[peachesandclive]

I have a garden flock of 6 hens. One of them has recently become very noisy and I am very aware (and embarrassed) that my neighbours are having to put up with her loud squawking - I live in the middle of a housing estate and she's at her worst first thing in the morning, you can hear her from down the street.

She is a hen we've had for a couple of years and was one of an original trio. The trio became a duo a long time ago and about 10 days ago her remaining chum died. I am wondering whether, although there are another 5 hens to pal about with, she's missing her old friend (I'm going all Chicken Run here). What do you think?

I am wondering about sending her away to board for a week or so to see if I can break this habit. If she carries on as she is, she's going to have to go - I can't look my neighbours in the eye at the moment.

Any advice, ideas, opinions welcomed!

Alison

[joyfull]

bribe your neighbours with a few eggs and just apologise, hopefully she will calm down soon.

[compostqueen]

Is there a cockerel in the vicinity, or some dog etc nearby that she can see?  My hens used to get spooked by next door's dogs that they can see through the hedge. Mine used to get very vocal my a local cockerel used to start crowing in the morning

Since we moved house they've been really quiet.  I used to have to keep going out to mine to see what was up with them as I didn't want my neighbours disturbed.  I did bribe them with eggs though    

[chickadee]

i have recently re-stocked my flock and decided to keep margo (my first hens)(rip madeleine) and marmite has gone to wildwitchy so i could introduce 3 new pol to make my maximum of 4 now margo and marmite have been the best of friends for over 2 years and margo honked solid for 3 days pacing up and down looking for marmite when she left and by day 4 she had lost her voice however im now 10 days in and feel very pleased with how margo has taken to the new girls ( velma cream legbar, douce speckledy and mabel sussex star) now margo and mabel are the best of friends so hopefully she will settle down for you, from my observations hens form bonds with both us and their kin and once they sort the pecking order out life settles back down, i get to visit marmite and she rushes up to me bok boking so sweet. As for the noise i live on the edge of a housing estate and if yours is anything like mine dogs diy maniacs buses music etc etc.. are the norm so a honking hen wont't touch the surface -- good luck

[Jeanette]

Chickens flock together they dont like to be on there own. If you can i would get another couple to keep her company.

[joyfull]

She does have another 5 hens to pal about with but at the moment she is missing her best mate 

[sallylouise]

I personally would not worry, unless your neighbours start complaing she is probably no louder than a dog barking or children playing outside and it's rare for people to complain about them.  

[clairebeau]

I agree with SallyLouise.
I have old ladies as my neighbours and a couple of young families, all who are at home during the day.  They have only ever said that they like the comforting noise of a busy body chicken in the area. 
The girls have been worse the past few weeks though but I reckon it's just they are getting excited about spring, plus one is very broody (got her some eggs now to keep her happy) I kept kicking her off the nest but she would grumble all day about it ha ha.
Don't worry unless you really need to, and I think you'll be OK as you are. 
You could always play rock music at full pelt to drown the noise of her singing?! 
Love Claire x

[peachesandclive]

Claire - I love your suggestion!!

I have been telling myself that they're no louder than a barking dog etc, but in all fairness there are no barking dogs nearby and if it weren't for old bugle beak it would be all quiet save for the soft tweeting of birds.

In fact it's really only my next-door neighbour's 25 year old daughter that bothers me. Her bedroom is on the back and so she is the most affected. She's a miserable devil to start with but in fairness at her age I did like to lie in bed all Saturday/Sunday morning and I can't say that's unreasonable. I keep sending my kids round with eggs - they're not likely to say anything to a 5 and 6 year old!! Now who's the chicken?!

[traacyken]

i know how you feel ive had my window open the odd night and heard one of mine loudly squarking at between 6-630 in the morn , i was on pins ive got a stroppy 20 yr old nxt door a real piece of work, she phoned rspca once saying the dogs were left in a boiling conservertory all day,( i have blinds and 2 fans going constantly in summer!. officer came round and appologised to me!   lives with her mum and dad, bout time she grew up and got her own place i keep thinking theres more noise around than a few chooks!, sadly my 2 lads are grown up, and i wouldnt waste my eggs on the miserable neighbours, let the battle commence if need be!

[lucylou]

hi! if its any consolation to you, i posted a similar concern a while back about my noisy girl Brenda. i was at the point of rehoming her but she has changed and  makes no more noise than the others now! the only thing that has changed is that she has started to lay eggs. can you hear your girl before you let her out in the morning? if not then you could delay letting her out until a bit later (infact i started to do that with Brenda as when she was in the coop she was quiet)

You should have heard the comotion this morning though as i  have got all of my 19 hens in emergency housing in my tiny garden at the moment following my visit from the fox the ex batts sounded like geese! luckily our neighbours are a bit deaf. good luck, lucyoux

[dizzylizzie]

Quite often its us that panics about the noise, but most neighbours dont actually mind. Cara found that most of her neighbours miss the cockerel noise, and i worried about the noise coming from my garden, but when i talked to neighbours about it, most say they love the sounds and are not bothered by it. Just keep bribing them with eggs

[UrbanG]

I have 2 hybrids (1x RIR / Rock & 1x RIR / Sussex).

They are both 22 weeks and not laying yet, the White one (RID/Sussex) is ever so noisey. She does not do the cockadoodledo rooster thing but she has a great crawwwwwwr on her.

It is mainly in the morning but she can also do it intermittantly throughout the day, I even called the breeder to ask him whats the chances of it being a c0ck. but he advised me that it is quite normal for maturing hens to make that moaning noise just before they are about to start laying. (and also while laying to begin with)

I have found that throwing them some corn to eat shuts her up a bit but I don't want her to get used to moaning just to get treats!

The advice of the breeder was to leave them in the coop for a little longer in the morning??
I used to let them out at 06:30 when I got up and now the other half lets them out at 9am which seems to make a difference in the early morning noise. (and at 9am the neighbours are out to work, which is nice