Soundproofing and ventilation in an indoor pen

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geckodan

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Hi, I have neighbour complaint issues and I need to eliminate as much rooster noise as possible. I was wondering what others use for coop soundproofing and how do you ventilate and soundproof at the same time
Danny
 
Best thing to do is to to use successive layers of material to muffle the sound, same principle as double glazing. In my case I was lucky and able to put my one bird coop inside an old brick built outside loo, I blocked out the frosted window so it was pitch black in there to delay the crowing and then turned the coop ventilation holes towards the wall rather than the door. So effectively what sound came out hit a brick wall, my neighbours apparently never heard a thing, the downside was that I had to go and collect my cockerel every night to put him into the special one bird coop and then get him back out every morning.

If you don't have an outbuilding you can do this with then perhaps you could buy a shed to put the coop inside of instead as long as it is big enough then ventilation shouldn't be an issue.
 
Hi Danny, and welcome to the Forum.
Dare I suggest this - do you really need a cockerel? Hens will lay just as well or better if they are on their own, without the stress of being chased by a cockerel, and rehoming or culling would solve the issue better than trying to suppress the noise. There are welfare issues in shutting a cockerel up in an effectively soundproofed shed overnight, not only ventilation which you mention, but isolation from his flock, which may actually make him want to crow even more to call to them. Also just the nuisance of having to catch him and bin him every night, which he may come to object to, very reasonably!
Yes neighbours do object to cockerels, and if you live near to someone who is a light sleeper it's not really fair on them, or on the bird concerned.
 
I'm talking about locking up the whole flock. There are 20+ roosters on any day - this is a show breeder flock and I need to protect 15 years of breeding work from a destruction order. Every rooster is already boxed every night until 9 am but we are getting complaints between 9am and 5 pm and in this area the council have no tolerance whatsoever for roosters.
 
That being the case you haven't got a hope on your current site, the only thing I could think of is to find a bit of land somewhere else to rent and move them onto that.
 
I don't know where you are Geckodan, but I fail to see how any noise between 9.00am and 5.00pm can be a problem?
 
chrismahon said:
I don't know where you are Geckodan, but I fail to see how any noise between 9.00am and 5.00pm can be a problem?
Click to expand...

Well, yes it can, if it comes from 20+ roosters! A while ago some people moved in two doors away with some bantams including one cockerel who crowed incessantly during the day and although we are interested in chickens, obviously, we found it very irritating when we wanted a bit of peace and quiet in the garden. It nearly caused the immediate neighbour to have a breakdown. He was seen out in the garden shouting at it over the fence in desperation.

I do sympathise with your situation, Danny, and I guess that, with such a large flock, you probably have a fairly big plot of land to house them all but I'm sorry to say that, in a suburban situation you won't have any chance of suppressing the noise from all of them during the night and the daytime crowing will continue whatever you do.

Could you tell us a bit more about the flock? What breed are they, and how many in total including the hens? What size plot do you have, and how close is it to the neighbours?
 
Point taken Marigold. Where we were, with 20+ cockerels, the surrounding traffic noise drowned out everything from the birds from 4.00am until 11.00pm. So whilst we had two noise nuisance complaints they never amounted to anything, because the recording machine picked up the very high level of traffic noise and the cockerels were not significantly louder, if at all. My recollection is that suburbia in England is very noisy anyway and getting worse every time I return. Some people find cockerel noise more irritating than traffic, but that doesn't constitute a nuisance in law. I hate dogs barking, slamming car doors, petrol strimmers and people shouting.
 
Marigold said:
chrismahon said:
I don't know where you are Geckodan, but I fail to see how any noise between 9.00am and 5.00pm can be a problem?
Click to expand...

Well, yes it can, if it comes from 20+ roosters! A while ago some people moved in two doors away with some bantams including one cockerel who crowed incessantly during the day and although we are interested in chickens, obviously, we found it very irritating when we wanted a bit of peace and quiet in the garden. It nearly caused the immediate neighbour to have a breakdown. He was seen out in the garden shouting at it over the fence in desperation.

I do sympathise with your situation, Danny, and I guess that, with such a large flock, you probably have a fairly big plot of land to house them all but I'm sorry to say that, in a suburban situation you won't have any chance of suppressing the noise from all of them during the night and the daytime crowing will continue whatever you do.

Could you tell us a bit more about the flock? What breed are they, and how many in total including the hens? What size plot do you have, and how close is it to the neighbours?
Click to expand...
We were the first house in the street 15 years ago when we started and we were zoned rural when we bought here but it's all changed since with various council restructurings.. Our previous neighbours were never bothered by it as they liked the sound. We have about 20 cockerels and 40+ hens in Phoenix, Yokohama and a few others.
 
A recent UK case ruled that if the noise existed before people moved in and no attempt was made to hide it, there are no grounds for noise nuisance. Councils, in many cases, bring action simply to frighten people. When it actually gets to Court their case collapses. Basically they do not seek the necessary legal advice before such actions. This court ruling now clarifies existing legislation. It is only reasonable after all.

So what Country are you in Danny? Does this apply to you?
 
So you live in Phoenix, Arizona, and keep Yokohamas, is that right, Danny? How big is your plot, and how near are the neighbours? Over there in the USA, you have a rather different scale of things to us in the UK, I expect.
It does sound hard on you if when you bought the land it was zoned rural but has now developed and changed. Also, it must have been obvious to your new neighbours when they were buying e property that there was quite a large flock of chickens next door, including more cockerels perhaps than one might expect for your number of hens, because of your showing interests. I would have some sympathy for people who have lived somewhere for a few years and then somebody moves next door with a lot of crowing birds, or barking dogs or any other noise nuisance for that matter, but I wonder why people move somewhere with obvious noise issues and then complain.
I think it might be worth your while to research the local laws regarding noise nuisance, and then maybe get some legal advice on your situation. I think we're probably all agreed that there wouldn't be much you could realistically do to reduce the noise from your birds during the day, and you can point out that you are already doing what you can to keep the crowing down at night. Of course even hens can make a hell of a racket during the day when they've just laid, one of mine goes on for ages, you'd think it was the first egg in the history of the world!
 
I'm in Australia. Because all of our councils amalgamated a few years back, all grandfather clauses were nullified.I'm hoping they'll just move out.
 
I sympathise with your predicament gekodan. I'm sure your birds are beautiful. I've just had a complaint today about my three cockerels and I have two more young ones (not yet crowing) I'd like to keep. Does anyone know how happy or unhappy they would be in a field on their own over winter? Is it best to keep them singly as a group? Do they fight or crow without hens?
 
I have 2 cockerels that I am rearing for the table. They are 16 weeks old and I have them in a large shed. I am hoping to keep them for another couple of months. They crow, but do not fight. If they start fighting I will not keep them singly, but cull them immediately.
 
If they have been raised together and kept in the same pen together then they should be fine, if they are strangers then it will get extremely nasty, likewise if they have been kept separate. They will still crow.
 
Although I don't have a cockerel this post has been very interesting.

On the noise issue - my neighbour (with 7 acres, I only have an ordinary garden) has a 'thing' about big machinery & is digging out a 'moat', he already has a (beautiful) lake which he made & is extending this around a little 'island'. He always gets on his digger & huge machines on a SUNDAY morning while we're still having a lie in! Grrr, far worse in my mind than the country noises of chooks!!
 
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