Keeping the peace with your neighbors isn’t always easy when you’re raising farm animals.
Chickens have been known to earn noise complaints from neighbors in rural and urban settings.
So, when building your flock, pick carefully between noisy birds and quiet birds, not just for your peace of mind but also for your neighbors!
Rhode Island Reds are wonderful additions to a beginner flock because they’re dependable layers.
Rhode Island Reds have a fairly loud and problematic noise level. While they aren’t the biggest noise makers, this breed of chicken is also not reliably quiet and docile. The roosters, especially, like to crow and get loud occasionally.
Because Rhode Islands are such wonderful, hardy birds with high egg production and strong personalities, they are still a worthwhile addition to your flock.
Keep reading for advice about noise problems with your chickens and more facts about Rhode Island Reds, so you will be sure to make the right choice for your backyard flock!
Are Rhode Island Reds Quiet?
While they aren’t the quietest bird around, the Rhode Island Red isn’t the noisiest either.
Keeping a couple of hens of this breed in your chicken coop won’t turn your beloved flock into a bunch of squawkers.
They’re more likely to make agitated noises when they see an aerial predator (or a ground predator) or when they first wake for the day, and the sun is coming up.
This is common among various chicken breeds, and there are some steps for prevention.
Roosters are much louder than hens, which is common among all breeds of chickens.
They’re much more likely to crow without predators or other external stimuli.
Rhode Island Red roosters are rambunctious, sometimes very aggressive, and aren’t quiet birdies.
Further Reading: Why do Rhode Island Reds sometimes get aggressive?
Helping Keep Rhode Island Reds Quiet
If you would like to keep a mixed flock but are concerned about noise, here’s what we recommend:
- Keep an eye out for predators
- Cover coop windows
- Don’t keep roosters
Predators
The first step here is important for all chicken keepers, even if your birds don’t need some volume control.
Be watchful!
If your birds are being especially noisy or seem skittish and flighty, there may be a predator stalking the coop.
Spotting aerial predators is possible during the day, especially early morning.
We once had a couple of overgrown crows who would swoop down and scare our flock badly every morning until we finally managed to get rid of them!
Ground predators often come out at night, which makes them harder to catch.
Check for signs of mice, skunks, weasels, and other predators in your coop semi-regularly.
If something is chewing on your grain bins/bags, scratching at the outside of your coop, or leaving feces around your chicken yard, you probably have an animal who wants to get at your birds.
Trapping, cleaning up, and patching any holes they might be coming through are all ways you might keep predators out of the coop.
Covering Your Chicken Coop Windows
Covering your coop windows is a delicate business.
You don’t want your birds overheating in the summer months, nor do you want them missing out on what little light there is during winter.
However, many birds crow in the morning because it’s an instinctual response to the day’s first light.
Blocking out the light has helped some chicken keepers quiet their flock by stopping the chickens from recognizing when the sun rises.
It might be in your best interest, though, to use a cover you’ll be able to easily remove and replace.
If you go this route, take the cover off when you (and your neighbors) are up for the day, and put it back on when it gets dark at night.
In the winter, you need to use artificial light inside the coop for your layers anyway, so covering the windows at all times isn’t a bad idea.
Make sure your light is on a timer, and you won’t wake your chickens at a time when you don’t want them making a racket.
Roosters
Rhode Island Red roosters aren’t known for their subtlety.
They don’t like sitting quietly aside and minding their own business.
If you don’t want a noisy bird or know there will be noise complaints from neighbors or family members, it’s best not to keep a rooster at all.
I’ve never met a quiet rooster, personally.
But Rhode Island Red roosters are not one of the more docile breeds.
Why Keep Rhode Island Reds?
You might be feeling confused right about now.
If they don’t make sweet pets, why keep Rhode Island Reds?
Well, there are a few reasons.
Let’s examine the pros and cons of this breed of chicken.
| Pros of Raising RIRs | Cons of Raising RIRs |
|---|---|
| Amazing layers | Sometimes loud |
| Hardy birds | Sometimes aggressive |
| Beautiful plumage | |
| Lay in winter and summer |
The table indicates more pros than cons for this beautiful, single-comb American breed.
Rhode Island Reds have incredibly high egg production!
Even heritage breeds, who tend to lay fewer eggs than their commercial counterparts, are impressive, reliable layers.
They lay in the heat of summer, though; it’s important to provide them with shade and cool water.
Even in the winter, when many other breeds lay very slowly or quit altogether, Rhode Island Reds are consistent layers.
Their egg color is brown, which you may not find exciting.
But they have a beautiful red color plumage, which makes up for whatever differences in color their eggs are lacking.
Furthermore, Rhode Island Red chickens are hardy.
They aren’t vulnerable to frequent illness or infection and do well in hot and cold weather.
