Egg song and automatic door

[Huskeriowa]

Hi all.

I am installing an automatic chicken door and I have a question. The door can be on a timer and I am wondering what time to set it to open? The reason I ask this is because it would be outstanding if I could avoid sending the loud egg song all over. My coop is built as an independent structure within a shed. The coop itself well insulated in the hope that I can muffle the majority of the noise. I was planning on opening the coop door at 7:00 am but maybe 8:30 am or so is better? Am I correct that the noise is most common in the early morning?

I had chickens when younger but cant for the life of me remember any 'egg song' and I lived in town. But reading these forums makes me paranoid so I want to be as proactive as possible. So, is there a time in the morning that most of your hens would be done doing that? My closest neighbor is 100 ft from the coop area and the others are over 200 ft away. Maybe I am far enough away that I wouldn't need to worry. I am trying to be considerate of any neighbors that may want to sleep in some or may have the weekend off etc.


Thanks for the help.

 

[PatS]

My girls lay anytime from dawn till about 4, and they yell whenever they feel like it, several times a day. But maybe mine are just more vociferous than others. The neighbors don't seem to mind (knock wood.)

 

[Huskeriowa]

I was afraid of that reply

 

[CCourson05]

My buff orpingtons are my loudest egg layers. The rest are relatively quiet. In my experience, anyway.

 

[OlyChickenGuy]

I have found that spending time with your hens tends to keep them quiet! As soon as you hear the first bit of clucking indicating an egg is about to be laid, just go talk to them. I also had someone tell me that they used to have chickens in an area that they weren't supposed to, so they would go out on their porch and talk to the chickens to keep them quiet, and it worked!

 

[Huskeriowa]

I guess I will just see how it goes and try to adjust along the way. I can have ten hens but opted for six to start with to hopefully minimize noise. If one or two end up being unusually loud then I have a friend with a farm that I will give them to. Thanks for the input.

 

[IlovemyPeep&mypeeps]

I have four Red Sex-Link. They are really quiet. Some days they have an egg song but most days they don't. I live in town surrounded by neighbors (all about 25ft away). We haven't had any problems. If your neighbors are that far away then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[wsdareme]

If you're worried about your neighbors, just set the opening time a little later as you mentioned in your post.

I have a baby monitor in my coop (I like to listen to their songs during the day). From my experience, the girls do not lay early in the morning. I have been consistently getting most of my eggs in the afternoon.

My coop is still closed right now because my timer went on the fritz and I have to open/close manually until I can get to the hardware store for a new timer. It is just now dawn here, 7am, and the only noise is my rooster, who JUST started crowing. The girls are quiet.

I find when the door opens they all want to go outside anyway and putz around before they show any interest in laying. They're really pretty quiet until later in the morning. Even then, I find their egg songs to be a delight to listen to.

Unless you are sure your neighbors like to hear the girls' egg songs as much as you, just set your door to open at 8 or 8:30am when you know your neighbors will be up and at it and gone to work.