Making a true backyard chicken?

[Nyowpotopop]

There is absolutely a need for quieter chickens. There are potentially thousands of people who might choose to finally buy some chickens if they made less noise. The noise factor is mentioned here quite often. It is almost always because of neighbors that people here want quieter chickens. Why the argument over whether or not lousy nieghbors can prevent some folks from having chickens in their backyards?

Neither a biology degree nor a nursing background specifically qualifies anyone as to the genetic propensity as to whether a quieter bird could be bred. Many breeds have been developed in much less than a lifetime. I have no idea why so many people are downright belligerent over the prospect of breeding a quieter chicken. The difference with chickens is we can select and breed a new generation much more frequently. Selecting the quiet-EST birds from already quiet breeds would absolutely produce some results. It takes an extremely hard-headed individual to not believe that if you started with breeds that are quieter already, and selected birds out of those that are the quietest, that you wouldn't get any results.

What Dr. Reginald Punnett accomplished with the Cream Legbar was astonishing! You know, this is the guy who they named "Punnett Squares" after. He had quite an "extensive scientific background" also. He did all of this in much less than several lifetimes. To say emphatically that quietness is not passed on genetically is nonsense! We have not even come close to unravelling the ALL of the mysteries of DNA. Not even 4H mommas know all there is to know about what is passed from one generation to the next. Not even the ones who took a couple of courses in nursing.

Discussing dogs, we bred field trial champion rabbit dogs for years. For example, if we had a ***** with a short high-pitched chop while on scent, she would almost always produce some progeny with a very similar bark. In the hog-dog hobby, we do not want to alert the hog that we are near. We breed specifically for dogs that trail quietly. A dog that alerts the hog would send the hog into the next parish. In the same breeds of dogs, Catahoula, Walker Hounds, Blackmouth Curs we have managed to breed some that bay/bark on trail and some that are mummy-quiet.

To say that chickens cannot be selectively bred to be quieter is ludicrous! We have ABSOLUTELY bred for quietness in dogs. No coincidence, no maybe! We breed quiet dams to quiet sires and come up with quieter dogs. Why is it impossible with chickens?

Thank you! My thoughts exactly, but apparently some people must know everything in the world and therefore any other ideas are irrelevant. What is the cream legbar...? I have never heard of it! *goes to look it up*

 

[TheChicknGarden]

I have a backyard flock... Consist of silkies a barred rock a sizzle and a polish.... No roos... My nieghbors have nomclue i have chickens and they are real close.
My girls are very docile and quiet....

 

[Nyowpotopop]

See, but if I went and bought 12 silkies straight run and culled all the roos... I could still end up with loud birds. As a breed, nobody is breeding those birds to be quiet.

 

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

Wow some people just like to argue.

I had close to 30 australorp hens, I had less than an eighth of an acre, and my neighbors didn't even know I had chickens.

They were very, very quiet birds. A lot quieter than the hybrid layers I originally had.

In a local small city they are allowed 4 hens (they are trying to get more allowed). The lots are very, very tiny and in a local news report about how they are trying to increase the number of birds allowed they said they receive very few if any complaints, and there are a lot of chickens in the city. Here is the article

 

[hdowden]

the only people i know on here are not going for a quite breed but they are going for quite roosters so people with in city limits can own a rooster. i have 16 chickens and my parents have 30+ and the only time they make noise is during a crow and the roosters crow back and forth or they are alerted by danger. until the cock fighting is under control there really is no need for a quite breed to help out that illegal fighting those birds suffer and if a quite breed was created then they would have an easier time fighting their birds with no one knowing. its the roos that tend to make all the noise hence why they arrant allowed in city's and yes i have lived both in and out of city limits.

 

[Nyowpotopop]

The problem I'm facing is that (except for dogs and cats which are required to be indoors as thier primary residence) chikcens may not be housed or MAINTAINED within 100 feet from my neighbor's houses. While - when I move - I will be on nearly 1/4th an acre I will not be allowed to utilize that space for my birds. I am currently trying to plot an area I can keep chickens, ducks and rabbits in my back yard without having legal troubles. The rabbits may end up in the split garage. The result is a small housing.

And I think it's AWESOME that they're trying to get more allowed. But having lived next to too many people in my lifetime who like to complain about things just 'cause, I just don't want to risk my animals getting removed.

I will look into Australorps and see if that's a trait commonly billed for the breed. If not maybe I can buy a brid or two off of you for the quiet traits!

 

[ChickenKaylee]

Wow...I can't beleive how out of control this thread is. Name calling and arguing over nothing. If the orginal poster has all the answers, why bother asking for opinions or advice? There is A LOT more that goes into creating a breed or developing traits within a breed than the people supporting this idea appear to realize.

Where is a moderator to get this under control?

 

[Nyowpotopop]

Hey - all I wanted was to know if anyone had TRIED to make a breed like this and if they were INTERESTED in it.

I never asked for a misguided lesson on genetics (claiming that temperment isn't inherited) and for 10 people to come in and mob me telling me it couldn't or shouldn't be done.

But thanks for making me feel even more ticked off and adding fuel to the fire... So far it seems like the people on Backyard Chickens have no interest in having backYARD chickens. Especially since in my last thread (Asking if there were any suggested quiet breeds) I was told by TWO people not to keep chickens since I'm in close quarters and would like it quiet.

Ya'll have the BEST attitudes. REALLY encouraging.

 

[AinaWGSD]

So let me see. Your birds get in trouble with the neighbors for noise ordinances. You've had to cull or rehome members of your flock because of complaints by neighbors. And you have perfectly good and quiet backyard birds so there's no way they could make you get rid of them (even though they already have). Sounds like the best birds for anyones backyard! (???) COuldn't possibly be made any better.

No, I had to cull my rooster for a possible infraction of an excessively unfair and vague ordinance. If personal circumstances weren't forcing us to move soon we would be following up with this and working on getting the ordinance changed to be more specific. Roosters are always always always going to be a problem for urban flocks. Because of people's perception of roosters as noisy even when they aren't really any noisier than dogs. Even if you successfully bred a rooster that only crowed once a day, you would still have neighbors complain about "the noise." The REST of my chickens, who are hens, ARE perfectly good and, generally, quiet backyard birds and there IS no way that my neighbors can make me get rid of them or, believe me, the one jack of a neighbor would have already. In fact, I can truthfully say that the ****** cat makes more noise than any of the hens does (and it's not just that my cat is exceptionally loud as I have known several cats that make more noise than my hens). Yes, they squawk occasionally when they lay an egg or if there's a squabble over a choice treat. But it isn't near the volume or frequency to pose a problem with any of the noise ordinances, including the overly vague one that was a problem with the rooster.


Quote: With all due respect, I do not think a quieter breed of chicken is going to change or help to change that. If that's the problem, you still have to combat the "smell" and "disease" and "attracts pests" concerns of people that know little to nothing about chickens to change a restriction that essentially prohibits people on smaller property sizes from keeping chickens.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: You say this at 3:41 a.m. EST on Sunday????

The volunteer moderators are having their QUIET Sunday, or were. Folks, you ALL need to chill out and remember that we have families and flocks to tend to and it's the weekend, Sunday no less. Good grief, we are DONE with this thread and it will NOT be cleaned and reopened.