[wildwitchy]

I must say, since I've had my cockerel I haven't had any complaints (blimey I've said it now) but he only crows from about half 4 for a few times, then half a dz around 6-7. It's not that ear shattering either. Well not to me but you can hear him thro double glazing, so perhaps it is loud ??  Ahem. When my girls get going they can out crow any noise he makes and I haven't had complaints about them. I just think people get on the "cockerel" bandwagon and excuse the pun and start a witch hunt regardless. I am waiting tho for my neighbour to start the obnoxious g*t.  My husband over heard his Mrs moaning to someone at their gate about how messy our back garden was. I wouldn't mind but I've got 6 foot fencing & they can't see it unless they look out their bedroom window at it!!!! DON'T LOOK AT IT IF YOU FIND IT & MY CHOOKS OFFENSIVE.    People!

[chasechicken]

That's very sad - if it makes you feel any better you're not alone.  We live on what was once a small farm but now a few houses have popped up and the barns converted.

One neighbour had a cock for a while, but the neighbours (the barn people, who don't actually like mud or animals, but live on a "farm" to be pretentious) complained and he had to rehome him.

For me, the sound of a cockrel at 5am or 7am or whatever is part of country living and it's a shame there aren't more out there.

Don't give up!  As others have said, it's ok to have noisy bbqs, rev engines, play loud music and have mad barking dogs or just noisy traffic passing, but for some reason poultry is hated.  Just assume whoever complained is just jealous!

GOOD LUCK!

[LittleRedHen]

Oh please fight this tooth and nail!  I'm not sure what your rights are about your cockrel, but I would advise you to please find out!  Most people will complain to the council and then take it no further, because they don't know how.  I believe that the times for quiet are from 11 at night to 8:30 in the morning.  But please don't rely on this info.  Learn as much as you can on the matter.  You may have stronger grounds than you realise.  Good luck!

[SMD66]

You are so lucky to have had no complaints for 9 years.  It must be the 'newcomers' and you and the cockerels were there 1st, they should put up with it.
I must admit, even tho we live in a very rural location, we haven't had cocks because we are afraid of upsetting neighbours, they have even complain about our pond pump! It would be a terrible shame tho if the cocks had to be culled. They are only doing what comes nautrally.

[poppies]

Dont give them up without a fight, I have never understood the problem people have with cockerals mine are shut up at night in their coops but when I walk down the field to let them out I can only just hear them crowing.

I sometimes think people complain just because the bird is there, before we had our smallholding we kept a few hens at the top of the garden, and all of a suden any rats appeared and they came from us - we live in the country, it didnt matter that neighbours had dozens of rabbits in filthy cages.

 oh and another neighbour was scared of them

Good luck

[matilda duck]

OH bl**dy Neighbours.    Good luck with this one!!!!!

I just don't get it.  Music, cars reving, parties till all hours and all they can find to complain about is a cockerel.??

We were advised not to get a cockerel and to be honest we don't need one!!!  Our neighbour 2 doors down has one, and we can hear him for a while after about 4ish and then he doesn't make a peek until about 3 in the afternoon!!!!

Mind you one of our councilors has a cockerel so I don't think anyone would dare say anything. 

[Spacey]

When we decided to keep chickens I rangthe council etc to see if we were allowed to or not. I had this reply about keeping cockerels.




Thank you for your phone call regarding the keeping of chickens. I would like to provide the following information and advice with regard to this but especially with regard to the keeping of the cockerels. If you are not intending on keeping a cockerel amongst your birds then the following will be largely uninteresting to you but I thought it best to advise you.
You should be aware that the crowing of cockerels can be disturbing to neighbours and if this department were to receive a noise complaint we have a duty to investigate. In investigating a complaint we would be seeking to determine whether the matter constitutes a statutory nuisance and if that is the case then we would have to take action to cause that nuisance to cease.
However, there are several measures you can take to minimise crowing which are as follows:
1.   Location of cockerel; the cockerel should be located as far away as possible from neighbouring properties.
2.   Competition; other cockerels in the area will cause them to compete which may result in excessive crowing. This may be of particular interest to you if you wish to keep multiple cockerels.
3.   Housing; keep the coup as dark as possible to minimise early morning crowing as the cockerel will respond to light entering the coup. Keep the birds inside until a reasonable hour of the morning to minimise crowing. The height of the coup ceiling can be lowered to restrict the cockerel from throwing its head back to crow.

These measures are by no means a guarantee and you should carefully consider whether the keeping of cockerels in your area is appropriate in order to avoid disturbing your neighbours.
Further to this you should seek to prevent odour and also rats and other vermin as far as possible by ensuring that any chicken housing is kept clean and tidy and food storage is secure. Any evidence of vermin should be treated by a pest control operator as soon as it is detected. You should be aware that the presence of odour or vermin could also constitute a statutory nuisance as detailed above.
I hope this has been of some interest and I wish you every luck with your chickens.
Kind regards
Mark Kemp
Technical Officer - Environmental Protection
Suffolk Coastal District Council

[Foxy]

Oh dear, keep things amicable as possible, always try to put yourself in their shoes, I know sometimes that can be difficult, however, as long as you can have a discussion like adults there is always a way forward,going in bristling with indignation is unlikely to get a helpful response! :blink: It could  be they have no idea about the letter to you, and maybe are as worried about it as you are, never assume they are being difficult until you can sit down and talk.
Good luck and keep us posted how you get on!

[karlooben]

2.   Competition; other cockerels in the area will cause them to compete which may result in excessive crowing. This may be of particular interest to you if you wish to keep multiple cockerels.


does that include dogs cause if my neighbours dogs down the road bark then mine bark   and that drives me mad but they are only talking to each other .

u guys want to hear of complaints well i got threatened with court by a once very nice neighbour as my greenhouse on our allotment site which is based about 150 foot or more from her house was blocking her scenic veiw  now  thats sad . ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh if only i was allowed a cockerel it would drive her mental .

[mrs.ploppy]

Firsly I should like to thank you all for your support in this matter.  Today I rang the top man from the Environmental Health who sent me the latter.  To be honest he was of little help and on the defensive.  He advised me that :

I have to state my case in writing as to my routeen, bed/let out times, my observations of how many time I think he crows etc.  within 14 days.

Any noise eminating from a property that deems to be irritating or causes ditress can be classed as  noise polution.  So if my bird crows 1000 time a day or 3 if it gets on someones wick they have to act on that complaint.

A persons voice, such as the screaming kids that go on the trampolines all day and night are not noise polution unless aplified eg. like a loud radio or music.  What c**p!

Although he did offer to send me a complaint form should I wise to camplain about others in my street.  Talk about tit for tat!

I was advised to keep him in a lowered roofed coop, hutch or cat baset (in the house over night) from the hours of 8pm till 8am the next day! to reduce the urge to crow.  I pointed out that verged on animal crulty and to solve one problem would be prosicuted by the RSPCA on the other hand for not sticking to the law regarding space per bird etc.  I told him that I would be contacting the RSPCA re this advice and he ws not bothered.  They obviously were bothered and disgusted to say the least.  I told him this was an old wives tale about lifting the head to crow but he said he was correct on this matter. 

Also advised to keep in dark coop till good hour (8am) which I do unless I have to go to work then it is 7am. 

Told him I did not want to get into argument but wanted to know my leagal stance and what I could do to rectify matter.  Said I did not want to be forced to kill it.  Have been contacting animal recue etc all day to find new home.  No luck yet.  Very bad day all round.  Had a good cry when I got off the phone to him.  Got mad then started to put feelers out.

My next corse of action is:

Write nice council man his b****y letter.

Conform to advice (apart from caging for 12 hrs a day in an ileagal way)

Hope that compaint does no go further (have to wait to see if another or original complainer does not say situation is still getting on his/her wick.

Thier next action:

Wait for my letter

Wait to see if another complaint is made.

Monitor situation,  complaintive to keep log of noise eetc.

They do visit to whitness amount of noise, when and for how lond..........

Then put me against a wall and have me shot at dawn for being such a bad citizen LOL

Honestly if it was not so sad it would be funny.......watch this space!!!!!!!

[LottieLotto]

 

Our Molly hen was broody for ages so a friend gave us some eggs for her to sit on. Only one hatched and Pip was born. We hoped she'd be a hen because we knew we wouldn't be abe to keep a cockarel.
We watched Pip grow and become very much loved by all, but she was a he and we knew she couldnt stay.

We found Pip a new home at the allotments and he now lives happily with 6 hens, he's a magnificent bird but i miss him a lot. I see him now and then when i go to my husbands veg allotment and he's well cared for.
We we're lucky that we found a new home for Pip and we can see him whenver we like.
If you can't keep your cockarel, i hope you can find a good home. ..Life's not fair.

...Best wishes.

[nnbreeder]

I love that theory about a rooster not crowing if they can't lift their head. I had a rooster get out of his pen one day while I was feeding and the only thing I had handy when I caught him was a little pet carrier that you would use for a small cat. I caught him and literally stuffed him in it and he started crowing. Letting the other roosters know that he would be back!

[Aunt Sally]

One of my father's POL birds turned out to be a cockerel once and my father tried to prevent him from lifting his head to crow so the bird stuck his head forwards instead    He ended up as dinner !

This is the problem with people hatching eggs in a suburban area.  You have to plan before doing it what you will do with cockerels and carry it through instead of getting attatched to them as pets.   I love my chooks but would be really cross if one of my neighbours had a cockerel that crowed at dawn especiall at this time of year 

[Fifitrix]

In my humble opinion it's all about tolerance and different people's levels of tolerance.  When we moved into this neighbourhood there were kids all around that screamed but I thought it made the area feel homely and a family environment.  Now I have kids that scream but I don't let them scream constantly. 

I recently had a cock that crowed and I personally thought it was a pleasant homely noise but I despatched him because I was aware I could get in to trouble for the noise.  I'm not saying you should do the same I agree with the others that you should push on this one because we need to encourage tolerance of basic levels of noise.  However with any noise that is constantly high whether it's a dog, cockerel or kids it is reasonable to ask for it to be limited.

[Aunt Sally]

Kids and dogs don't make a noise that wakes you up at 4:30 am every morning though.

I would have no problem with a cockerel crowing during the day or into the evening.  If I lived in a rural setting I'd probably accept it hapilly as there would be space to keep them away from neighbours but in a suburban garden that is not possible.