The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: loosey on May 24, 2010, 04:09:19 am
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Our intention is to try and rescue some ex battery hens for laying and also to breed Plymouth Rocks for meat ... obviously meaning we need a cockerel!
Do you have problems with yours? Do the neighbours complain?
Experiences appreciated!
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We have 11 hens but no cockeral BUT a neighbour does and I think he sounds gorgeous!! I love the noise he makes.
when we moved here a neighbour said "oh you have hens, will you be getting a cockeral?" when I said no she was overly relieved - but then she moans if my children so much as squeal in the paddling pool ::)
other option is putting a broody on fertilised eggs/buying an inci to hatch your own? you will doubtless get loads of boys!!
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I got 50% boys from my 1st hatch. I'm no doubt going to eat them but would like to keep 1. My neighbours moan about most things I do so I'm wary of keeping any. A friend up the hill does have one and her neighbours are ok with it I think he sounds great. My son is adamant he wants to keep the biggest boy 'angus' but if they complain I'll have the blumming council back on my case and I really don't want that.. Dilemma! So I'd be interested in others experiences too.
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I don't get complaints about the noise, but i have problem with my cockerels attacking people coming into the garden outwith the family, such as post men.
It's not long before someone complains, but really they cockerels are only doing a job.
I would be reluctant to do anything on behalf of a complaint from the postie as he is a horrible little man, who has on numerous occasions lashed out at my boys with his feet, and speeds up in his van to try and hit my birds if they are on the track alongside the house. :chook: :chook:
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I think it depends where you live - all of us on our hill except for one neighbour have cockerels - I think it's a lovely sound, and part and parcel of living in the country. However, my parents live in the 'burbs and their neighbour had a cockerel which was extremele irritating at 5am every morning, so a few neighbours complained and the chap was told to get rid of it.
Maybe worth mentioning it to your neighboours before getting one?
And Cam, I'd be putting in a major complaint about your postman! >:(
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The noise does carry, remember. I had to give Jamie away last week because one of my neighbours wasn't getting any sleep - he works shifts so it wasn't even a case of keeping the chooks in till after 9, and Jamie crowed anyway even if there was just a chink of light. He was going to put up with it I think because he only mentioned the cockerel when i asked if the dogs barking bothered them. Funnily enough it doesn't seem to carry down the line and across the railway like Jamie's voice did - despite massive Leylandii trees right along the trackside. That said I think there is a gap beside the chicken run so maybe the sound was getting through there. Either way, I didn't want to push it as they really are good neighbours and that is worth the weight of any cockerel in gold! Different if I was breeding, but I just wouldn't do that here no matter how much I wanted to. To me neighbour relations are worth more than my whims.
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And Cam, I'd be putting in a major complaint about your postman
oh we have ;D ;D many times
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I have an allotment near houses where we keep chickens. We are not allowed to keep cockerals due to the noise. Nothing to stop the neighbours keeping them though!! I'm sure noise knows no bounderies!!
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My closest non-related neighbour has a cockeral - he is about quarter of a mile away (no good with distances :-\ ) and I hear him all through the day if I am outside, but I quite like the sound. I can't hear him inside though. I would not be amused if I lived in a street/urban area and the neighbour had one which woke me up - although saying that chances are I would sleep through it after a while anyway ;D
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I know lots of people with cockerels, who have constant complaints from neighbours about the din. We are situated down a farm track from where my hens are, but they are very near two farmhouses, and two barn conversions - my hens were there before the two conversions. We are out in the country, no other houses nearby though.
I have, er .....well, numerous cockerels of various breeds around. No one has actually put in a formal complaint yet, and not sure it would be upheld, as we are a registered smallholding, and as such can keep livestock, noisy or not!!! Although the house next door had family visiting, and of the visitors came and asked exactly how many cockerels I had. I was a bit vague and said 4 ......
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Our neighbours have loads of cockerals and hens, phesants and guinea fowl (probably around 100-150?)which never shut up, but you get used to the noise so it doesnt really effect us, altho we do have a pack of 50 beagles, 7 terriers, 6 trail hounds a spaniel and a retreiver! so when they all start singing you know about it! but still never wakes me up ;D
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What on earth do you do with all those beagles Danielle?
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I have heard the local hunt hounds when they start their calling - could probably give the cockerels a run for their money, that noise!!!
Come to think of it, when our six farm dogs start barking all at once, thats quite a racket.
I have a busy railway just up the field, and I never notice it, except when its quiet at night. I would think people get used to noises, and soon become oblivious .....unless its a cockerel it seems.
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They are the Amplforth Beagles hunt, my father in law is kennel man and they rent out the kennels here
They moved here last year and refurbed the old kennels, as he retired from Farndale Huntsman/ joint master 2 years previously we had 40ish Fox hounds then
We are in a caravan atm whilst the house is getting build for us, and we are say 40 yards away? and never wake up (me, oh and 2 young children), but there has been a formal complaint from the neighbours, (who lived nextdoor when the hounds were here), but decided now the beagles are here they are disturbing ??? ??? :-[
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I think my hens are noisier than a cockeral when they've started laying in the morning!! its a constant "buck buck buckuk" for at least 3 hours ::) every now and then I bung the neighbours half a dozen huge brown eggs as a sweetner! (in a box of course ;) )
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Yes, they would appreciate them in a box!! Just picturing you shouting to the neighbours that there are some eggs on the way .....and throwing them over the fence :D
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Yes, they would appreciate them in a box!! Just picturing you shouting to the neighbours that there are some eggs on the way .....and throwing them over the fence :D
thats made me chuckle ;D
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;D wait till I start giving them tomato's - with a slingshot.
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We've all got chooks here so no complaints!
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We have 3 Cockerels at the moment , we do live rural but do have neighbours across the field where our birds roam.
We have had no complaints from them although we did get a complaint from a delivery driver because one of them wouldn't let him back into his van because his hens where there. We where not at home and apparently it took him 30 minutes to get out of the garden onto the yard where the van was ::)
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We cure our aggressive ones by taking them for walks. Tuck them under your arm and go for a stroll and a chat. They will mumble away and I think they actually enjoy it.
I actually love the sound of our cockerels in nearby fields. Our Copper Blacks have a particular cockadoodle which carries hauntingly across the valley.
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no, never had a complaint so lucky in that respect. Where we were we did have neighbours round about, although not that close. The poultry were kept in a field by the river-the tall banks around the field acted like a natural ampitheatre lol, even though covered by trees and the sound really travelled. The Scots Grey boy is pretty big and loud but very melodic, a proper cockadoodledoo. The aruacana boy isn't so tuneful but doesn't crow alot, neither crow through the night. They have a 'crow off' every morning for about 20 mins (in different pens) and then they are fine. We have no neighbours now so no worries-I used to make sure I kept the boys in until 9am on weekends there though, thought that was only fair.
All of the Marsh Dairy cockerels sounded like a cat being trodden on and crowed through the night-not fun for anyone. Bear in mind that its really not much of a problem in the winter, in the summer they crow pretty early, as soon as they hear birds singing.
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Bit of a thread revival here? ;D
I live in a village with neighbours all around so couldn't keep any outside.
I am planning however to breed Scots Greys next year so I currently have cockerels living inside a large fish tank in my conservatory :o
With all the doors and windows closed you can just hear them outside and no more, it sounds like the crowing is coming from about a mile away, just audible in the garden but even when i've been talking to neighbours over the fence they never heard it.
Inside however its a different story! :o
Mine will crow at first light but very rarely after that.
However if I make a noise through the night even if its pitch dark they will start crowing too.
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a zombie thread! didn't realise lol.
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depends on the neighbours and depends on the cockerel. our only excursion into having one followed us hatching some bought in fertilised eggs and keeping one of the resultant boys as he was a grand looking welsummer. the few months we had him were not a great experience as he was a randy so and so and left our poor girls threadbare- he also crowed at 4 in the morning regardless of whether it was light or dark. Never mind the neighbours, if the fox hadn't taken him I would have. I love my chickens, but not at 4 in the morning I don't. I have read that disputes over a noisy cockerel are not uncommon. i'd probably ask the neighbours first and then decide, but then i'm a sucker for an easy life.
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We've been served with two noise nuisance notices. The first one went to the sound monitoring stage and then was dropped. The second fell at the first hurdle of a council visit. What is very annoying is Staffordshire Environmental Health serve the notice, give you a leaflet with some silly advice on how to stop cockerels crowing, and then say absolutely nothing. We didn't know which cockerel on which plot of land was the problem, so we couldn't do anything about it anyway. They don't tell you the case is dropped and won't answer the emails. You only find out when you hear nothing else. The Staffordshire Environmental Health Department creates work for themselves. If they were up-front in the first place I'm sure most issues would be resolved quickly, but instead they play secretively and waste their own time.
Of course the real problem was the neighbours. Going straight to the Council instead of dealing with us directly. They created work for themselves as well as they have to keep 6 weeks of diary sheets and submit them first.
Pity they don't apply the same rules in England as they do in France. In land designated urban cockerels are not permitted if anyone objects. In land designated rural they are permitted, no matter how loud, how many or when. So townies moving into the countryside cannot impose their values on the small farmers. In the countryside you get tractors, cattle, cockerels and that's the way it is. So in a little village here you can have cockerels if you want. Ours have been 'singing' since 5.30am -lovely it is as well. There are 10 in total.
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I only have one cockerel and he crows at dawn whether it's 3am or 9am, and occasionally he'll start up during the day too, I think he gets carried away when the hens are in full post-laying cluckathon ::)
I only have one immediate neighbour and fortunately they've been very good about it so far, they get eggs too :)
The other side it's half a mile to the village and they have a cockerel there which I can hear occasionally but obviously it doesn't bother me so mine presumably doesn't bother them.. Given we are all beside a main A road and under Leuchars flight path (for now anyway) I don't think noise nuisance from JV would be considered much to bear.
As someone else said above, the girls post laying announcements are way noisier and longer term when they're going strong. Not this time of year tho, so everyone is on a break.
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The council have served a abatment notice on me in June .Iv said I will go to court and if I win I will have more .The dark days are ok its spring time that folk moan.
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I think that on a similar thread that I had calculated that I lost the equivalent to a nights sleep each week when our cockeral lived in our large barn that the house sits on the side of. Sound just reverberated around the barn and through into our bedroom.
These days I am happy to help those with a noisy cockerel and take them off their hands. I have 4 in the freezer and I now make a very good coq au vin. A large 2-3 year old coq made ready for the pot is worth a fortune here.
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I have a solution. If your neighbours complain about your cockerel, let me know and I'll sell you a peacock or two. I can guarantee that's the last time they'll complain about the cockerel!! ;D
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We had a townie move in next door (1/2 mile away ) the first thing the ar-mpit did was come and complain about our cock bird, So ...I explained in not so many words that the bird was here before him and would be here for the duration of his hopefully short adventure into living in the country. He's not been back.
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Coq au Vin in the slow cooker for tonight - first flurry of snow here so a good day to celebrate a noisy coq that bothered someone so much they gave it away ( to me).
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I'm glad I don't stay next door to this chap!
Beste Denizli Kräher (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEiWoWoM4R0#)
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I'm glad I don't stay next door to this chap!
Beste Denizli Kräher (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEiWoWoM4R0#)
OMG - pleeeeese don't tell me that was a Dorking ???
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That cockerel would drive anyone crazy. How on earth does he sustain the noise for that long?
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[size=78%]I've got 3 cockerels, they aren't the quietest but people are ok with them, we are on a farm though. [/size]
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our neighbours used to get free eggs from us then they started complaining about the cockerel. they never got anymore eggs after that.