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Raising backyard chicken is a great activity that provides a steady egg supply and creates a pleasant rural setting atmosphere in an urban backyard.
Unfortunately, chickens can be quite loaded and can cause problems with neighbors. Below we look at the steps you can implement to reduce the noise made by chickens.
Why do Chickens Cluck Loudly?
Several reasons can cause your chicken to be extremely loud. It’s also important to note that some breeds are naturally louder than others. Selecting breeds that are quieter can help reduces the overall noise significantly.
Chickens are known to make over 30 different sounds. Though you may hear coos, clucks, and squawks. Each sound is a simple language with meaning. Once you can understand why your chickens are being loud, you can help reduce the noise by giving them what they need. Among the loudest sounds made by chicken include:
- Irritated pre-egg squeaks
- Shrieks when confined
- The egg song
- Cackling and cawing alert calls
Types of Chicken Noises and Their Meaning
- Squawking before laying an egg
Hens lay eggs about every 24 hours.
Before laying an egg, the chicken starts squeaking and strutting outside its nesting box. After laying the egg, they start making sounds of bucks followed by shrill squawk, commonly known as the egg song.
It is a signal to other chickens that they have finished laying eggs.
Both the egg song and the pre-egg squawking are pretty loud, but they are unlikely to be loud enough to disturb your neighbors, which is a good thing because you will not have much control over these noises.
Another thing to note is that though each hen makes the egg sounds, the noise level depends on the breed.
- Claustrophobic and Chicken that Feel Cooped up
Chicken do not like confinement, especially during the day.
Once there is daylight, chickens will make a lot of noise if they are still locked up.
As long as they feel confined, they will continue making long shrieking noises. Overcrowding where you put too many chickens in a small space is the other common cause of the problem.
A good chicken coop should have 2-4 square feet for each bird and a running area of up to 10 sq. feet outside. To reduce squeaking and unnecessary chicken noise in the morning, you can ensure you let your chicken out of their coop as early as possible.
If you prefer not to get up early, you can get an automatic door that will allow your flock to keep quiet.
- Frightened Chicken Noises
Your chicken will be the loudest when in danger, with two distinct sounds like alarm calls.
They cackle when the threat is on the ground and caw for aerial threat.
Whenever your chicken feels threatened, they will make loud and piercing shrieking sounds.
Several things can spook chickens, including cats, hawks, loud noises, and planes.
How to make chickens shut up
For many backyard chicken owners keeping chickens, quiet is a necessary tactic. Luckily, there are several steps you can take to ensure your chickens are quieter.
- Don’t include roosters in your flock
This is the most common step you can make, but several backyard chicken farmers think they can get their roosters to stay quiet. Roosters are natural noisy birds that like to crow on and on.
There is no easy way to keep them quiet, and the best thing you can do is not to ad roosters to your flock.
- Provide a safe and secure space for your chicken
The best way to prevent chicken noises s to ensure that they are comfortable, safe, and secure.
Ensure that you fence off your property and provide covered areas where your chicken can run to when they see aerial threats.
Don’t allow dogs and other pets into the chicken run because they startle the chickens. When you hear your chickens making an alarm sound, you can come out to help calm them down.
- Start with a few chickens
If you live in an urban environment, it’s always better to start with a smaller flock.
This will ensure that your birds have plenty of space. It also makes it easy to make any necessary adjustments to keep them quieter.
Remember that the more crammed up your chicken coop is, the more likely they will quarrel and make noises.
- Keeping their environment clean
Chicken can get restless and noisy when they are staying in unclean conditions.
In such cases, you will note that they are pretty loud in dirty areas.
To make such chicken quieter, you only need to clean up the coop.
- Clip the Chicken Wings
Forget everything that says that chickens don’t fly and are easy to raise in the yard.
Chicken can fly over 4-foot fences, ad this can get messy when your chicken goes into your neighbor’s yard and meets a dog or cat on that side.
It will be a noisy activity trying to get them back, which will not help the neighbors. When you clip the chicken’s wings early, they learn not to fly over the fence.
- Keep them busy
In most cases, chickens are loud in the morning because of boredom and built-up energy.
One of the ways to prevent the chicken from being noisy is to provide them with entertainment. Chicken like to spend their days foraging.
If your yard is small, there isn’t much to comb through, and they get bored.
To keep them excited and quiet, you can enrich things in the yard. One way is hanging a cabbage on a string so that your hens can peck on it.
You can also provide a box of sawdust and treats so that they can sift through.
- Water to train noisy chickens
Sometimes you may find yourself with a loud screaming chicken, which can be stubborn.
You can try training such chicken by spraying it with a hose or squirt bottle.
Be careful not to have the jet setting on your hose because it can hurt the hen but ensure that you get the face whenever the hen starts squeaking.
This method requires consistency for a few days.
- Use a Blackout Box
If your chickens are mostly noisy in the morning, you can try a blackout box. Chickens get up when the sun rises.
When the daylight hours delay, you will see that the chicken gets noisy later when the sun is up.
A black box imitates the late winter daylight hours.
Ensure that your blackout box is adequately ventilated and place it in a shady area.
Are chickens quiet at night?
Hens are not noisy at night because they are usually asleep.
Unless a predator is attacking them, you will not hear any noises from your chicken at night.
However, roosters make noises when they crow in the wee hours of the night. They crow for a short time, then they stop.
Conclusion
If you are struggling with noisy backyard chicken, don’t worry; there is a solution.
You may need to make a few adjustments to quiet down the hens, or you may have to opt for breeds that are quitter.
