How to make them SHUT UP!

[Beekissed]

I agree! If I were stuck living in a city~which I could never imagine, but who knows what the next day may bring~I would be finding ways of producing my own foods as well. Having said this, I would also have a reasonable expectation of what that really means. City dwellers would not even have to debate chicken noise if they raised rabbits for food instead. No problems with how many you could have, roo or hens, how to conceal a coop, how to keep them silent, etc. They are quite proliferant, provide good composting material, take minimal expense for start-up and produce way more meat/food in their lifetime than do chickens. Not to mention they will not in any way wake up the neighbors at 6 am.

Of course, that would mean someone would actually have to kill the little furry buggers in order to have a meal...but that is all in the whole providing healthy foods for the family thingy.

I would spend more time growing and preserving veggies and fruits than meats, as these are also silent and productive pursuits that yield a healthier and renewable food source, as one can build cold frames or small greenhouses that can help one grow four season crops. These also are silent food sources.

City or country, it makes no matter, as long as one is prepared, has reasonable expectations of outcomes and has a decent learning curve.

I grew up in an era when facts were facts and sugar coating to suit another's desires was just a bunch of bull.

Me, too, Sourland...I'm not really used to petting one's ego so much when dispensing them valuable, hard-won advice and it always takes me quite by surprise when someone get offended and looks my gift horse in the mouth. I don't dress things up in a pretty package but you can take it to the bank if I offer it....it took many years to learn it and I'm still learning. One can never stop learning!

 

[elabraleon]

EXTREMELY LOUD REPETITIVE SCREAMING is what they've been doing at 6am. Not egg song. I like egg song. It's cute that they're announcing their accomplishment. Its also nice that they lay later in the day, not at 6am.

The screaming commenced even though:
-Their coop door was already open
-They had access to food and water
-They were in their large run with plenty of room to scratch around and play

Thanks for the following suggestions:

Not giving them treats in the morning (This was a mistake I had been doing... unintentionally reinforcing their loudness as was stated)
Hanging a cabbage (flock block, etc..) for them to nibble on and play with (they moved on to the cabbage after being squirted for their screaming fit)
Squirting them with water when they are screaming (this worked very well to get them to quiet down)
Behavior of chickens can be modified through classical conditioning


No thanks for the following suggestions:

I should get rid of my chickens
There is no solution
I am being unreasonable to expect them to not EXCESSIVELY scream at 6am
Implying that I am keeping chickens illegally (I am not a lawbreaker. Nor am I inconsiderate. Thus why I'm concerned about my neighbors)
Implying that my thread is to be given up on because I said 10 minutes after someone suggested giving them treats that I had already tried this and it seemed to make the problem worse. (I did try to trouble shoot how to decrease their screaming on my own before ever posting on the forum.)

Rude, Rude, Rude! Why must you be so condescending? As I said before, this forum is supposed to be a friendly place to share and ask advice, why would you turn this into such a negative situation?
Back Yard Chickens, Right? or am I in the wrong place?
I have never had a thread go this way before and I have posted here a lot. Really sad.
Moving on.

 

[PtldChick]

Quote:
Considering all the noise factors in the city, it's somewhat comical that roosters are outlawed. I live 1/4 mi from the freeway and R/R, 1 mile from the police station, 1 mile from the hospital, 1/4 mile from a rowdy nightclub. The neighbors on one side of me have a knock-down drag out 1-2x month. The other neighbor's dog comes over to my fence several times a day to harass my dogs, which starts a barkfest. My chickens are quiet compared to all this.

I think I am lucky because my girls are pretty quiet, at least I can't hear them in the house in the morning. My Indian runner hens are much louder than my chickens, so they kind of drown them out. They also have about 1/3 of my back yard to range in (~500 sq ft), so there's plenty of room to avoid squabbles. The bigger ones don't pick on the littler ones too much because there's enough room for everyone.

As an uninvolved observer, I thought that several of the posts came across as rude, although the posters may not have meant it. 93% of communication is non-verbal, so much is lost in an e-mail. I think we all need to be careful of what we write.

I do agree with one thing - birds, all birds, are loud! Think about how many timess you have woken up in the morning hearing little birds, maybe 1/4 mile away, chirping? Have you ever heard a cockatoo scream? Unbearable in the house, I would never have a parrot as a pet. Birds are the loudest creatures on earth for their size (except maybe crickets and frogs). Chickens are probably on the quiet end of the scale.

However, most loud, excited noises by chickens are for a particular reason - just like humans have reasons for raising our voices. They have at least 20 documented different calls. Some are fear calls or warning calls, some are anger calls, some are 'is it safe' calls when leaving the nest after laying. Chicks definitely have an 'I'm not happy' or 'panic' call that can be piercing. But it's not normal for a person or a bird to scream all the time, and if the birds are being particularly loud, there's a reason. Contented chickens cluck and coo, they don't scream. 20 chickens all clucking just isn't that loud. As one poster wrote, find the reason for the loudness, you may find the answer.

 

[PtldChick]

Thank you Beekissed. This is something that I have been thinking about all day. Even thought about starting a thread about 'The difference between perception and intent.' I asked myself, "Why try to give constructive, husbandry and experience based suggestions when they are bound to be misconstrued." I grew up in an era when facts were facts and sugar coating to suit another's desires was just a bunch of bull.

It is possible to state facts without being rude; facts and rude do not go hand in hand. As an HR manager for 20+ years, I can't tell you how many times I heard versions of the above used as an excuse for rude behavior - "I was only telling the truth!" If we truly want to help someone else, our focus should be on that someone else, including how to best deliver a message so it will be perceived as helpful and perhaps even used.

Some people may find this post rude, and I'm sorry if I offend you. This is a topic that I feel strongly about. I see it on other lists I'm on. The anonymity of e-mail/computers enables people to write things they would never say in person to someone.

Elabraleon, I'm glad you have found a solution to your problem. I'll keep the hose in mind if it ever comes to that here.

 

[vanilla.exe]

WHen I want my rooster to shut up I sit out there in the morning with him in my lap and pet him. It's the only thing that works 100%

 

[ChicksterJo]

I am having this problem now that two more pullets are starting to lay. The one pullet that's already laying has started to become a bit quieter since the other two have taken up the mic, so to speak. Just this morning I woke up earlier than usual so I could tend to them and make sure they weren't as loud but the Delaware was having a fit. She doesn't know how to make her nest in the nest box so she kept going in and out, screaming at the same time. No matter what I did she wouldn't let up. I finally put up some wood boards along their run (since it is just hardware cloth) to see if that would help muffle some of the sound.
I've been squirting them with water when they bawk too loud in the morning but that only works up to a point. I think the Delaware may settle down after she is confidently laying (maybe a week or two more) - I hope!

And I also hope that elabraleon has found some solutions to her problem, too!

 

[pengimama]

Quote:
I know it did with mine

! Everytime I walk by and I don't have a treat they will make this growling noise at me lol.

 

[RedDrgn]

Quote:
It would because they will associate making a ton of noise with getting treats! "Lets make noise, because then we get food!!!"

As for getting them to quiet down a bit, I don't know.

 

[Miyashi]

Mine always start singing in the morning...then my tiniest hen gets crabby and chases all the big girls out of the coop so she can have quiet time...but she sure makes A LOT of noise in the process.
I live in the sticks...so no one bothers me...
I wish I could offer you a suggestion.
Hens make noise when they lay...and if there is no rooster, they tend to be very noisy in the morning...at least that's my experience.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Come back OP! Come back!

Have you tried looking for a small but scary predator?

I have seen threads about snakes in the eggboxes. I had a tiny screech owl who looked like a piece of rock staring the chickens down. One time, my hens had a shrew zapping them in the feet from underneath the backyard mulch.

Predators are the stuff of sci-fi movies, they're stealthy and wearing excellent camo. A fox might be an arms' length away and the chickens may be doing the "alarm call", which sounds a lot like a car alarm or smoke detector alarm. One way to see what the chickens see, is to watch where their eye is pointing to, they will stare a straight line at the predatory thing while calling the alarm, believe me a hawk or owl in a tree branch is impossible to notice until you learn to see it with chicken vision!