4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Chicken Lady]

Hi there, I have a flock of chickens who are having a go at each other a bit more than I'd like, and my next-door-neighbour (who also keeps chickens) says I should get a cockerel as he says it'll put an end to the bullying.

 

My questions are:

1) is he right?

2) is there a cockerel breed that's quiet (I'm in a semi-rural area and though we have big gardens, we have neighbours both sides and at the bottom) and also not too aggressive as I have young children?

 

I'm probably asking the impossible here - I seem to have memories of my mother's cockerel waking us all up by bellowing at the top of his voice at 4am every day in the summer - and that was in the middle of the countryside...

[The Dogmother]

Eeeerrmmm... you'll be lucky

 

Some bantam cockerels are a tad quieter, but most of them shout just as loud.

[chelsea]

its not only mornings either, some cockerels will crow all day!

[Gamebird]

My friend has a cockerel and it crows all day.

 

She has no close neigbours so he is not a problem.

[superjules]

The little ones won't have quite so much bass, but they often make up for it with the chook version of "small bloke syndrome"!

 

I have heard that a cockerel in the flock stops the hens fighting, but mine don't fight without a boy to keep them in line, so do go into it with your eyes open.

[Nuggywoo]

There's no such thing as a quiet cockerel.

 

I borrowed a banty boy (till my pure bred comes of age) purely to keep my girls from wandering off into the sunset - he does his job but lets everyone know about it.

 

All day long

 

Don't get a cockerel for the wrong reason, he won't stop your hens fighting.

[deejmum]

I have a cockerel and 5 hens. Lucky(thats his name because we decided to keep him) the cockerel has recently discovered his crow and is at it all day on and off. Fortunately we are not too close to our neighbours, but I feel sorry for the hens though, when they are in the cube and he crows early in the morning.

I have to say though, we have had him since he was a chick and he is much tamer than the hens we bought at point of lay. He flies onto our laps for a cuddle.

 

I have noticed that he likes to jump on the hens too!

[The Dogmother]

The little ones won't have quite so much bass, but they often make up for it with the chook version of "small bloke syndrome"!

 

They do make me laugh when they do that... Lesley's cockerels have a 'my cojones are bigger than yours' type of crowing competition. One of her bantams was the loudest!