First Egg! What a ruckus- are they always this loud?

[Kait27]

I cleaned out the coop yesterday afternoon to do a pre-winter scrub down. (A hint to anyone out there- an air compressor with a gun nozel on it works great to blow shavings and cobwebs out of the corners!). While i was doing this I turned my four 23week old Buff Orps out to roam the yard. One of them wasn't interested in staying with the group, and everytime I turned by back she snuck back into the coop. I had to keep kicking her out, I had just mopped the floor and she was getting muddy chicken footprints all over. After all was dry and the shavings were down, I finally let her back in (usually its difficult to get them to go in before dark.) After I put my tools away, I went to check to see where she was. She was sitting in the nest box on the ping pong balls! I knew it was coming soon. I rounded up the others, put them in the outdoor run (they seemed to know not to go back in the coop) and headed inside. I was in the farthest corner of the house from the coop with my window open, (62° in the middle of November in Massachusetts? yes please!) and my dad was outside with the leaf blower- and over the sound of that, i heard this noise come from outside- at first, writing it off as kids in the neighborhood. Then I remembered my chickens strange behavior and went TEARING outside, and there, in the middle of the run on the dirt ground, was a tiny but perfect brown egg! The initial noise i heard was very quick, but the other girls joined in on the squawking for several minutes.

My question is, after they get the hang of doing this regularly, do they still make that noise each time? Granted, they will eventually learn to do it in the nest box inside the coop and not out in the open run, but if I could hear it INSIDE my house over a leaf blower, I'm a little concerned. It wasn't a big deal this time because it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, but what if someone lays at 6am? Is it going to wake up the whole neighborhood? I can excuse them the noise while they get used to it, but i'm a little scared...
PS: You should have seen me running through the yard like an absolute NUT yelling EGG! EGG! EGG!

 

[Countedsorrow]

Well, ours do it every day - 3 x Isa Browns, 1 x Australorp
we always run out to shush them...
but maybe we are encouraging the noise...

The neighbours assure us they don't mind though - so who knows?

 

[kcravey]

lol!! I remember our first egg, I heard that ruckus and went running over to the coop thinking a predator was in there. I checked and nothing amiss but did notice an egg... I told my DH about it, he grew up with chickens. He said, "They all praise God when an egg is laid". I thought that was a neat way to look at it.

Mine never lay until early afternoon. So I dont think you have to worry about them waking up neighbors. Also they are all done for the day before sunset.

 

[hen-thusiast]

Congrats on the first egg!!

Our ladies are extremely quiet layers for the most part, but some hens are loud. Just depends on the personalities I guess.

 

[turtlynne]

My three ladies are all pretty vocal when they lay - but they all lay during daylight hours and I have had no complaints...I love to hear them. The fun thing is Louie, the cockerol, who insists on crowing at 0530 daily, still dark out; happily he is in the coop and that mutes the noise( I peeked at him today and he is actually able to do this on the roost when he is doing it - LOL!)

 

[fldiver97]

Mine have to announce loudly but never lay before 8ish... If the coop door is not open when they lay it is muted enough to not bother anyone. When the door is open they can be heard by neighbors. No complaints though as it is not early or late in the day and brief. But yes, one lays and the 4 big girls all make noise.....the two younger ones don't (yet)

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If you suddenly found yourself passing something the size of a bowling ball wouldn't you squawk a lot too?

Lot at the size of the egg relative to the chicken that laid it.

.....Alan.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I have some that are quiet and some that are loud. But they never start laying before 8AM, so I wouldn't worry about earlier singing.

 

[Kait27]

Hmm, ok. Maybe the fact that they are late risers will help and they will be afternoon layers. My dad is the first one out in the morning, and often when he opens the pop door around 7:30, they are still roosting and don't care to go out yet, even though it's been daylight for over an hour. Sometimes they aren't even out in the run yet at 8:30 when i check them before leaving for work. afternoon layers would be great! Any of my surrounding neighbors that could technically complain would be pretty hard pressed to do so, because they all have small, yapping dogs that bark all the time. (seriously, im surrounded by two puggles, two wiener dogs, a mini schnauzer and a mixed thing. lots of yapping!) But those dogs are legal and my chickens are not!

 

[kcravey]

illegal chickens??? ugh! We should have the right to have our own fresh eggs! One of my friends had chickens and the neighbors complained to the POA and they demanded immediate removal of them (we got them). We live out in a rural area! He was so disgusted he moved.