Backyard Chickens

by chicken house plans on Friday, December 25th, 2009 | Comments Off

Backyard Chickens

If you are thinking of getting backyard chickens, you may have wondered whether or not these lovely creatures will make too much noise to be a backyard pet. You may be surprised how many people have chickens in their backyard without their neighbours even realising. Chickens should no/t be confined to a farm or rural area - they are a great addition to any backyard.

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?

Having chickens for many years, you may be surprised how long it took for me to realise the tell-tale signs of a chicken laying a egg. Apart from the very obvious thing of an egg appearing in the laying box, chickens let off an excited little sound know as a cackle to announce to the world that they have laid an egg. When we had a fox in our area I kept thinking that he was lurking around until my husband informed me that the chicken was just excited about laying her egg for the day! If you're waiting for your breakfast to be laid, what a great alarm to tell you when it's ready in the Chicken Coop!

If danger is lurking...

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.

Author Kerry Mundt is from Royal Rooster in South Australia. Royal Rooster manufacture and sell modern steel-framed mobile chicken coops: http://www.RoyalRooster.com.au/models.html

Are chickens allowed in the backyard?

Is it allowed to keep a few in the backyard, as pets? We live in the city though. What are the rules?

It depends on what city you live in. Check the zoning laws in your area. Some cities are allowing people to keep chickens due to the economy. Most cities will not allow roosters because they are noisy.