Excessively noisy chickens??

[Sustained]

Okay so I got my girls back in march. They started laying about a month ago. They're Barred Rocks if that matters. All of a sudden they're extremely noisy. They're constantly making a sort of hoarse cackling all day long. They seem perfectly healthy and happy but LOUD. I'm a backyard chicken farmer and the house next to me is probably 12 feet away at most. They haven't complained but I wouldn't blame them if they did. My hens are almost as loud as the roo I sent to freezer camp. And there's 6 of them. They have the run of my entire backyard which is about 4000 sq ft. Plenty of room for them and lots of stuff to scavenge in addition to their feed and scraps. Any ideas what the deal is? I adore them but the constant noise is starting to concern me. I grew up with chickens and they weren't this noisy. different breed though so maybe that has something to do with it. idk....

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It may help you to read through this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/925452/mass-hysteria

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Some breeds are more chatty than others, yes.
Did the noise start about the time the laying did? It may be that what you are hearing is six singings of the "egg song" by the flock - plus some extras just for good measure since it is not a communication that is only used at the time of egg laying. Is it cackling like you hear on the Cadbury commercials where it's, "bawk, bawk, bawk, BAWK!" - lather, rinse repeat with others joining in or is more of a just loud almost honking chatter?

 

[Sustained]

It did start when the egg laying did. Or at least shortly after. That's also about the time I sent the roo to freezer camp. Some of it is the bawking from egg laying and the other ladies 'cheering her on' (at least that's the way I think of it) but the rest is a lot of hoarse chatter. And it lasts from dawn until shortly before they head to their coop for bedtime. The only time I've noticed it dropping off for extended periods is when I'm out in the yard with them, not necessarily interacting with them, but just present. Possibly because they're too busy following me around lol I look like a poultry Dr. Doolittle when I go outdoors

 

[Sustained]

It may help you to read through this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/925452/mass-hysteria

That sounds exactly like what happens around egg laying time. I expect noise for that lol does that account for the all day long racket though? Perhaps I just have very talkative ladies... competitively talkative

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They could easily be laying eggs throughout the day right now.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

That sounds exactly like what happens around egg laying time. I expect noise for that lol does that account for the all day long racket though? Perhaps I just have very talkative ladies... competitively talkative

That would be my Fat Amy (a BO) - she will engage in a shouting match with anyone in the flock that dares to think they can be louder than she can. They really can raise quite the racket when they get going - which is why I find the ordinances with objections to roosters on the grounds of "noise" to be so laughable, because my girls put the poor rooster to shame when it comes to the amount of noise made on a day -to -day basis.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Quick question - what (if anything) do you do when they start yapping -- do you go out, toss treats to shut them up, etc? If so, some of what you are experiencing could be the result of inadvertent training of the birds (or purposeful training of the human BY the birds, lol)

 

[Sustained]

Quick question - what (if anything) do you do when they start yapping -- do you go out, toss treats to shut them up, etc? If so, some of what you are experiencing could be the result of inadvertent training of the birds (or purposeful training of the human BY the birds, lol)

Honestly, I haven't tried to do anything about it yet lol. It didn't occur to me until the other day that it would be bothersome to the neighbors. Most of the homes around here (suburbs) have yappy dogs that bark all day and one house has a couple dogs that fight a lot in the afternoons and that gets really noisy. I figured that my ladies would be less bothersome than all the dogs. But my kids friend from next door (the other side and are much much farther away from the coop) mentioned in passing the other day that our chickens are really noisy and her mom made up a song about noisy chickens. Her mom almost never comes outside so that's when it occurred to me exactly how loud they are so I started paying attention lol before that if they got too loud under a window I usually hollered at whichever hen it was 'hey (insert hens name here), quit that!' and more often than not it at least inspires them to lower the volume for a short period of time. Unfortunately, I don't get along very well with the closer neighbors. So I thought if I could figure out why my chickens are noisier than usual (or what I was used to growing up) that maybe I could figure out a solution before I had another issue with these particular neighbors on my hands. I only think there could be an issue because if I work outside doing anything loud, hammering and things like that, they yell out their windows at me even though I wait until early afternoon, to be polite, to do anything loud.

 

[aart]

I too have a few yakkers/yellers...they can go on and on and the volume is crazy at times. Luckily, I don't have close neighbors.

OGM and I have commiserated about this before....and agree that the 'rooster noise' ordinances/keeper concerns are a bit naive.