Cockerels - not horsey but a country matter ;)

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1life

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Just after your opinions....

I live in a village, in a country environment. I have a neighbour opposite that has a cockerel that keeps crowing at anytime from 5 onwards and waking me up. I use earplugs but I like to sleep with my small window open just a bit and to be honest, I'm a bit fed up with it! So, today I ask the fella who owns it to try and sort it out or rehome it. He basically told me that he is 'entitled to have a cockerel, that he doesn't give a s~*t about anyone else's opinion and that he is keeping it'.

Am I the one being unreasonable? Should people be able to keep cockerels in residential areas?
 
They can make a lot of noise but it is a village! I would be more upset about loud children or loud music. Although I do think he could have been more polite. You can learn to sleep through their dawn chorus.
 
Sorry, I'm with the cockeral owner.

Welcome to the country - where the bloomin dawn chorus had the temerity to start up at 4.30 this morning........
 
I couldn't really comment as I've got 2 cockerels. I love them dearly but I sympathise as they can be noisy beggars. One thing I have noticed is that over time, I now seem to be able to filter out the noise and am now able to sleep through the 4-5 am racket and the hen house is only about 15 - 20 meters from the bedroom window.
I think its a noise that you may me able to get used to (hopefully)...?
 
Sorry to say I think you're being unreasonable, although his response seems excessive for the situation to me cockerels are part of the countryside and I expect them to be a normal part of village life either learn to ignore it/enjoy it or shut the window.
All the same hope you soon develop a strategy to sleep through it!
 
Ps
I got home from my teaching job today to find eight children on my drive ,all singing YMCA (badly) at the top of their lungs. This went on for about 20 minutes, give me chickens anyday,!
 
I was kindly (they saw me coming, lol) given two cockerels, Bob & Denis...I took them in, fed them, gave them a harem of gorgeous birds...they would pay be in cockledoodledoo ALL the time! I wanted to kick them so much. I was glad when they died, I hated them. You have my sympathies, and hopefully a sharp axe. I would stage a fox attack and have a nice sunday dinner :p
 
We are on a road between a hamlet & a village, with only a handful of houses. Someone moved in who had a bl**dy cockerel, & we had exactly the same prob. Our bedroom is in the attic so we **need** the window open in summer, & we get up at 5.25 am anyway, which is plenty early enough, so do NOT need to be woken up any earlier.

Luckily they moved again about 9 months ago - blissful sound of silence.

Out of interest - I have cockatiels in a huge cage on wheels. They are wheeled out of a spare stable in the mornings, & put away again at night. If left out, they will screech at dawn, at a frequency that goes right thru your head & is impossible to ignore. I expect that I am 'entitled' to keep cockatiels, but I wouldn't dream of leaving them out as I think that the other neighbours are 'entitled' not to be woken up by shrill little voices at top volume. Do cockerels not stay asleep/quiet if kept in the dark til a civilised hour? If so, why can't the neighbour simply pop him in a dark shed overnight? Genuine question - it works for the cockatiels, so would it work for a cockerel?

Anyway, you have my sympathies as the bl**dy thing used to drive me distracted.

T x
 
I like the sound although mine have a quite musical crow, others sound like cats being trodden on.

Is he shut I overnight ? Because if the henhouse is dark enough it might help. Some of them start crowing at 2am though regardless, so count yourself lucky.
 
Welcome to countryside :)
We have got neighbors' cockerel (or two, never paid much attention to the flock) across driveway who is opening its beak in silly hours but TBH it never bothered none of us (I usually get an idea of a time :) ). I find sparrows and other little ******* are more annoying as the nesting right by the bedroom window and if not twitting, its shuffling and scratching under the roof.
 
I wish it was one cockerel I heard at 5 in the morning, we have 30+ crows nesting in our trees in our back garden! they start shouting at about 4.30 am and if a cat enters our garden they call on all the crows in the town to join them and dive bomb the cat squawking at the top of their voices! It's awful!
 
And I would prefer a cockerel to traffic!

I lived in a quiet cul-de-sac n my childhood but my nan lived right in the center of a town with a major road (and traffic 24/7) going through it before bypass was built. No double glazing back then. No matter what, I just couldnt sleep in the bedroom facing that road, always slept on a couch in the living room.
 
Chicken madras.

I got rid of mine, it beat the living daylights out of the girls and was a nasty piece of work towards me.

We have wood pigeons waking us up at silly o'clock and they sit on the aerial and poo down the bedroom window. All part of living in the countryside. Sooner wake to birds than a motorway humming.
 
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen............ if you can't stand the cockerells, the dawn chorus, the cows mooing, the horses' pooing, turds everywhere plus churchbells ringing, then FFS get back to the town where you'll be polluted to death, have motorbikes screaming past your bedroom window all the time, plus emergency sirons 24/7 and all the disruption of noisy traffic, buses, aeroplanes, you name it.

The countryside is full of countryside noises, smells, sights & personalities. Deal with it or move. What else do you expect????
 
I hear my next doors cockerel but its 1/4 mile down the road so not that loudly. Doesnt bother me, what wakes me up are tractors rattling past at the crack of dawn but hell I'm in the country so that's fine by me! I think you'll surely get used to it after a while and not even notice it. I imagine there's far worse noises to be woken up by.
 
After a while it does stop waking you up.
When we lived in Italy we were pretty much self sufficient.
The first month cockerel curry was very nearly on the menu more than once.
But after a while we stopped hearing him.
 
I'm with the majority on this, its a village after all but then I breed chickens so have anything upwards of 20 cockerels at any one time (and VERY understanding neighbours!) so the noise is normal to me

However there are things the chap could do to help like keep the coop closed to muffle the noise till 7am for example but it sounds like you have wound him up a bit so he is unlikely to oblige with a middle ground now

In the summer I move my cock birds as far from the house as possible (in to my field) and in the winter they are kept at home and are housed in bright airy sheds with sliding vents to keep them in show condition, the vents on the sides facing the houses are shut until about 7:30am. I have one 'pet' cockerel who is a special one who gets free reign and is never shut in his coop, he starts crowing at 3:30am in the summer but I've had no complaints luckily!
 
I like the sound, grew up with it. I live in a semi rural area and bought a pair of chickens a few years ago, I warned my neighbours and and some were worried, however when I rehomed them because they totally trashed my garden, everyone around me said they missed them and where had they gone.
 
WelshD said:
I'm with the majority on this, its a village after all but then I breed chickens so have anything upwards of 20 cockerels at any one time (and VERY understanding neighbours!) so the noise is normal to me

However there are things the chap could do to help like keep the coop closed to muffle the noise till 7am for example but it sounds like you have wound him up a bit so he is unlikely to oblige with a middle ground now

In the summer I move my cock birds as far from the house as possible (in to my field) and in the winter they are kept at home and are housed in bright airy sheds with sliding vents to keep them in show condition, the vents on the sides facing the houses are shut until about 7:30am. I have one 'pet' cockerel who is a special one who gets free reign and is never shut in his coop, he starts crowing at 3:30am in the summer but I've had no complaints luckily!
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Really Sorry, I LOVE living in the countryside, but you would be the neighbour from hell, having all them cockerels...If I didnt go mental, I would be on the edge. I am so glad my cockerels are gone, I couldnt deal with it, and only have one neighbour on the lane, but I felt so sorry for her.
 
I also think it's one of those things that happens in the country and one I'd just get used to, I expect. I used to live a stones throw from a cathedral and a little chapel, and the bells were pretty full on. I didn't realise I didn't hear them anymore till I had visitors going OMG how do you cope with that?! Cope with what? I thought.
So I'm afraid I'm on the ignore it, get used to it, or shut the window, side of the fence.
 
Cherrydan said:
Really Sorry, I LOVE living in the countryside, but you would be the neighbour from hell, having all them cockerels...If I didnt go mental, I would be on the edge. I am so glad my cockerels are gone, I couldnt deal with it, and only have one neighbour on the lane, but I felt so sorry for her.
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for someone with as many birds as I have I'm very considerate really, Like I said when they are in my garden they are shut away in sheds that are very solid and cost over a thousand pounds each because of the thick wood and bespoke system of sliding vents to keep the noise down - I like to think I'm a nice neighbour :)
 
not the same thing but where I keep my horse is a beef farm and a couple moved from the town (as did I) they had been there 2 weeks when the husband walked over to the farm and asked him could he make the cows be quite till after 8 as it woke his wife up if he could not make them be quite he would go to the council and complain,but the couple breed dogs and they bark 24/7 his wife sleeps through that as it is normal for dogs to bark
 
Welcome to the countryside. Just think yourself lucky your bedroom window isn't opposite a field of randy cows and a bullock - then you would wish for a cockrel...
 
1life said:
Just after your opinions....

I live in a village, in a country environment. I have a neighbour opposite that has a cockerel that keeps crowing at anytime from 5 onwards and waking me up. I use earplugs but I like to sleep with my small window open just a bit and to be honest, I'm a bit fed up with it! So, today I ask the fella who owns it to try and sort it out or rehome it. He basically told me that he is 'entitled to have a cockerel, that he doesn't give a s~*t about anyone else's opinion and that he is keeping it'.

Am I the one being unreasonable? Should people be able to keep cockerels in residential areas?
Click to expand...

We live in a semi rural village and kept a cockerel. I asked all my neighbours to let me know if he became a problem for them, but they all said they enjoyed hearing him. I did my best to ensure he was kept the noise down. He was in a dark shed until a reasonable hour of the morning.

There's lots that can be done to keep them quieter - dark housing, some put them in boxes overnight within the housing, or carpet line the coop to muffle noise. It's a shame, I expect by the owners defensive reaction that you have approached him in the wrong way by demanding he sort it or rehome. There is plenty that can be done if a compromise is necessary.
 
I live on the edge of town - literally with suburbia in front and countryside behind :D

Next door neighbours got a duck... That was the start! Now they have a palace in the back garden for all the ducks and hens and two cockerels. The noise used to drive me nuts, but as others have said, you become used to it and it even becomes homily and right :)
 
I'm looking after my friend's animals this week and amongst them are some cockerels. I'm ready to put one in a pie because I didn't see it coming and it attacked the back of my leg and pecked a surprisingly deep hole in it, considering the size of the bird. It was one of those tiny ones with the pompom on their head. I'll be more alert today.
 
To my shame I recently complained to our council about a cockerel :( Im a country girl , always lived in a village and nothing wakes me up, dawn chorus, lambs, cattle, tractors...but, our house backs onto allotments where they are allowed to keep poultry, didnt used to be but they changed the rules a couple of years ago and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. All but one person kept any cockerels inside at night and I never hear them until I wake up about 530am, which is normal for me. However, this particular chap, whose allotment is immediately behind my bedroom kept all his hens and a cockerel within a pen and never shut them inside. The cockerel would start at any time from 230am, he had such a piercing screech it was waking me every night and then I would lay there waiting for the next screech. It would carry on for a couple of hours, have a little break then start again about 5am!! I spoke to the parish council who told me there was nothing they could do, so driven to despair after 4 months with interrupted sleep night after night I spoke to the local council who told me to keep a noise diary, but said certainly the owner could be told to either take steps to keep the noise down or get rid. I even offered to jump over my fence and open the henhouse every morning at 6am if they couldnt get there. About a week later the noise stopped and now we only hear the enclosed birds when we are awake and quite muffled in the background. Apparently the noisy birds owner despatched it, said he hadnt wanted it anyway, started off keeping them at home but his neighbours complained so he moved them on to his allotment, charming! My point, I suppose is that, if I had chosen to live next to a farm I wouldnt dream of complaining, but I didnt. There were no cockerels in the vicinity when I moved in and no possibility of there being any, but then the rule changed. Most owners are considerate but this one guy wasnt interested. The council even advised him on ways to try to keep them quieter and I would have been happy with that, even offered to help. I didnt want them shut up all day, just a bit longer than 230am. If it really is driving you mad, speak to your local council noise dept for advice, they may speak to him with suggestions for reducing the noise which may be all that is needed to make it bearable. I feel quite disappointed in myself as I do consider myself a country person but one inconsiderate person and one very noisy cockerel got the better of me :(
 
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