Is keeping chickens noisy

When it comes to keeping hens in your back garden, many are hesitant to go for it due to the stereotypes that hens will wake up the neighbours at the crack of dawn and be clucking away all night. We’re here to put these myths to bed and hopefully give you a better answer to the question “Is keeping chickens noisy”

Let’s start of by saying, having kept chickens for over 15 years, not once have we received any negative feedback from surrounding neighbours. The amount of sound a flock of hens can make really isn’t enough to wake you up in the morning or the middle of the night, the only possible way you may be able to hear them is if you were to sleep in the garden. If everything provided for them their actually very quiet, docile and enjoyable birds to have.

If your looking to keep hens are uncertain about the level of noise they create, this is the article for you. We will be going through; how noisy chickens can be, why are your chickens being noisy and ways you can stop your hen’s from clucking loudly.

How much noise do they really make

When keeping a flock of chickens you can expect some noise, hens get excited when you bring out their food or come to say hello, this makes them great pets for younger children. However this clucking is not loud or aggressive and doesn’t last for hours, our chickens usually make some noise in the morning when we bring in their feeders. That’s about it.

The only other time you can expect some noise form your hens is just after they’ve laid an egg, they’re usually very proud of this accomplishment. Even in this situation the noise only continues for a couple of minutes before going silent again. To be honest usually your more likely to hear them scratching up the dirt than actually clucking. 

The level of noice is also dependent on the number of birds you have in your flock, personally having 15 birds, the noice isn’t really hearable unless all the hens are clucking together. This is very rare and doesn’t usually happen, however we’ll give you some reasons and examples of when and why it can happen as well as how to stop it.

From a general point of view, hens aren’t going to cause an annoying/uncomfortable level of noise, if the noise aspect of keeping hens was holding you back, we can assure you it’s defiantly not as bad as your imagining.

Why are your chickens being noisy

There’s a couple of different reasons as to why your hens are displaying an increase in noise, these factors usually aren’t anything to worry about and will be over in a few minutes at max. However, there are a few things to look out for.

The first reason why your hen is making excessive sounds could be due to a threat that they have become suddenly aware of. A possible real life example of this could be a predator getting inside the run or coop, if your here a tremendous amount of noise its best to go check up on your girls. Hens are able to defend themself to some extent however don’t have a chance against an animal like a fox, its vital to make sure animals such as this don’t get access to your coop. An easy way to do this is by having a well build secure run, this will make sure you don’t get any unwanted visitors.

However don’t panic it’s just as likely that your hens may be squabbling and flapping around, this is a normal process when a new flock is introduced so don’t be surprised, this type of behaviour usually doesn’t last long. However more vulnerable hens can sometimes get picked in excessively, if you want to know more about this then feel free to check out one of our other articles on how to stop my hen from being bullied. 

Another possible reason for sudden noise could be a hen falling of a ledge or bumping into something, as bad as it sounds they’re not the smartest creatures in the world so sometimes do obtain minor injuries. This again is nothing to worry about, it’s usually just the hens adjusting to their new environment. 

Ways to stop your hens form clucking loudly

When faced with noisy hens, there are a few things you can do to calm the situation down. The most obvious being if you notice a rat/fox/cat has ended up inside the coop, removing them is your first priority, this shouldn’t be hard as animals usually retreat when confronted by humans. Once any immediate threat has gone your chickens should calm down, stop making noise and feel relaxed in their environment again.

If a hen is being picked on excessively it can sometimes be making a lot of noise also, in this situation we recommend separation. When the flock sees a weaker bird they automatically peck at it out of interest, this can however, lead to infection in the worst cases. For a more detailed explanation of how to deal with this problem correctly check out our article on how to stop my hen from being bullied. This we explain how to initiate the separation process correctly as well as insure the vulnerable hen recovers

A great way you can stop hens from pecking each other is by applying some anti pecking spray. This stuff works really effectively, it disinfects and protects the vulnerable hen and ensures the other hens stay away. We found this spray to work great when dealing with this problem. (Check price on Amazon)

If a hen in your flock is particularly chirpy, then spraying it with some water can often train it to stop the continues clucking, do it a couple of times on the hens face and she’ll stop the behaviour in a matter of days. This technique works surprisingly well and may be the key to getting that one hen in your flock to stop making noise.

So there you have, a quick insight into how noisy hens actually are, we hope this article may have changed your view on the level of noise they create. Note this article was is only about keeping hens in your back garden, having a Rooster, on the other hand, is a completely different story, hence why their band in most areas.  

If your interested in keeping hens however are skeptical about the level of noise, we can assure you its really not that bad! If you found this article useful feel free to check out some of our others @easyhens.com