New noisemaking activities

[LaurelC]

New chicken keeper, still working out what's normal and what's not/what causes things. We are living in the suburbs, and the only way my husband is tolerating my need for chickens is through getting and keeping "quiet" ones. Obviously the egg song and random cackling and whatnot makes sense, but noises loud enough to agitate the neighbors (outside of a mid-day egg song) are not going to fly in our yard. I got 3 girls from someone local on Craigslist. He has a bunch of birds and recommended the 3 that I took home specifically because they were known-quiet birds. I have had them for 2 weeks and we haven't had any issues with noisemaking until a few days ago. Both Saturday and Sunday AM we were awoken at around 5:30 by the 4ish month old black langshan. Both days there were multiple "events" in which she did some loud ba-GAWKing and I had to run outside to get her attention and stop the noisemaking. Monday AM, it didn't happen at all. I hoped that these were one-off events and it wouldn't happen again. This morning at 6:30, there was a very strange noise coming from her. She was just walking around in the enclosure yelling at herself(not the standard ba-gawk, I've never heard this sound before). She is nearing the age where she will be getting ready to start laying, but this noisemaking unfortunately doesn't work for us. Luckily the person that I got them from offered to "trade" if we end up with birds that are noisier than will work, but if there's something happening with them that I can prevent, I would really like to either know what's causing it, or how to prevent it?

As per my arrangement with my husband, it's either quiet chickens, or no chickens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's disturbing to hear.
I have anywhere from 3 to 20 roosters at a time. My property isn't that big but if I'm in the house, I can't hear them crow. One of my coops is about 75 feet from the neighbors' house. I asked if the roosters bothered them and they said, "You have chickens?"
When in the house I only hear neighbors mowing grass, weed eating, train whistles, boom boxes and general road noise.

I think the reason people have an issue with hen noise is that it is a new sound. Do you hear dogs barking around you? They're louder than roosters, as are lawn mowers, etc..

Are you sure your bird in question isn't a rooster?

 

[LaurelC]

That's disturbing to hear.
I have anywhere from 3 to 20 roosters at a time. My property isn't that big but if I'm in the house, I can't hear them crow. One of my coops is about 75 feet from the neighbors' house. I asked if the roosters bothered them and they said, "You have chickens?"
When in the house I only hear neighbors mowing grass, weed eating, train whistles, boom boxes and general road noise.

I think the reason people have an issue with hen noise is that it is a new sound. Do you hear dogs barking around you? They're louder than roosters, as are lawn mowers, etc..

Are you sure your bird in question isn't a rooster?

The chicken enclosure is about 40 feet from our house and 30 from the neighbor's. We do hear the dogs barking in the neighborhood. We are a little more sensitive to sound than others, but I really want to not be those neighbors with the loud pets. As noted, a little mid day noisemaking isn't such a big deal, but if it's enough to wake me up from a dead sleep at 5:30 AM on the weekend, it is too loud and I'm not OK with subjecting our neighbors to it. Barking dogs and lawnmowers/loud music aren't usually issues at 5:30AM. We have neighbors with a loud yappy dog (we hate them) and neighbors who have loud parties on weeknights (also very annoying) so if we can avoid doing those things, then we will.

I don't believe that the bird in question is a male. No spurs and we haven't heard any crowing, etc, although at this age who knows?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What breed is he? Those hackle and saddle feathers look like boy feathers.

 

[LaurelC]

What breed is he? Those hackle and saddle feathers look like boy feathers.

Black Langshan. I would be RELIEVED if it was a cockerel, but kind of irritated. Since I am such a newbie, please let me know what you're looking at and what makes it cockerel-like?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I hate to tell tell you this but chickens are noisy, a quiet chicken is a sick chicken, they make all kinds of noises and will get noisier as they get older, some are a bit more subdued in their talking habits, but quiet chickens I'm not familiar with.

 

[LaurelC]

I hate to tell tell you this but chickens are noisy, a quiet chicken is a sick chicken, they make all kinds of noises and will get noisier as they get older, some are a bit more subdued in their talking habits, but quiet chickens I'm not familiar with.

I totally get that. The other 2 birds are chattery, but not outright LOUD. One of them seems to wander around and just mutter to herself. I find it endearing. As noted, some are noisier than others, and as such, some are quieter. The other 2 that we have are quiet and laid back, and this black one simply isn't. Up until a few days ago, the noise level was not an issue.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The saddle and hackle feathers on cockerels are pointy, They're round ended on pullets. Eventually the tail will start to get long curved sickle feathers. Wing feathers will be more pointed too.

I think everyone is freaking now because the sounds are unusual. They just aren't that noisy. Many years ago at this house I wanted to fly under the radar. I was standing in the yard and thought the cackling was pretty loud. Then the neighbor across the street started cutting the grass and I couldn't hear the chickens any more.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They sometimes get louder as they approach the point of lay, perhaps this is what going on, I did enjoy the vision of your muttering chicken, funny.

 

[LaurelC]

They sometimes get louder as they approach the point of lay, perhaps this is what going on, I did enjoy the vision of your muttering chicken, funny.

I have read that, and this is certainly something that I thought might be the case. Either way, we can't wait a couple months for the noises to stop happening so early. We are going to "trade her in" for another bird from the sellers that is older and already laying, hopefully preventing some of the extraneous noisemaking from taking place.