Are chickens noisy and smelly?

I'd like to keep a couple of laying hens - no cockerel - for the eggs. This would be the next stage of my self-sufficiency drive. I am vegetarian so the chickens themselves are not for consumption.

I have a perfect spot for them - perfect in that I can easily secure it - however, it is right next to the house and some windows.

Somebdy told me that chickens smell and are very noisy.

Any advise please?

I'm not knowledgeable about chickens. You may want to start a new post thread and ask if anyone has experience with chickens and can give you some advice. I do have an aunt who kept chickens for many, many years, but she had lots of acreage, and the coop was a distance from the house. I remember her always having trouble with foxes getting into the pen & killing her chickens. She finally decided to give up!
My husband & I kept ducks for awhile, maybe 15 years ago. We had their pen outside, right under our upstairs master bedroom. I loved looking down on them at night before we went to bed! Unfortunately, a neighbor's dog jumped our fence & killed one of the ducks while it had been in the yard, swimming in the little pond out back. Then we went to court over his nasty dog, but it backfired on us because he'd discovered there was an ordinance against having "farm animals" in our township! That sucked! We were forced to get rid of the ducks!
We did enjoy the duck eggs while we had them though!

In my little zoo I have six breeds of chickens, they are a treat to have around and each of them have their own personality, just like your cats or dogs do.

Having only hens would not be a problem, they are usually mostly clucking, but can put up quite a show the moment they have laid an egg. They love to brag and announce their accomplishments, an egg being the epitome. You do however get cases where the dominant hen in the clutch starts crowing, mainly to show their dominance and leadership.

Without a rooster your egg production will however not be optimal, as he "inspires" and promotes their laying abilities. There are a few techniques to keep a rooster quiet during the early morning hours. The less invasive and most humane way is to keep him closed up in the hen house, the hen house have to be completely dark though, for they start crowing as soon as they see light.

If you keep their coop clean you would not have a problem with smell at all, chickens are a lot cleaner and miles less smelly than ducks ( they are prime stink makers). I suggest to add wood shavings in their coop, this is a comfortable hiding place for bugs, a good protein source for the chickens, as well as an optimal scratching space. This will also make your pen easier to clean, as you just sweep out the wood shavings and replace it with new a new batch.

Some of the less noisy breeds, that are good layers I can recommend are Australorps. In the peak of the breading season you can expect at least one jumbo egg a day, sometimes even two.

(09-25-2012, 12:32 AM)Julie Wrote: I'd like to keep a couple of laying hens - no cockerel - for the eggs. This would be the next stage of my self-sufficiency drive. I am vegetarian so the chickens themselves are not for consumption.

I have a perfect spot for them - perfect in that I can easily secure it - however, it is right next to the house and some windows.

Somebdy told me that chickens smell and are very noisy.

Any advise please?

Well, they so make some noise but I don't think it would be very disturbing. As for the smell, this is not the chicken's fault, it's the owner's. You need to provide them a safe, clean environment.

I have had chickens before, and I agree with everything that Yatte says about keeping them. I have never used shavings for bedding before, but I don't see any reason why that could not work okay.

The chickens themselves are not smelly, but the chicken house will need to be kept clean. It is kind of like having a cat, the cat is not smelly, but the litterbox is very smelly if not cleaned and changed regularly.

If you are going to also have a garden as part of your self-sufficiency drive, then the manure and also your eggshells will be great for the compost pile. You don't want to put fresh manure on the garden, it if you compost it, then it should be fine.

I'm living with my daughter right now, and she has four chickens -- all different breeds. She got them in April. Two of them are consistently laying eggs -- the young ones haven't started yet.

The chicken coop is quite close to the house. They do make noise throughout the day, but it's a pleasant sort of noise.

The important thing is to keep their coop clean, and it will not smell.

The chickens are getting more and more friendly, and will allow my daughter to pet them. We are all enjoying having the chickens.

Do you have any tip to keep the chicken coop clean? They just poop everywhere they go, don't they? I wouldn't mind they poop in the garden, it's natural fertilizer for the plants. It would be nice to be able to train them not to poop inside the coop.

As for noisy, I thought they'd make more noises when they lay eggs lol. I am not positive on that one but that's what my dad told me. His family used to keep 1 hen to lay eggs when he was little. He was saying the hen was pretty much bragging about the new egg every time. Then his grandmother would give some food to the hen after getting the egg. It was their "reward" system.

I think you just have to keep up with cleaning up after them. Our chickens are fairly loud -- they make chicken noises. Hard to describe. We had three eggs today -- another chicken must have started laying.

Let me just tell you that I just love chickens! Let me offer you a bit of advice since I had almost 70 chickens at one time

I loved the sound of the clucking and always knew when one of the girls was laying an egg. I however never felt as if they were too noisy. They can indeed be quite messy so it is imperative to keep a clean living area. I highly encourage cleaning the coop every other day if you plan to have just a few hens, obviously more often for more hens. Be certain that you are not just cleaning the perches but also the nesting boxes and the ground. Keeping an immaculate homestead for your feathered friends cuts down on overall care. A dirty coop can lead to scaly mites, flaky feet and much more. Having seen toes fall off due to improper cleaning is a terrible sight. The maintenance isn't as much as it seems but the cleaning also promotes more egg production.

I prefer straw to use as bedding. The hens will compact the straw as they nest in their boxes. This allows you to lift the soiled bedding out in one fail sweep. Straw is also a wonderful insulator on frigid nights and highly economical. If you are practicing self sufficiency, the straw and manure mix composts very well together making it great for your gardens after a few seasons.

Safety is important too. Ensure that your coop is animal proof. Opossum will attack every chicken you have in a matter of hours. They can slip into unheard of spaces and are night predators. Your chickens will not even see them coming. Other animals are of course a risk as well. Regular inspection of your coop is essential.

Feeding can be tricky! Pellets are great along with a good quality bag of scratch grains. The pellets should always be the primary food source. I like to add ground oyster shell as it helps to grind up course food then a bit of commercial calcium for a harder shell. A wonderful treat for my hens was a head or two of cabbage, strategically hung from the coop. You must remember though...an overweight chicken will lay fewer eggs.

These are only a few tips..definitely do some research on the subject. Talk to local farmers and others who have had great success.

Chickens are a bit noisy in my opinion, but it shouldn't be too bad where you will be bothered by it from inside the house. Keeping the coop clean is really the big difference between smelling bad and not. It will probably require more maintenance than average house hold pets, but that's with most farm like animals. It also will depend on how many chickens you get since more chickens means more noise/more mess to clean.

I would really like to keep a few hens around just for the eggs, and the garden fertilizer, too. However, the city where I live only allows the usual domestic pets, such as cats and dogs, and all dogs are required to be either in a fenced yard, or on a chain, or on the leash when walking them. This is actually a good thing, since you almost never se a dog being hit by a vehicle like you would of they were allowed to be just running loose. However, I wish the city would reelax the restrictions, and at least allow people to have a fw chickens around.
I can see not allowing a rooster, and I would not want to have my sleep interupted by one crowing at the crack of dawn (or even before), but the hens are not noisy, eat bugs, and aree not smelly as long as the coop is kept clean.

I would suggest looking into your city's laws again. They may have changed. Sometimes, you can go to the city counsel and ask for an ordinance to allow chickens as a domestic animal. Maybe they have never thought about anyone wanting to raise chickens. I know that where I live within the city limits, I am only allowed up to 6 chickens, no rooster, and their dwelling cannot be within 150 feet of a neighbor's house or property. If I would live outside the city limits, there are no restrictions.

The city I live in does not allow chickens. Altough a number of years ago, they did. The city council is working on a new ordinance to allow a certain number of hens, but not roosters. if it passes, i would love to have just 2-3 chickens. We had chickens when I was growing up and there was nothing like the taste of a fresh egg.

(08-27-2014, 03:14 AM)evelynmcgregor Wrote: The city I live in does not allow chickens. Altough a number of years ago, they did. The city council is working on a new ordinance to allow a certain number of hens, but not roosters. if it passes, i would love to have just 2-3 chickens. We had chickens when I was growing up and there was nothing like the taste of a fresh egg.

I think that would be a great idea, and probably a lot of people would then start keeping a few laying hens. Not only do they eat bugs, but they are also fertilizing the yard as they wander around in search of more bugs and grasshoppers to eat.
I can see that the city would not want people to start having a whole flock of chickens, and if they allowed that, then people would start complaining about the smell if the chicken coops were not kept clean. But if people just had a couple of hens and had the fresh eggs, then that would be awesome.
Maybe then, they would also allow a milk goat, as long as it was only one. They are no dirtier than keeping a dog, and a milk goat would help provide food for families, as well. Plus, they make great pets !

Chickens do chatter away, especially in the morning when they lay their eggs. If you keep up with cleaning the coop, it shouldn't be particularly smelly. Chicken sounds may be annoying to some, but I think it is just something you get used to after having them for a while. Like any other creature they have their own little characteristics and you'll get to know your hens like you know any other animal you keep.

Chickens cluck but the noise they make isn't terribly loud or annoying. Once you get a rooster into the mix, that's another thing. As long as you don't let it get away from you, their mess is easily manageable. I haven't tried keeping chickens in a city, and the town I live in now doesn't allow them. In the country, one of the advantages of a chicken is the mess that they leave, since it's great compost.

Actually, whether chicken are noisy or smelly depends on the level of hygiene you keep them. Chickens consume high quality feeds most of which are protein in nature and thats why chicken droppings might prove to be smelly. Another consequence of this is the fact that they don't drink much water resulting in concentrated stool. But one gets to have the hang of it, a person becomes used to the odours and their absence after prolonged exposure working with them would be a matter of conjecture on the part of the owner. Obviously, chicken are noisy and gawk whenever frightened or when they lay an egg. This is one of the few defense mechanisms that they have since they are exposed to many enemies and predators.

When you say you want to get a 'couple' of laying hens, I'm wondering if you realize that chickens generally don't lay every single day. If, for example, you'd like to get roughly a dozen eggs per week, as you would if you got them at the grocery store, you'd probably have to have at least 7 to ten hens. Some types of chickens lay more than others so do your research ahead of time to find the best layers. Layer feed is designed to help the situation by giving the hens the optimal nutrition for egg laying, so I'd recommend buying a few bags and supplement it with a bit of cracked corn. Chickens do squabble sometimes, especially if one of them finds a special 'treat', such as a mouse, bug, blade of grass, weed, or piece of fruit. (in other words, virtually anything) They can raise quite the ruckus during those times, and as someone already suggested, they also advertise each newly laid egg quite loudly, presumably because it hurts delivering that egg. You will probably encounter this problem more with larger hens who lay larger eggs by default. Most hens can be quite lovable, often wandering over to get petted or to be held or hugged. But remember, that hens are also a bit stupid at times and will always be underfoot. They can trip you up pretty fast, so walk cautiously while among them. As for smell, yes, they poop a lot, as birds are fairly incontinent creatures. However, with frequent cleaning you can keep on top of the situation. If you don't, the place will turn toxic with ammonia fumes. That chicken manure makes great organic compost, by the way, if you also have a vegetable garden. I've seen it used on corn fields where the tassels hit the ten foot and taller range, so getting rid of the chicken poop is do-able as well.