Quiet Chicken Breeds

Ducks can actually pick up more of their own feed than chickens, if you can free-range them.  Otherwise, you can feed them a lot of the same things that chickens eat -- weeds, bugs, worms, kitchen scraps, ground grains.  Grow some duckweed in a pond for a protein supplement.  They can actually eat some surplus milk, for those who have dairy animals.  

On ducks as quiet egg layers, someone had a suggestion about feeding ducks while improving clay soil.  I just looked for it but didn’t find it.  

What I remember is that you dig a shallow ditch and put water in it, and maybe some feed.  The ducks do their “duckness water celebration “ which somehow involves eating and drinking and in a few days you move the ditch over a few feet.  I guess it depends on what may be in the soil where you put their ditch, how
much feed you have to add.

I bought Bielefelders some years ago, and they were AMAZINGLY quiet.  Bought them for other characteristics (dual-purpose, cold-hardy) and the quiet was an unexpected benefit.  I don't know if they'd be happy in hot climates.  Lo and behold, Marek's came in from wild birds, and I lost many of them.  Those I saved (liberal use of garlic in their feed) were pretty much done laying.  I still had a half-dozen when the new, Marek's vaxxed pullets (last-minute mixed-bag brown-egg layers from McMurray's) started rooming with them.  Risky, but I had limited space, and wanted to see if the vaccine would protect them from birds who, while recovered, were still probably shedding Marek's virus.  So, I'd bought the cheap collection in order to not have too much invested if they all succumbed.  They not only all survived, but they also took their cues from the older birds and stayed VERY quiet.
As the old Bielefelder hens went into the freezer (Marek's doesn't affect the meat) the mixed-bag hens came into their own and started voicing their every thought, loudly and often.  The sole exception is a little red hen, a Red Star (sex link) who is not only quiet and calm, but the best layer of the bunch.  Her eggs are large and very dark brown; she's missed maybe two days in the last year.  I've never thought to keep the sex-link breeds, but now will be replacing these as they age out with a 1/2 Bielefelder, 1/2 Red Star flock.
Oh, and I still have a large, 4 or 5-year old Bielefelder rooster.  He is imposing but not aggressive, crows several times a day, and is otherwise quiet.  No crowing during the night, not super early in the morning either.  I think he's going into the freezer soon, and I'll order a Bielefelder male with my next batch of female chicks.  Handsome, calm, just a nice character.

I bought a few buff Brahma’s chicks from Murray McMurray, for my mixed flock years ago. I recall the roosters being big and gentle. Probably they didn’t crow much, but I had a lot of roosters, so I might not be accurate on that.  My generalization is that the gentle roosters don’t crow as much.  Quiet temperament being quiet in other ways.

The buff Brahma genetics just got mixed into the flock

That's a good point.  I have a 2 year old heritage RIR rooster -- a beautiful fellow, I love him for the care he takes of both hens and chicks, even chicks that he's just met.  He's pretty quiet; I hear him crow once in a while, but not very often.  And his crow isn't piercing like some of them are.  I'm hoping to cross him on some of my young Buff Orpington pullets later this year.  I crossed some bantam RIR and BO's last year, and got some really pretty chicks.  Kept one of the cockerels, and he doesn't crow all that much either, though it's higher pitched since he's quite a bit smaller.

I raised chickens - hens - for 30+ years. After I recent move, I chose muscovy ducks (with a couple of Khaki Campbell hens for extra security that there will be enough eggs). Of the two Khaki hens, one is noisy sometimes. I am glad she is the only noisy one.

Pros;
- Muscovies are VERY quiet. Sometimes, if very upset (time to catch them to trim their wings) a hen will sound as loud as a quiet waterduck. Drakes hiss/whisper
- Duck drakes don't crow at all hours!!
- They aren't quite as hard on the garden as chickens
- I have terrible squash bug populations - this year I will plant the squash where I can run the ducks and we will test that out
- ducks live longer, have longer high-egg-production lives than chickens
- muscovies make good mothers (I hope this batch was the last time I ever brood newly hatched birds myself!)
- duck manure is not hot. While for human health reasons you are still supposed to compost it 6 months before putting on vegie garden, if some gets in there it won't kill my plants (yes, story to tell there of applying what I THOUGHT was well-composted chicken manure...)
- muscovies are climbing wood ducks, so have nasty back claws (like fighting roosters) which can help fight off hawk and dogs
- muscovies are larger, which also helps against predators
- muscovies are larger, which means the breast meat is SO good! More like beef.
- muscovies are good foragers
- I have read that muscovies don't need water to mate, but some water-duck breeds do. So they don't demand a pond.
- ducks are much less light sensitive, so more year-round laying than chickens


Cons:
- must have at least four hens per libidinous  drake. And I want two drakes in case something happens to one, so that means minimum of 10 ducks
- duck house needs are more demanding than for chicken housing - need more space (they are active during the night) and the bedding gets wetter, needs changing more often.
- waterer needs to be cleaned out more often since they rinse out their foody beaks there. I pour out the buckets onto my veggies
- must be able to dip whole head into water
- some websites say they need to be able to bathe to trigger proper oil secretion for their feathers - mine have a pan they can get in up to the tops of their legs and hunker down in to bathe

Nina Wright wrote:I raised chickens - hens - for 30+ years. After I recent move, I chose muscovy ducks (with a couple of Khaki Campbell hens for extra security that there will be enough eggs). Of the two Khaki hens, one is noisy sometimes. I am glad she is the only noisy one.

Pros;
- Muscovies are VERY quiet. Sometimes, if very upset (time to catch them to trim their wings) a hen will sound as loud as a quiet waterduck. Drakes hiss/whisper
- Duck drakes don't crow at all hours!!
- They aren't quite as hard on the garden as chickens
- I have terrible squash bug populations - this year I will plant the squash where I can run the ducks and we will test that out
- ducks live longer, have longer high-egg-production lives than chickens
- muscovies make good mothers (I hope this batch was the last time I ever brood newly hatched birds myself!)
- duck manure is not hot. While for human health reasons you are still supposed to compost it 6 months before putting on vegie garden, if some gets in there it won't kill my plants (yes, story to tell there of applying what I THOUGHT was well-composted chicken manure...)
- muscovies are climbing wood ducks, so have nasty back claws (like fighting roosters) which can help fight off hawk and dogs
- muscovies are larger, which also helps against predators
- muscovies are larger, which means the breast meat is SO good! More like beef.
- muscovies are good foragers
- I have read that muscovies don't need water to mate, but some water-duck breeds do. So they don't demand a pond.
- ducks are much less light sensitive, so more year-round laying than chickens


Cons:
- must have at least four hens per libidinous  drake. And I want two drakes in case something happens to one, so that means minimum of 10 ducks
- duck house needs are more demanding than for chicken housing - need more space (they are active during the night) and the bedding gets wetter, needs changing more often.
- waterer needs to be cleaned out more often since they rinse out their foody beaks there. I pour out the buckets onto my veggies
- must be able to dip whole head into water
- some websites say they need to be able to bathe to trigger proper oil secretion for their feathers - mine have a pan they can get in up to the tops of their legs and hunker down in to bathe

I have considered muscovies, but I thought they didn't lay very many eggs? I want to free range as a major food source, but I am not sure I have enough room for more than six chickens (I don't know how that compares with the ducks). How many eggs do you think 5 Muscovies would lay?
Another concern about getting ducks in general, is how much water they need. You mentioned that Muscovies need less water, but they still need a pan. How big of a container are you talking about?

I don't think you would want Muscovies if it's primarily eggs you are after.  They don't lay as many eggs as laying hens (chickens) or ducks do, and they are very prone to going broody and raising a clutch (or two, or three, or four if the season is long enough) of ducklings.  This is fine if you want to raise ducklings for meat, but it would definitely interrupt your egg supply.

"Less eggs, more broody times for muscovies than for Khaki Campbell or egg-production chickens."
Right. Small family here on 1/2 acre, so less eggs + meat production + I don't have to do the brooding work + not enough noise to trigger the neighbors to call zoning laws down on me... works for me.

I have 5-gallon buckets with side hole for sticking their long necks through the greenhouse wall to drink from. Deep enough that they can immerse their heads if desired. Zone 6, keeping the buckets (insulated) inside the greenhouse wall helps have less freezing water that I have do work to take care of. (They break through thin layers of ice for themselves.)

Then a smaller (2' x 3') cement mixing tray from Home Depot for their "pond" out where the tree needs the water anyway. Though I hope this summer to put in a real (rigid liner) pond under a tree raised enough that I can clean it out by gravity-feeding the water out to the tree etc that needs water anyway.

guys ever thought of noise dampening material around the fence facing the neighbors home and your home? musicians use these material to play and not bother anyone too much. Restaurants hang them from ceilings so patrons don't get bothered to much with dish clacking in the kitchen just saying.

H Hardenberg wrote:
If you have any tips on roosters that do not crow at ridiculously early hours (like 5 AM), that would be much appreciated!

Apparently if you set up the rooster's roosting bar such that his head is near the ceiling of the coop, he cannot extend his neck. If he can't extend his neck, he can't crow, and won't be able to do so until he comes down from the roost, which he'll do only at sunrise.