Loud Hen

[GoAngels]

I have three stealth chickens, except one just refuses to be stealth. At one time, I was allowing them to roam the backyard whenever I was home. But I found it nearly impossible to keep them from digging up the roots of my young citrus trees, so now I have the three of them confined to an 8 x 5 run and attached Little Tikes playhouse coup.

Of the three, one EE and two RIR, one of the RIR is just about as loud as any rooster I've ever heard. She usually starts up around 6am and keeps going no matter what I do for 2-3 hours. I've now taken to squirting her with a squirt bottle but that only works when I stand there.

Any ideas on what I can do to shut her up? I understand that hens make some noise, but she is extreme. If I can't get the noise under control, I will need to rehome her and possibly the other two as well.

 

[HHandbasket]

Mine do that every morning until we get up and open the run and let them out. She likely wants out and may keep doing that until you let her out of the run. Sometimes we don't even have to wait for our alarm to get us up in the mornings.... once the girls start in with what we call "the squallering" (cross between squawking and hollering), one or two of them are so loud we have to go out back and open the run and let them out. Once the run door is open and they are out, they're quiet as can be until it's time to go lay an egg. When we had our RIR, she was the loudest of the group, as well (she got sick and had to be culled, unfortunately).

Good luck to you.