Freaking out over chicken noise - Help!

[fluffhead]

Thanks, ya'll.

The chicken is loud. It's true. When she buk-KAWs, it is loud. She generally does this after she lays an egg, particularly if the retired hen then proceeds to sit on it. Potentially, the chicken does make noise for a while. When I am home, the noise is brief (<10 seconds). It's possible that when I'm not home, she makes noise for longer. So, I can see someone getting irritated by it.. but, it's in the middle of the afternoon. Whoever is complaining is someone who doesn't leave the house in the daytime... It's not like they are being disturbed from precious pre-work sleep. I don't mean to imply that working out of the home is not work, obviously it is - however, I strongly suspect the person is this quite old crabby lady who lives two doors down. We have been trying to figure out all day who it is based on some clues. The one bummer is that whoever it is knows how to spell our names, which are both unusual - which means that they have received a card or gift from us in the past.

Well, I am going to start writing the letter to the neighborhood. Sigh.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Have you offered fresh eggs to your neighbors? This usually helps a TON!!

-Kim

 

[starshrike]

Good luck with the neighbors!

I myself am in the SF Bay Area and am trying to figure out how to deal with my wonderful neighbors. I recently moved into a fixer upper and when we (myself and some friends) started work on the place, the police were called on us! The ones next door park their literally 8 cars, on their driveway, in front of MY driveway, sometimes nearly blocking my entrance/exit! Not to mention, other neighbors dogs that aren't quiet are kept in the yard, a literal "SHUT UP FIDO" is yelled once in awhile.

Things that are louder than a chicken laying an egg (I used to have one, so I know it gets loud).
- Neighbors dogs barking
- 'Souped'-up cars racing down the street
- Motorcycles down the street
- Kids on the trampoline or pool
- Parties and BBQs on weekends
- People working on their houses, lawns, etc.

Educating my neighbors on chickens will likely be a near impossible task here as well

I did a Google Maps on my yard - theres a falling apart shed that I am going to restore (the wood is not rotted, the structure is just falling apart) to be a coop. I am VERY lucky that its about 40 feet from any house since my yard is large. My hope is that between a wooden coop, and 40 feet of usually breezy air will help disperse the noise....

 

[Wolf-Kim]

A good way to keep the noise down is to plant evergreen shrubs, the thicker the better. That's why when you roll down the highway, you will see the huge junipers or cedars making a wall, it's for privacy and to block the noise from the highway.

A thickly walled(insulated is even better) coop helps with those hens who announce to the world that they are 'working'.

-Kim

 

[jjthink]

You obviously love your feathered friends and I'd bet this means they are very happy in your care and that you are important to them too. So I would hate to see you give them up. It's also obvious that you are very sensitive to your neighbor's needs and have taken measures to reduce noise.

No matter how loud a hen is there's no way it's as loud or as sustained as dogs barking often is, or the inevitable neighbor who has never met a noisy machine he doesn't like. Or the neighbor revving a motorcycle, or partying. And so on.

I'm not at all sure I would write the neighborhood - it's a wild card and you may get responses from people who never heard any noise but who just may have a philosophical distaste for chckens being around. It may be opening the proverbial can of worms.

It sounds like you have just one irritated neighbor and with the changes you've made perhaps her irritation will lessen. Maybe you could look into getting a shed type structure and then insulate it - they can be made to look very attractive and the insulation keeps the sound down beautifully.That's what I have and it's great. Someday, if there aren't chickens, you can repurpose it for other needs.

I am extremely sensitive to my neighbors and if my roo or hen is making noise (they are quiet most of the time) I rush to distract them. Yet I know I am by far the quietest neighbor around. The guy that lives behind my place loves every noisy machine invented by man and has a dog that never shuts up with the most grating bark you can imagine, another neighbor who plays loud music and then they scream to hear each other over it - etc etc. I would rather listen to chickens talking any day of the week!

JJ

 

[12 Acres]

Quote:
Have you ever worked midnights? I work a 12 hour midnight shift and I'm here to tell you that if a chicken wakes me up in the middle of the day, I'm gonna be ticked. The world revolves around day shifters, we night owls don't get much sympathy.

That said, the way in which this was handled was very wussified. I prefer to be talked to like an adult if someone has a problem they want to get off their chest. I hope you can find out who did it and talk to them face to face. This could have been handled so much better, really!

 

[fluffhead]

Hi 12 Acres, as a nurse I definitely respect the night shift! Sorry that I sounded like I meant otherwise. I was saying that this lady isn't being disturbed from pre-work sleep. She's retired. And yes, I was being rude anyway.

I will definitely be very nice to her now, though.

 

[12 Acres]

Thanks for clarifying!

 

[fluffhead]

You guys, this is really quite amazing. I did end up writing my neighborhood an e-mail and the response has been intense. No one even knew the chickens were on the block. Basically people are really irate that a neighbor would write an anonymous letter, and also that someone would complain about the sounds of animals (when we live in a city and have lots of police sirens, etc.). Someone outright called the writer a "chickensh*t." Oh my gosh!! My two next-door neighbors said they would be happy to write letters of support if I ever needed them.

I also DID learn from my next door neighbor that my Ameracauna buk-KAWed for over an hour last week. I am really grateful that he let me know this. That must have been seriously annoying. I suspect that the anonymous neighbor just couldn't stand the noise and fired off a postcard in anger. I am feeling bad now for this lady, who is getting reamed on the neighborhood e-mail list.

I feel better knowing I have the support of the neighborhood, though. And the law - my chickens are officially legal (I measured the 25ft minimum residence distance today). AND, I could even get some geese, turkeys and 2 female goats!! WOW!

edited for spelling

 

[jackieb226]

Having been threw a similar problem here. SUCK up to the Neighbours. Their complaints in their eyes are very serious and need to be directly dealt with. I had 1 neighbour that complained about the smell even after I clean the whole place out. The local rule enforcer even came out once and sat in his vehicle right next to a composter FULL of manure and said that he could smell nothing but said to make sure that I kept the smell down so that he wouldn't have to come back. I talked to the people involved and came to an agreement, if they had a problem they came directly to me.

Good luck