So this technique will work for ducks. But it might not work for chickens. It would probably work for other waterfowl.
So right now I have two groups of ducks in my backyard. This is because I started them with the one group actually as ducklings. They are now about 8 weeks old runners. They are really awesome and nice looking. I'll try to put up a pic later today.
The other group is the adult ducks, mostly pekings.
I had them separate because of the fact that the others were ducklings. But now they are bigger.
However, lately, I've been thinking its a good noise control strategy to keep them separate. I don't think I have a noise problem. So I'm not too sensitive about it. But I had been sort of proactive against it because I was worried about any complaints.
So when ducks make noise it seems like there's a chain of noises. Like duck #1 quacks loud because of something, and then there's a chain of quacks from the other ducks reacting also. It seems also that less than probably 30% of noise is the first initial quacks that set of other quack chains. This is interesting to think about because it helps in thinking about noise containment.
So it seems that if 1 group doesn't see or hear the other group, even if they know they are there, they don't always react to the other duck groups quacking. To be fair, I have to be careful saying that because I have heard ducks in group 2 reacting to group 1. But usually when they do its only for alarm type quacks. The minor and middle volume quacks they won't always react to.
This is very cool because it means that by splitting the ducks into two groups, I believe I've cut the noise into 'more' than 50% lower! I believe that probably by keeping them in smaller groups the noise is probably cut by even 60% or possibly higher!
I find this quite interesting because this means that people who really like having poultry and helping their kids learn from them and learning to be self sufficient, could have more opportunity with more ducks if they keep them in smaller partitioned groups!
An example.... 15 ducks together would make a lot of noise probably. But I think that 3 groups of 5 ducks each would NOT make hardly any noise at all! This would then make more opportunity. Plus it would also give you more control over which genes are going where instead of turning all future breeds into muts. (This is a big deal also. In beekeeping for example, you don't find pure Carniolan bees anymore, or pure Italian bees anymore because American beekeepers over the years would always mix them so much that you can almost never find pure strains anymore. So if that can happen to ducks, its very possible that in 50 years duck breeds in the US would become more and more muddied in genetics and be harder to find pure strains also.
Fun to think about!
PS the partitions separating the ducks in my case are old repurposed plywood half sheets (cut horizontally in half to be about 2 feet wide). This means that duck group A doesn't see duck group B, though I'm sure they know each is there. I haven't yet verified if the effect would be the same if the half sheet partitions were see through.
So right now I have two groups of ducks in my backyard. This is because I started them with the one group actually as ducklings. They are now about 8 weeks old runners. They are really awesome and nice looking. I'll try to put up a pic later today.
The other group is the adult ducks, mostly pekings.
I had them separate because of the fact that the others were ducklings. But now they are bigger.
However, lately, I've been thinking its a good noise control strategy to keep them separate. I don't think I have a noise problem. So I'm not too sensitive about it. But I had been sort of proactive against it because I was worried about any complaints.
So when ducks make noise it seems like there's a chain of noises. Like duck #1 quacks loud because of something, and then there's a chain of quacks from the other ducks reacting also. It seems also that less than probably 30% of noise is the first initial quacks that set of other quack chains. This is interesting to think about because it helps in thinking about noise containment.
So it seems that if 1 group doesn't see or hear the other group, even if they know they are there, they don't always react to the other duck groups quacking. To be fair, I have to be careful saying that because I have heard ducks in group 2 reacting to group 1. But usually when they do its only for alarm type quacks. The minor and middle volume quacks they won't always react to.
This is very cool because it means that by splitting the ducks into two groups, I believe I've cut the noise into 'more' than 50% lower! I believe that probably by keeping them in smaller groups the noise is probably cut by even 60% or possibly higher!
I find this quite interesting because this means that people who really like having poultry and helping their kids learn from them and learning to be self sufficient, could have more opportunity with more ducks if they keep them in smaller partitioned groups!
An example.... 15 ducks together would make a lot of noise probably. But I think that 3 groups of 5 ducks each would NOT make hardly any noise at all! This would then make more opportunity. Plus it would also give you more control over which genes are going where instead of turning all future breeds into muts. (This is a big deal also. In beekeeping for example, you don't find pure Carniolan bees anymore, or pure Italian bees anymore because American beekeepers over the years would always mix them so much that you can almost never find pure strains anymore. So if that can happen to ducks, its very possible that in 50 years duck breeds in the US would become more and more muddied in genetics and be harder to find pure strains also.
Fun to think about!
PS the partitions separating the ducks in my case are old repurposed plywood half sheets (cut horizontally in half to be about 2 feet wide). This means that duck group A doesn't see duck group B, though I'm sure they know each is there. I haven't yet verified if the effect would be the same if the half sheet partitions were see through.
