Cockerels - not horsey but a country matter ;)

1life said:
Oooh, (sorry, this is lastly)...I like chickens/eggs etc...but am I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying you don't need a cockerel for chickens to lay(?)
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No, unless your neighbour wants fertilized eggs to hatch!

There are several cockerels around here that start up anywhere from 4am onwards but as I have always been used to that noise (despite living in 2 big cities for several years) I can sleep through it or at least if I am woken I can get back to sleep quickly as I was born on a farm, a chicken farm!!! :P

Your neighbour was possibly a bit stand offish as people may have asked him about it before, he's probably just fed up of the complaints if applicable.
 
Cockerels I can cope with. My four year old niece jumping up and down on my tummy at 6.30 am shouting "Cockadoodledooooooooooooooooooo" over and over again is entirely different. She's not coming for a sleepover again until she's 14 and lying in until at least 11am.
 
RunToEarth said:
You would surprised to actually know the answer to that question - we have regularly been posted window cleaning bills from the couple who bought a cottage next to one of our arable fields - we don't pay them, but we have a good giggle.
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That truly is crazy!!!
 
Antw23uk said:
Wait until they have gone out and go round and ring its neck and cook it ... Repeat as and when replacement(s) are purchased ;)
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You'd be surprised how often the chicken groups online have posts like 'I found my cockerel dead in its pen with not a mark on it but with a floppy neck, what predator caused that in inner city Birmingham?' and the rest of us swear we have NO idea!

A friend lost some birds due to rat poison being sprinkled in their run and bleach put in the drinkers, that was very sad

I know your post was tongue in cheek and very amusing but its surprising how many times this actually happens! (not the eating bit though!)
 
Gloi said:
Earplugs are a wonderful invention.
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Bought some new gel ones at the weekend (after using the squidgy foam for the last month or so) and they seem to block out most 'softer', 'background' type noises...however, the cockerel crowing is a kind of 'punctuation mark' of a noise and sure enough, 5.25 this morning....ho hum
 
I know you say he went straight into defensive mode when you went round, but from what you said in your first post you weren't particularly tactful in your approach..
 
lol @ country matter.

But how dare you tell someone to rehome their pet because you don't like it. Close your window!
 
Honey08 said:
I know you say he went straight into defensive mode when you went round, but from what you said in your first post you weren't particularly tactful in your approach..
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Hmm - bit difficult to relay a whole conversation but my intention was to find a middle ground. The words 'sort it out' weren't actually used but I did ask 'Are you going to be keeping it?', reply 'Yep'. 'Can't you do something about it?', reply 'Nope'.

I am usually a very 'glass half full' type and also 'live and let live' BUT I suppose a certain amount of sleep deprivation could well be making me a bit less tolerant!
 
1life said:
Hmm - bit difficult to relay a whole conversation but my intention was to find a middle ground. The words 'sort it out' weren't actually used but I did ask 'Are you going to be keeping it?', reply 'Yep'. 'Can't you do something about it?', reply 'Nope'.

I am usually a very 'glass half full' type and also 'live and let live' BUT I suppose a certain amount of sleep deprivation could well be making me a bit less tolerant!
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My cockerels are noisy gits - I compromise by having the window shut. Just saying?
 
I do think that living in rural England and asking your neighbours whether they are planning to keep their poultry is a bit like living next to the M25 and asking the highways agency whether they are planning on it being a permanent feature - maybe that's just me?
 
1life said:
Yes, true, but I meant usual, as in natural...still not explaining it very well...meaning wild, as oppose to kept as a pet by choice.
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Still not making your point heard. Would you complain to a dairy farmer about his cows mooing?
 
RunToEarth said:
I do think that living in rural England and asking your neighbours whether they are planning to keep their poultry is a bit like living next to the M25 and asking the highways agency whether they are planning on it being a permanent feature - maybe that's just me?
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Can see that point too, although if you move next to the M25 you might expect it. We've been lucky enough to live in the same quiet location for 19 years. I don't mind the poultry at all - the cockerel crows all day which I also like the sound of...it's his initial wake-up call that is tiring!
 
I have poultry, and cockerels, but it's the birds (wild ones) that actually wake me up each morning with the dawn chorus. I love it.
 
OP could you get a fan in your bedroom and then you can leave the window shut (or nearly shut)? Also it makes a humming sound which might drown out the fainter sound of the cockerel. I have a fan in my bedroom as I hate being hot when I go to sleep - its on a timer so I fall asleep with it on then it turns itself off but I am asleep and don't notice I have got hotter!

I am a good sleeper and can sleep through most noises but am pretty sure the cockerel would wake me up too. Not sure there is much you can do about it though apart from above!
 
We live in a village and my neighbours commented about the cockerel. When we got chickens I did promise no boys but when you hatch on a regular basis and no-one wants boys then you are a bit stuck. Unless you buy an auto sexing breed and cull the day old boys then you are a bit stuck. I breed speckled Sussex bantams and so need a chap but I do keep him in the garage at night in a cock box........ Basically a ferret crate but suggest cockerel owners don't google cock box unless you want to learn stuff you never wanted to know. I let my boys grow on until they crow and then they make an exceptional coq au vin.

I do sympathise with the OP, I detest the noise of my own boys at 4am hence the crate in the garage. When I got rid of the last lot of noisy adolescents a couple of neighbours said they missed them. I didn't!
 
amymay said:
So by your definition of pet, I assume that applies to cows, sheep, pigs?
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I think (without reading back through every post) that part of my reply was due to a comment on 'country noises'. A cockerel's crow is a far more piercing and shrill noise than most 'country noises' whether that's cows, sheep, birds, foxes etc
 
tobiano said:
I am a good sleeper and can sleep through most noises but am pretty sure the cockerel would wake me up too. Not sure there is much you can do about it though apart from above!
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Thanks Tobiano. I think that is probably a good idea, in fact I'm pretty sure I have a fan in my attic that I will drag out tonight. I too cannot sleep when I am too warm, hence widow open.
 
The Bouncing Bog Trotter said:
We live in a village and my neighbours commented about the cockerel. When we got chickens I did promise no boys but when you hatch on a regular basis and no-one wants boys then you are a bit stuck. Unless you buy an auto sexing breed and cull the day old boys then you are a bit stuck. I breed speckled Sussex bantams and so need a chap but I do keep him in the garage at night in a cock box........ Basically a ferret crate but suggest cockerel owners don't google cock box unless you want to learn stuff you never wanted to know. I let my boys grow on until they crow and then they make an exceptional coq au vin.

I do sympathise with the OP, I detest the noise of my own boys at 4am hence the crate in the garage. When I got rid of the last lot of noisy adolescents a couple of neighbours said they missed them. I didn't!
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That did make me laugh :) When I entered 5.5 inch gag into the search bar of Preloved it warned me that I was about to enter the Adult Section. I didn't even know Preloved had an Adult Section!!! And I was only looking for a dutch gag for her horse - honest m'lord ;).

Anyhow, it is interesting that you detested the noise made by your boys even though you owned them ;).
 
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The barn conversion in our farmyard is being sold and an interested buyer asked the seller that if they bought it would our cockerels be moved off the farm - they got told not on my nelly - then to add insult the geese held their car hostage - I don't think they'll be buying it.

We aren't trying to make the sellers life hard but as soon as they pulled onto the yard they moaned about the tractor then the dogs and finally the poultry - anyone would think it was a farm.
 
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