roosters as it reminds them of when it was a true farming town.

Though I still try and keep my boys from excessive crowing, though they are basically a cuckoo clock at around 12 pm. Besides that time though, they are pretty quiet and well behaved, and I keep the chickens in my room at night (they are Seramas) and only very rarely will one of the boys crow loud enough in the morning to actually wake me up.

My four male quails are noisier than my two serama cockerels. And the whining of Dolly, my ball Serama hen, is louder than both roosters crowing, but she only does it when really frustrated or pondering on where to lay an egg.

 

[aart]

There is no way to tell.
You might get a nice quiet flock or have a screamer or two.
Sounds can travel in ways that can be hard to predict.
Your neighbors might like the sounds or not at all.

The loudest I've heard here was a group of 10 POL(point of lay) pullets,
they made so much noise I had to close my house windows so I could work over the phone. But my coop is only about 30' away from my house.

 

[Dreammaker]

Our run is probably 200 ft from our house with 8 girls. There are trees between us, but I'd call it mostly open ground. Before I got them, I was told they were commercial Rhode island reds (which are known to be loud), but from what I've seen on here, they look more like red sex links. When our only window that faces that way is open, I can faintly hear them singing their egg song, but can't hear typical chatter. When I'm 100 ft away, I'd say both sounds are considerably louder. At 50 ft they are quite loud. My girls know they get let out between 8:30 & 9:00 every morning, and they are always yelling at me to hurry up. If they stayed in the run all day, you may not have that problem.

Wow! I really thought the 100' rule in our town would mitigate the noise, but it sounds like our neighbors will be able to hear them basically all day to some degree if they're outside or have open windows. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case... They are going to be kept in the run; we have a lot of predators nearby (the run and coop are very well predator-proofed though). As long as what my neighbors hear throughout the day isn't much louder than typical backyard birds (Bluejays, catbirds, etc), we should be ok. Every coop I've been to at local farms has been pretty much silent until I get within 20' and then I can hear some chatter, but it's not bad at all. I assumed that'd be the case for us too.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Hens can be loud, each individual is different.
For some chickens, 100' is plenty of space while other chickens need more than 100' away.
My neighbor can hear a couple hens across the farm field when the ladies are announcing to the entire neighborhood that they have lain an egg.

 

[Lexicon]

Wow! I really thought the 100' rule in our town would mitigate the noise, but it sounds like our neighbors will be able to hear them basically all day to some degree if they're outside or have open windows. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case... They are going to be kept in the run; we have a lot of predators nearby (the run and coop are very well predator-proofed though). As long as what my neighbors hear throughout the day isn't much louder than typical backyard birds (Bluejays, catbirds, etc), we should be ok. Every coop I've been to at local farms has been pretty much silent until I get within 20' and then I can hear some chatter, but it's not bad at all. I assumed that'd be the case for us too.

I find that how noisy my hens are really depends on the time of day. There's lots of drama in the morning related to egg laying, but my girls are very quiet in the afternoon and evening.
Just to add, my Brahma is one of the worst for squawking before she gets in the nest. She is quiet once she has settled her fluffy butt in the nest though!

 

[Stephoney]

I would guess our greenhouse/run is about 100’ away from our neighbors. I’ve talked to both to see if my 11 ladies are too noisy. Both replied that they liked the noises and that they didn’t last long enough to really bother anyone. I tend to share eggs with people since we get plenty every day. That definitely helps, too!

Breed choice definitely matters- I have two Welsummers that are crazy noisy. I love them- great personalities, very smart, but geez they’re loud. My Ameraucanas make the most ungodly sounds. My Easter egger is very quiet- I call her Greta, after Greta Garbo. If she makes noise, you know something serious is going on. My Speckled Sussex is really quiet as is my Blue Copper Marans, Australorp and Buff Orpington. My Salmon Faverolles is somewhere in the middle- mostly quiet, but when she gets on a tirade, she can go on forever. My Russian Orloff is pretty quiet, too. I agree that most of the noise happens in the morning when everyone is vying for their favorite nesting spot and announcing the arrival of their latest contribution.

 

[MrsPeterTHooper]

Thank you for your response! No roosters, which will help greatly. I will keep Brahmas in mind. I love quiet little chicken cooing and purring . I have heard other similar feedback about Ameraucanas/Easter Eggers, so will probably avoid them.

Our EEs were fairly quiet and our orpingtons were LOUD! But maybe we just had weird birds. We have Australorps and Delawares now and they are both quiet except when they want to let the neighborhood know about the eggs they laid. 100' seems more than enough space for quiet especially if you are going to try to get quieter birds. Our birds can be heard when they are singing their egg songs about 75-100' away while outside, and we can't hear them from inside much unless standing near a window by their coop and pen, which is right next to the house (about 10 feet away).
Anyway, good luck with everything!

 

[Mellowmalt]

They are all different, one of my cockerels is brilliant, he hardly crows if at all. Then I have another one who would crow all day long but I've been training him with a spray bottle whenever he perks up too much.. It's a slow process but they can be trained to some extent. Once I'm gone he usually starts up again and I don't really mind it but I have neighbours that I need to consider. Sometimes the hens are louder than the cockerels. Ones I have raised don't make that much noise but others I bought from elsewhere picked up lots of bad habits like feather plucking (which causes noise too) and for some strange reason it's not the hen laying an egg that makes all the noise it seems to be the other hens making a racket when one of them is in the nest box. Like why? It's like look "Bertha is laying an egg, everyone throw a party!"