Loud Chicken

[AnyaTotoro]

Majority of the time, they are quiet or making a fuss about a problem, but sometimes they being loud for attention or I don’t know what… how can I discourage and reduce them from being loud? I have 1 hen in particular that’s been loud since day 1 when my husband picked her out, which I was worried she was loud based on her behavior from the get go, but I’m almost to the point of wanting to do a chicken exchange… she is constantly making a lot of noise, especially in the morning. It’s not only bugging us, but my neighbors have complained. I have tried a spray bottle which works on the others, but she just gets loud complaining about water. I try to ignore so she doesn’t get attention, but at same time, Im worried neighbor will complain.

Any suggestions?

 

[SmiYa0126]

Is it her egg song?

 

[AnyaTotoro]

Is it her egg song?

No, she has been doing this for months, and she hasn’t started laying yet (although she should start laying soon based on vent shape and she squatted to be petted a few days ago).

I know some of the girls make a fuss when it’s time to lay egg, especially if another hen in their laying spot (they all like to lay in same spot as the first egg of the day, even if the first hen lays somewhere else that day lol).

 

[Kanekoded]

Majority of the time, they are quiet or making a fuss about a problem, but sometimes they being loud for attention or I don’t know what… how can I discourage and reduce them from being loud? I have 1 hen in particular that’s been loud since day 1 when my husband picked her out, which I was worried she was loud based on her behavior from the get go, but I’m almost to the point of wanting to do a chicken exchange… she is constantly making a lot of noise, especially in the morning. It’s not only bugging us, but my neighbors have complained. I have tried a spray bottle which works on the others, but she just gets loud complaining about water. I try to ignore so she doesn’t get attention, but at same time, Im worried neighbor will complain.

Any suggestions?

She doesn't realize that she's doing something wrong, therefore, spraying her with water won't do anything to shut her up, it will only make her wary of you.

Just like some people, some chickens like to talk non-stop not allowing others to get a word in edgewise. Loud mouths don't typically realize that they're loudmouths.


You could try "pecking" her in the head with your finger - it's "chicken talk" meaning quit doing what you're doing. Just don't do it so hard that you hurt anything but her feelings. I'm not guaranteeing you'll get results but it might be worth a try.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

This is unfortunately common where people don't realize that hens can be just about as loud as roosters, same only different. Certain breeds do have tendency to talk more than others. What breed is this one? And how many do you have and how much space? Can you move them to a more central place if they're dramatically close to a neighbor? With my first flock enough though I had 1 acre, I situated the girls to close to the border and neighbors complained.

 

[Iluveggers]

My FBCM is a loudmouth too. Just walks around BAAAAWK BAAAAWK BAAAAWK. Unless she’s busy foraging. She does it when I let them out, she does it when I give treats, she does it when she sees me, she does it when it’s time to go in for the night, she does it when I leave the run…lol. I think she just likes complaining.

 

[DickMidnight]

are you allowed to have chickens where you live?

if you are, then your neighbor can complain as much as they want.

if you're not, then that's a different story.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Some birds are almost always silent, others are endless chatterboxes. You might just have a chatterbox here. Assuming the chickens are legal but there's a noise ordinance or you are concerned that it'll strain relations with neighbors, then rehoming a particularly noisy bird might be the best option for you and the bird in question.

 

[AnyaTotoro]

This is unfortunately common where people don't realize that hens can be just about as loud as roosters, same only different. Certain breeds do have tendency to talk more than others. What breed is this one? And how many do you have and how much space? Can you move them to a more central place if they're dramatically close to a neighbor? With my first flock enough though I had 1 acre, I situated the girls to close to the border and neighbors complained.

She’s a favorelle chicken. We only have 1 of her, but 8 other chickens. We have a large chicken run about 40 or 50 ft long by 10 or 12 ft wide. we also let them free range yard, which is about .5 acres. I can’t really move the enclosure to far, as we like it in the area with trees for coverage.

Our neighbor actually filed a complaint with the city, which I’m happy to announce he was thoroughly impressed with our chicken run and space. We are also just far enough from neighbors per city ordnance. So yay!

However, we also don’t enjoy being woken up at 6:40am to her doing her yelling and complaining sounds…which I’m sure the neighbors enjoyed as well.

Update: literally as I’m writing this, i will report, that after giving them snacks in hope of shutting them up, and then letting them loose on 2nd trip, on the 3rd trip outside into the first day of cold when I went to investigate weird sounds from coop like scratching and banging,
especially to make sure it wasn’t a big rat or something, I caught her in the coop doing what I presume is her weird egg laying ritual, like she was cleaning the house first. Even all the chickens came over to see what the ruckus she was making in the coop, moving hay around and all… which of course I pissed her off when I checked coop like i caught her butt naked! she ran away, and then yelled at me, cuz I guess she got to start over… so looks like she will be laying her first egg today, which is exciting. But maybe she can adjust her egg song to not first thing in morning…

Now I’m waiting for her to shut up her first egg song so I can go back to bed and hope the neighbors don’t get pissy again.

 

[AnyaTotoro]

are you allowed to have chickens where you live?

if you are, then your neighbor can complain as much as they want.

if you're not, then that's a different story.

I just don’t want the neighbors to do something stupid like poison the girls, cuz they being big jerks right now. I used to apologize and give them eggs when they super noisy and bitchy until they became a$$holes.