soooooooooooooo loud - need advice

[jrabbit]

Is our hen going to ALWAYS make tons of noise about laying an egg?

We've only had her 2 days, but she's making a ton of racket ... like for 2 hours ... mixed with behavior that makes us (novices) think that she wants to lay an egg. Beatrix is a barred rock - about 7 months old. The second new hen (Amanda) is a black sex link, same age, same flock - she made more noise yesterday than today. Beatrix is the only one squawking today.

They are in quarantine right now - they are nesting in an open wire dog crate inside the enclosed run, but in full view of our original 2 hen. Our first hens are about 5 months old, free-range by day, and they have access to their roosting house, which is above the run where Beatrix & Amanda are confined.

We were not planning to have to quarantine new hens, so we don't have a second hen house, nor can we build one. (originally, we bought 3 hens, but one turned out to be a rooster, so we gave him away ... long story)

We live in an urban neighborhood and can not risk unhappy neighbors with noise. We could put a small carrier inside the run and maybe convince them to nest inside it - would that keep the noise down?

thanks
--janis,etc

 

[JennsPeeps]

If she's making noise during the day, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I find that even a pretty noisy hen makes less noise overall than a dog. Our neighbors on one side have hens who fuss all day. On the other side are dogs who bark incessantly. I'd take the hens' noise any day.

Ask the neighbors. Get to know them! Offer free eggs every so often & offer to get rid of their table scraps for them.

She may calm down once she's in with the other hens and as she ages.

 

[jrabbit]

Today, she was quiet. Just when we were discussing trading her back for a quieter model ... we thought it was a good sign.

Then we realized she didn't lay an egg today.

<sigh>

any other advice? we can't really risk the neighbors getting irked because technically, we're in violation of the city distance ordinance ... as I told my daughter, we could give the noisy ONE back or get into trouble and lose ALL of them ...

--janis