Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Chicken keepers

Meet others keeping chickens on our Mumsnet Chicken forum.

Flip

Original poster

Hmm, how noisy is a noisy chicken?

17 replies

sorky · 09/08/2010 15:40

I've just got 4, so it's all a bit new.

3 go cluck, cluck when you talk to them, but otherwise are very quiet. Except when laying an egg, then they proudly announce it to the whole village

The other sqwarks regularly. Every 20 seconds approximately. She sounds half clucky/half cockerel like a "bwark!" but it is loud.

I'm worried that someone will complain and I'll have to get rid of them all :(

Can you shut a chicken up?

OP posts:

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 09/08/2010 15:43

I think that every flock has a gobby hen. I have a particularly shrill pekin named Doris, who makes my ears shudder. However, she's no louder than a barking dog, revving motorbike, novice drummer, or shrieking children playing out. So I don't let it worry me. I have never had a complaint, and make sure that they are shut in at night so that they don't get up at 4am and start :)

lisasimpson · 09/08/2010 15:58

Well one (I think - difficult to tell) of my neighbours' is very noisy at 06.30 and we sleep on the front and her house is at the back of mine!

Original poster

sorky · 09/08/2010 15:59

Thanks :)

I began to wonder today if she was actually a cockerel!

She's coming into lay I think. She's been into both nest boxes, scratted around, sat, then come out and been sqwarking ever since. No egg though.

Do chickens not have eyebrows then?

OP posts:

AnnoyingOrange · 09/08/2010 16:00

our neighbour recently got a very noisy squawky chicken, which was quite annoying

seems to have quitened down lately - maybe they've eaten it

Original poster

sorky · 09/08/2010 16:01

She's not noisy in the morning, give her her dues. It's mostly during the afternoon.

Could it be her chatting to another hen?

I was round there a few minutes ago watching them and the Light Sussex was clucking away quietly next to her, then when she stopped the Noisy hen Bwark'ed at her.

This continued like a conversation

OP posts:

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 09/08/2010 16:06

IME, you can't shut up a gobby hen. They do sometimes go through phases. MIne are all much gobbier during May, which I put down to hormones They are virtually silent during the winter months. I do occassionally ask my neighbours if they are irritated by Doris's epic warbling sessions, but so far they've all looked at me blankly. Unless people are being woken up, they don't seem to notice normal daytime noise. Also, bribe everyone with eggs

Honeywitch · 09/08/2010 16:08

sometimes mine bwark for a few days if they are upset. Mine brought up three chicks and bwarked for week when they had grown up and started ignoring her.

Tippychoocks · 09/08/2010 16:11

I have three blue maran girlies who clamour for food and groan away to themselves quietly. They also announce an egg loudly.
I did have two older copper marans who were the noisiest chickens I have ever had (and I used to keep hundreds). I have had to rehome them as I was worried like you that the neighbours would complain and I'd have to get rid of the lot.
I have no clue how you'd shut them up, if they are really having a mare and you're panicking about the neighbours then shutting them in a dark henhouse for 20 mins may calm them.

Original poster

sorky · 09/08/2010 16:32

The other chicken she was BWARK'ing at has laid an egg. It seems to have shut her up

OP posts:

bramblebooks · 09/08/2010 16:43

Does sound hormonal as if she's coming into lay.

Two of mine had an epic spat today about who sat in the nestbox.

Except that neither of them have laid an egg today and neither are broody.

We have just got three more, who are in separate accomodationm, so I do expect the bwarkiness to get louder for a while - the new girls are getting red faces, so I think it's hormone city here for a while.

Original poster

sorky · 09/08/2010 16:47

Well, there was a shell-less egg in the nest box the other day and she was up and down the ramp, in/out the henhouse constantly.
We thought it might've been hers.

We've now seen the other 3 lay a proper egg each, so could the shell-less one have been hers?
The farmer did say she was a few weeks younger than the others.

Would hens who normally lay eggs suddenly have a shell-less one?

God I worry about my kids less than this.....speaking of which, it has gone quiet

OP posts:

bramblebooks · 09/08/2010 18:13

softies are normally hens going out or into lay, but one of mine occasionally did a softie. They're also common when hens start to lay for the first time as their 'gear' gets used to what it's doing.

I've been out staring at mine again.

Millie1 · 09/08/2010 22:05

Chatty chicken Sorky!

Speaking of softies, I picked my Orp up tonight to put her to bed (it was getting dark and raining ) ... anyway, as I gathered her under my arm, she dropped a softie . I sure as heck wasn't expecting that! Twas good as I got her out of the way before she gobbled it which she has done before. And, drum roll please, she laid an enormous double-yolker the other day!

Aren't they great?!

Original poster

sorky · 10/08/2010 08:42

Dh has been distinctly underwhelmed by the experience of chickening and actually a bit baffled by my giddy excitement............until Sunday morning, when he cracked an egg to find a double-yolker

He called all the kids to come and look at it, then saw me grinning and promptly resumed his cat-bum-face hahaha

We have been telling the neighbours as we see them. They all seem fine, no one bothered by her clucking at all.

We have offered them some eggs :)

I think on reflection, it must be quite hard to express any reservations, when they see me so happy just talking about them

Does anyone know why, when they have fresh water twice daily, they persist in drinking out of the pond?

OP posts:

Tippychoocks · 10/08/2010 10:02

Lots of luvverly insects in a pond sorky, maybe they like their water wriggly

Maybe you picked up your Orpie just as the egg was in the shell coating stage Millie and it came out a little early. I've heard of eggs breaking inside hens if they're held incorrectly, maybe you caught her just off centre or something? I wouldn't worry if she carried on laying.

I was also told that eggs with funny shells or puckering are due to the hen getting a fright at crucial times of egg development. Maybe she saw something funny in the woodshed

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 10/08/2010 10:09

Mine will all happily drink out of puddles, the bird bath, the water butt etc. It's a right pain if you ever have to give them medicine in their water. I have to go around removing all other recepticles

jobobpip08 · 10/08/2010 12:02

We've got one which is very noisy, a sort of 'sentry' hen. Our neighbour just got 2 kittens which I keep finding in the run, they jump over the wall and straight in so lots of noise but then again no noisier than the seagulls round here! It can be hard to quieten them once they get going. They do squawk after laying too.

Any problems solved by giving our neighbours fresh eggs mind you our neighbours chuck food down for them anyway so I'd say everyone's happy - one neighbour even cooks spuds for them!

Our dog drinks out of anywhere despite having a clean bowful in the house...just an animal thing!

Flip

Swipe left for the next trending thread