I've got a light in my coop that comes on around 4, turns off at 7, to give the hens a little extra light as we're far enough north that we're already under 14 hours of sunlight a day. This morning, one of my hens was screaming the egg song at the top of her lungs....at 5:30 am. She never even laid an egg, actually. She just sang and sang and sang. I got up, went out, turned off the light, then petted her for a bit to try to get her out of that state of perseveration....and went back to bed. But she went back to singing. I could put the light on after dark, but then she sings the egg song well after dark. My coop is actually closer to my neighbors' houses than it is to mine, due to the necessity of the lay of my yard (that was the only flat spot). I do NOT want to turn the neighbors against me. What I can hear through my window is only the -GAWK! of buk buk buk bu-GAWK, and I hope that's all they can hear also. I don't think it's worse than the local crows - but it's loud and irritating....and unlike crows, which you can't do anything about, these are domestic critters. Can I retrofit my coop to be better soundproofed? If so, what can I put up on the outside? It's just plywood, and it does muffle the sound to some degree. I want to muffle it better.
Would it make a difference if you did not use the light in the coop at all? Why does a light need to come on at 4 AM? To dampen the sound you could add a layer of styrofoam insulation, but since that is not very durable, you would have to add another layer of paneling on top of that. It could get fairly expensive.
Thats what we did, we put insulation up and then put a layer of partical board over it. It will be warmer in the winter for them also. I have an EE hen that hollars her head off everyday. She stands in the coop, in front of the nest box and hollars her head off and then finally gets in the box and lays her egg. Its loud but we cant hear her and the neighbors are to far away to hear her but when you are outside you go running to see if she has layed a golden egg or something ! The only thing i can think to do is insulate the coop real well. That will tone it down alot. She's got personality
I insulated my coop with regular fiberglass insualtion (The fluffy kind) and plastic and OSB with paint. Not because of sound but because of the cold here. But let me tell you, with them in there and with the windows and door closed, I can barely hear them . And my BA is LOUD!
