Smell and noise ??

[teach1rusl]

Clean coop = no smell (other than times when you're innocently standing there minding your own business and a girl drops a cecal poo bomb right next to your foot

) Sand works fantastically for easy clean-up in the run - get it in bulk from rock/mulch company. Dropping boards are great too! I keep a "poop bucket" and 6" putty knife handy and scrape mine daily. Takes all of a minute or two.

Most people worry about noise during non-noise times (early mornings and bed times). With no roosters, this won't be an issue. Chickens are quiet during dark periods. Your birds will talk and gossip

, and will raise a bit of ruckus when it's egg time, but that's pretty short-lived. I don't think your neighbors will have any reason to complain.

 

[greenSearcher]

I think the chickens are quiet, but then I don't wear my hearing aids as much at home. They can be loud, and go on for a while with the egg song, was working on the coops today and I got to listen to one of the girls go one for a good hour. Warm up choruses, main act and encore. Most of the other girls are "get it done, and I'm outta of here".
Other than the roosters, hens are no more noisy than a well behaved dog.

 

[Qi Chicken]

Make sure the poop board extends BOTH behind and in front of the actual roost bar. They won't all face the same way. We made that mistake the first time and had to redo the poop boards. But they are WAY helpful. We have one small roost in front of a front window (so they could look out with their little chicken faces LOL) and there is a ton of poop beneath it. Not under the other roost that spans the whole building and has poop boards under it.

We tried to put linoleum on MDF (?) and it does not and will never work. There is not an adhesive known to man that will adhere it apparantly. Whatever another poster said to use is what I would do. I did try to use the squares rather than a sheet. Bad idea.


They are going to make some noise. I read somewhere that a rooster crowing is about 60 decibels, similar to a dog barking, but because it is unusual, your neighbors, depending on the neighbor, might be tichy. I would try to make them see that the chickens are important members of your family, introduce them (with names) if one makes a distinguishable call let them know "oh, that;s just Marge again!" they'll get a kick out of that hopefully! Some eggs probably wouldn't hurt either.

I wouldn't want to smell chicken poop while swimming so I would make sure it was clean. DE is a good, very good, idea.