hens

[Iwishihadyouincarrickfergus]

I have viewed a lovely house to buy - in the area I want at a price I can afford and the sellers aren't in a chain. Its an estate of new suburban houses but with big back gardens. The next door to this house has hens, the fence is high but we could hear them. The owners say they are no problem and are kept clean. It is the only draw back - what do people think? Ive read different things, that they attract vermin and are smelly but then other things say if kept clean it is no problem.

They will be noisy, especially if there is a cockerel. I’d be surprised if there isn’t a covenant in the deeds preventing people keeping hens on their property in an estate like this.

We have backyard ducks. As long as they’re cleaned out regularly and food containers aren’t overly filled so that there’s always surplus grain around, they don’t attract vermin - we had far more problems with vermin in our last house where the neighbour had dozens of bird feeders and a constantly full bird table dotted around their garden.

Our neighbours quite like the ducks (we give them free eggs, which probably helps!) and say the quiet happy noises they make are quite nice. Hens aren’t noisy, as long as they don’t have a rooster you’ll probably barely notice them.

I keep hens. The neighbours can hear them but only really when they lay an egg. No-one has ever complained and they always get asked about in a positive way.

I would hate to live near someone with a cockeral. There seems to be a problem with people hatching and then keeping the males, expecting people to put up with the noise.

I clean the coop every day and put the poo in a hot composter. There are mice and hedgehogs in our garden but then it's quite mature and long with lots of hedges and stuff. I would imagine in a new build, the hen coop would be very clean and very visible...as the garden isn't mature. We keep the hen food in the house, so not to attract rats.

My neighbour has chickens. We live quite rurally so there is a lot of bird noise. I find the babble of the chickens quite soothing; wood pigeons and crows that seem to be every are more annoying....!

thank you, I dont think theres a rooster, but we will be going round the estate for walks to check out what its like at all times of the day so I assume we would hear it?

I can’t imagine anyone not living rurally would actually want a rooster - apart from irritating the neighbours, it would irritate them. Roosters crow throughout the day, not just in the mornings, so if you visit throughout the day you’d hear it, yes.

Think of the eggs! As long as they don't have a cockerel it will be fine xx

I can echo the pp, we have bird feeders and a mouse family, no hens!

If they are all females they don't make that much noise, just a bork-bork-bork sound when they lay an egg. My neighbour loves the noise and messages me to say she was sad when they went quieter in the winter as they don't lay as often then.

Occassionally you get the escaped chicken trying to avoid vet so best to ensure no gaps in fences. But we haven't had any issues.

I've lived next door to chickens.

At one point next door and next door but one and the people who backed onto us all had them.

Not that noisy and I quite liked it anyway. Nice to hear happy birds!

Hens can be noisy but I don't think it's an offensive noise for the most part.

We used to keep them in a suburban garden and the only time I rushed out to shhh them was when they were shouting about 'danger'. 'Danger' in our case was generally a cat or wood pigeons on their turf. They can squawk laying but that's pretty short lived.

We never had any issues with rats, we did have mice though.

My neighbour once came to ask if my hen was having a stroke...she was very worried.

Hen was sunbathing. 🐔😁

Laying squawks are quite loud, but short lived - and each hen only lays once a day max. So a handful wouldn't be that noisy.
The rest of they just make gentle clucky / boak-boak noises.

Cockerels are a different matter.

I've had rats, but that's because next door is a basically abandoned over run shit hole that need condemning and there are rats living in the house and garden that come and steal my hen food.
I put bait traps down with poison in, but I know when the rats are about as I'm feeding twice as much a day as usual.
Never had rates before next door became an issue.

They have a bit of an outdoor rural smell, but not overpowering. The smaller the area they are kept in the worse this would be - mine were quite bad over avian flu lockdown last winter (but on the abandoned house side so didn't affect the anyone else) and the run area needed mucking out weekly. Normally they have a 5m x 6m area to range in and it isn't an issue at all.
Hen house bedding gets changed every day or 2 and that would smell if it wasn't.

My neighbour's hens attracted mice which got in the house. Not a major drama though

I love hens. They’re really sweet little things, but I really wouldn’t want them in an adjoining garden unless it was huge. I personally find them a bit whiffy! I’ve had ex bats for years until last year. We had to get rid of them because we had a massive rat infestation. Our hens were always kept very clean and the feed was stored in metal bins, but they even stole the eggs.

We had hens for years (rural, no neighbours).
The run does get smelly in summer weather. Not overwhelming stinky, but farmyard whiff occasionally.
The noise isn’t really an issue - they do sound like theyre pretty surprised / upset after they’ve laid an egg (once a day!). Otherwise they make quiet noises. But at night they’re silent.
Vermin generally are an issue unless they keep on top of it.

About a quarter mile away someone keeps hens. I hear them when walking my dogs in the neighbouring park - a nice comforting sound. They do have a rooster, but he only crows occasionally and usually in the afternoon - but I can hear him from my house!

I have been lucky enough to have chicken in the past, several times ,I loved having them , kept them clean , plenty of outside spaces, rural farm , they are entertaining to watch and listen to but they always attract vermin , mostly rats , ( sometimes weasels as they nick the eggs ! ) so sadly I wouldn't have them again or want to live too close to them.
Incidentally I was chatting to a man who was vermin control for the local council at the house before my present one and he said there are a lot of rats in the area due to locals ( mostly older retired folk ) feeding wild birds , all the bird food encourage the rats to thrive very well

Next door had hens. For two years no probs. Then we realised rats had made runs under the coop. They were in my garden too under my garage. Nightmare. Took two years to get shot of then.

My next door neighbour has hens. There are definitely rats as my cat has caught a couple. one got into our shed and ruined some stuff in there and left poop to prove it was a rat. I have put a rat poison box under the shed and there was one inside too for a while and the bait was taken and I haven't had a problem again. I now have put the box by the wheelie bins as I found some tooth marks on the lid.

The noise I don't find annoying. I didn't realise that they only made that noise when they laid an egg! The noise I did find disturbing was when a fox had clearly got into the coop and the hens were screaming and there was lots of banging until it went quiet. It was all so fast I wouldn't have had have a chance to go round to my neighbours and tell them. we back on to each other's gardens but live in different streets. Then there was no chicken noise for a while but now they are back.