Got a suggestion for super-quiet hens in a small-lot suburb?

[woodlandd]

I have buff orpingtons, which generally are very quiet. Sometimes, if they need something, they'll yell at the top of their lungs to get me to come outside, though this isn't any louder than any other wild, loud bird. In fact, sometimes I get confused as to whether I'm listening to a raven or my chickens!

If you're willing to get a pair of lap chickens like silkies or orpingtons that you can keep in the house, that would make it seem quieter than if they were to yell from the backyard.

 

[RGB RIP]

Hi, Neighbor Lady. I just saw this thread, and I realize I'm a little late to the party, as your post is over a month old. But I also live on a small lot, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and I have chickens. Our city requires that coops be located just 50 feet from the neighbors (100 if you have a rooster), and my yard just barely squeaks above that threshold.

First let me say, 12 chickens is too many for people who live that close to their neighbors. I have 4, and that's about the maximum I would consider in a yard the size of mine. People have a perception that chickens are loud, and that has not been my experience. In fact, neighbors occasionally ask me if I still have mine, because they say they never hear them. Compared to the noise of dogs, kids, ambient traffic noise, and even just the twittering of wild birds in the neighborhood, my birds rarely rise above the noise floor. (And most of that noise is quiet clucking, which at least in my opinion, is actually kind of a relaxing sound, as opposed to crying babies and barking dogs.)

What is true is that the MORE chickens you have, the more noise you have. And the more chickens you have crowded into less space, the more noisy squabbling you're going to have. My girls have a small coop for sleeping, but a big 10'X15' covered pen, and I let them freely roam the backyard during the day when I'm home to supervise. With all that space, there's not much for them to squabble about, so maybe that keeps them quiet.

In your case, it doesn't sound like it's a question of chickens, it's a question of those particular neighbors. If they're the kind of people who are already noisy and have not been receptive to your requests to keep the noise down in the past, that's a bad sign. If they're the kind of people who jump into things without properly researching how to do it responsibly, that's another bad sign. If you have misgivings about those things, I wouldn't blame you at all for saying no to the chickens.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Heh, you should meet my one and only SF. Her nickname: Noisehole. She follows me around, screaming for attention, then screaming as she runs away. She screams if she's thinking about laying within the next 6 hours, or if someone else has laid. She even tries to make noise while drinking which causes her to hiccup.

Noisehole!! One of my pullets growls, like Marge Simpson when she’s mad at Homer
BTW, I call my (husbands) dog Maxhole!

 

[The Truth Is Out There]

Wow! I really appreciate the array of responses here.

Yeah, if it were a "try it and see" sort of thing -- and if they hadn't already proven to be so "our kids are perfect, how dare you" about noise -- I'd be open to it. I mean I grow a good deal of my food, get my electricity from my roof, I'm all about sustainability. But given the reactions so far about noise...I've asked three times for some quiet. The first time the guy was all "oh of course, very sorry", the second time he was the pandemic housedad and pretty strung out, and he got all bristly, agreed to keep two hours a week scream-free so that I could teach my online classes (my students could hear them through zoom), and then ignored his promise, also got very touchy about the idea that yeah, he's really audible on his phone. The last time he rage-pruned my apple tree. (Boughs went over his yard, and I'd said he could prune if he didn't want the apples or ask me to get the tree pruned, but I wasn't expecting this emotional thing with broken branches...it was a mess, I had to get an arborist in.) The wife went all white-noise about it and suggested essentially that I not use my office or bedroom, which are nearest their property. Eventually they did quiet the kids down but now they're super-chilly as neighbors, no hello, nothing. I've shrugged and decided I'd rather have frostiness than that much noise.

One of our city councilors recently adopted the neighbor veto as a cause along with wanting to get rid of the single-family home clause, so I suspect we'll see it come up. In theory I'm really not wild about neighbor vetoes about property use, and a lot of councilors weren't happy about it either when the rule went in. But from what you guys are saying, it sounds like it's pretty likely that yes, the chickens would just add to the noise. (Now if I could get them to swap the chicken noise for the kid/guy noise, I'd be seriously tempted. 0% chance, but what a nice fantasy.)

Maybe, if it comes up, council will be persuadable about lot size and distance from houses. I don't think we have any rules about that right now, but as I look around, I see a lot of towns requiring at least 6000 sqft, some wanting 0.25 or 0.5 acres, a few wanting 1 acre, 5 acres for a rooster. (I get that the one councilor sees SFHs an equity issue, but it's also an equity issue for a duplex or apartment neighbor next to noisy birds.) I think we'd also need a way for neighbors to object to small-lot chickens in a way that leads to permit nonrenewal and that doesn't require a bunch of neighbors to complain -- if a neighbor's health/household/livelihood is being affected by chicken noise or smells, and efforts to work things out aren't working, then the human neighbors take priority.

Also, I hadn't thought about how much room a pen and decent room would take up back there...good point about that. They do have a big playset in the backyard, but I think the guy is thinking cramped quarters. He's also thinking about keeping the chickens in their under-a-bedroom garage during our long frigid winters (!) which just didn't sound great to me, for them or for the birds -- but they'd be living with it, not me.

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So I guess I have a followup: you guys know about chickens, what do you think is a decent amount of space for chickens? Like how big do you think a pen should be, per chicken, to keep them happy, and...say you had someone at home who needed quiet, how far away would you want the coop to be from your house so that you weren't hearing the birds early in the morning or through a good chunk of the day? (A lady on youtube was kind enough to record her chickens -- she's got a good big suburban lot, and from 100' away, it sounded like no problem at all. As she got closer, though, wow, those birds were loud, and they weren't even making laying noises, just nattering at each other. She probably had a dozen birds in there.)

Thanks again, and I really appreciate this.

I currently have bantam chickens and so far the hens I have aren’t loud at all.
They are still young and haven’t laid yet. I don’t think they will lay any eggs til spring. But maybe some small breed chickens?

 

[The Truth Is Out There]

Japanese Coturnix Quail crowing.

I MISS THAT SOUND! I had 18 coturnix quail at one point. 5 of them were male. It is noisy. But not annoying. Not to me at least. Blue jays and crows were louder though. I will get more quail next year I think. I can say that the hens are quiet and make really cute low chirp like noises. Quail hens don’t sing like chicken he s do when they lay.
Quail can be kept in a rabbit hutch and take up much less space than a chicken would.
So if it’s about noise then definitely go with female quail. No one would know they were there.
And I know for a fact because I had them on my deck outside my windows/door! You couldn’t hear the hens only the males crow.