[prettychick]

Hi new to this site so hope i am in right place. we are new to keeping chickens and now have 4 lovely hens. they were very noisy this morning at 5.30 just wondering if this is normal

[joyfull]

perfectly normal - some hens can be noisier than cockerels at times 

[Kathie]

Hi Prettychick and welcome to the site.  I'm not that experienced but I think it's a spring thing! We have 7 hens and 4 of them have been very noisy for a few weeks now, although I must admit I'm not sure they start as early as yours.  Good luck with them especially if you have close neighbours, we are lucky as our nearest neighbour is about 1km away and also has hens.
Best wishes
Kathie

[OpiumEater]

You may have also had a fox go by and they were doing their warning call. When my three (now two) went into warning call mode, the noise was astounding!

[prettychick]

thanks everyone for your comments. Do you think they may have made a lot of noise because we sometimes hav a cat passing through our garden. Otherwise maybe we wont have to let them out of the coop so early

[ANHBUC]

We let ours out at 7 am and they are quite happy in their coop until then.

[OpiumEater]

I think the cat could be a very good explanation. I was letting mine out at 6.30, but half-term it's been 7.15 and they have been just fine.

[poohpouri]

most likely the cat as ours go crazy when the local cat visits

[prettychick]

thanks everyone all very helpful 

[bramford]

ours get very vocal when nexts doors cat is about so yes that would be the answer