Noise from the chicken coop - will this be a problem?

If you think chickens are noisy pets, think again. Unlike the barking and meowing that you often hear around the neighbourhood, many people keep chickens in their backyard without their neighbours eve...

If you think chickens are noisy pets, think again. Unlike the barking and meowing that you often hear around the neighbourhood, many people keep chickens in their backyard without their neighbours even being aware. Chickens are a great addition to any backyard and need not be confined to a farm or rural area.

Who makes the most noise?

It's actually roosters that give backyard chickens a bad name. Roosters cannot help but enthusiastically see the morning in with a nice loud cock-a-doodle-doo. Not surprisingly, your neighbours will not be impressed at being woken at the crack of dawn. Most councils also don't allow roosters for this same reason. Many people do not realise that roosters are not necessary in the production of eggs, so skip the rooster but get yourself some backyard chickens.

How much noise do chickens (hens) actually make?

Backyard chickens do make some noise, but nothing compared to roosters. The sound of a chicken is known as a cackle which is basically an excited little sound to announce to the world that the chicken has just laid an egg. This is quite a pleasant sound and is a nice little alarm for you to know when your fresh eggs have just been laid.

Danger for the chickens

If chickens feel that they are in danger, they will let you know. If a neighborhood cat or dog or a hungry fox are lurking around your chicken coop, it's likely that one of your hens, if you don't have a rooster, will warn all the other chickens of the danger. Our smallest but bravest chicken has taken on this role, since our rooster was taken by a fox. She's a brave chicken, having survived several fox attacks in our previous chicken coop. Our current one is very fox proof, but she still let's us know if there's a fox in the area.

Apart from roosters crowing and hens getting excited after egg laying or in the case of danger, these creatures really are very quiet. You will have many more neighbours complain about cats and dogs lurking the neighbourhood than you will about chickens in their chicken coop. Neighbors are usually also quite happy to look after your pets while you are away because they know that some eggs will be coming their way.

Article Tags: Chicken Coop, Backyard Chickens