Unsecure chicken perches

[Old Speckled Hen]

Some people are strange

We live in a small hamlet of some 12 houses strung out over half a mile. I canvassed my immediate neighbours before I got Flash the Vorwerk cockerel. "Ooops, word censored!"ody voiced any objections. Yesterday I got a letter from the Environmental Protection Office.......yes you guessed it. Somebody has complained (he is quite noisy very early in the morning ).

We all know eachother,for heaven's sake!!!! Why on earth they couldn't have a word with me I will never know.

All sorted though....Flash has a lovely roomy cage in the basement and last night he was snaffled away from his harem after bedtime and reunited at 8am. He didn't seem to mind and jumped on his favourite lady straightaway

We are getting the house ready to put on the market in the spring and moving to somewhere with a bit of land so he can crow to his heart's content.

Edited March 24, 2011 by Guest

[chicken bark]

Glad you have a solution. The last thing you need is a problem with the neighbours when you are selling your house.

[Chortle Chook]

I think that it is a horrible thing to do, to go complaining to an authority rather than having a quiet word with someone one sees every day. What luck you have a solution. I admit that I'd have found that quite upsetting and all the more so as, being in a hamlet, surely you are in the country.

 

On my dog walk this morning I heard two lovely cockerels and though I really live in suburbia, I thought how lovely it was. It really cheered my day.

 

I know not everyone likes the same things but surely a bit of 'live and let live' should exist in a small community. If I stopped to think about it there must be sounds I don't like, but the thing is, I don't stop to think about it. Apparently the French think we are a very angry nation and perhaps they are right.

[jennydavies]

Some people are so funny, why do they choose to live in the country if they don't want to hear "country sounds" We live on the edge of a tiny village and all of our neighbours have hens and cocks. Our immediate neighbour has seven cocks at the moment and we love to hear them all crowing to each other. We can hear the various boys all calling to each other all the way down the lane. It's lovely to listen to, and along with the sheep bleating (the lambs are all being born at the moment and sooo cute) and the cows lowing it's the sounds of the country. If we didn't want to hear these kind of noises, we'd have found somewhere in the city and then we could have listened to police sirens and people fighting every saturday night The people that complained are your neighbours and you proberbly class them as friends

[Redwing]

What a shame that they didnt feel they could speak to you directly - thats pretty cowardly of them

 

Its lovely that you've taken it in your stride though and have a solution

[Sam]

How silly! I thought in the country everyone is supposed to be friendly, and if they have a problem should talk directly to you! I would love to live in the country and wake up to the sound a cockerel, they'd soon shut up if they stayed in my town for a week and realized the sound of a motorway is worse than a cockerel!

[Wolfie]

Someone recently moved into our village and moaned about the church bells.

[Old Speckled Hen]

How wonderful to have such solidarity. Thank you, everybody.

Flash is tucked up in his new night quarters. I guess we'll have to cope till we move.

Hubby and I have been wondering who it could be and I have emailed the council to make sure that cockadoodledooing is allowed between 8am and sunset

[sparkysmum]

Bit of solidarity from everyone in Sparky's house too, OSH. Too small minded for words, makes you wonder why such individuals chose to live in the country. Just pathetic. Alli

[WitchHazel]

it may not have been one of the people you canvassed that complained. The sound of a Cockerel crowing travels a long way.

 

We live in a suburban village, and someone has a cockerel. We know which direction it comes from, but we don't know where it is. We do know it's a fair way away, as we've walked quite a long way trying to find it (just out of interest, not to complain).

[The Dogmother]

What a shame, but glad that you have a solution.

 

I think the hours for 'anti-social noise' are not between 11pm and 7am, so you should be OK

[casiraghiegg]

I live right on the edge of a NewTown in what was one of the original villages and I sometimes hear an Owl calling at night when he's looking for a mate . I'm quite surprised that "Ooops, word censored!"ody's complained about him yet!

 

Then there's the foxes barking at all hours of the night. The allotment holders complain about the deer. Who was here first - us or the wildlife? Which came first - the chicken or the egg? Whatever happened to live and let live

 

I moved from the other side of town to have access to all this and LOVE all those night sounds.

 

Good luck with the move - they don't deserve you.

[The Dogmother]

I live in the town centre in a Victorian terraced house, so the neighbours are very close; I wouldn't dare to have a cockerel the proximity doesn't stop others from leaving their barking dogs out in the garden all day though

[madchickenlady]

I live on a new build estate in a town, but opposite a nature reserve. The town is a small one, and we are surrounded by many farms. I'm lucky that my neighbours took my chicken keeping with bemused good humour, but like claret I don't think I could risk a cockerel That said, I am going to visit a serama breeder soon and if she has an exceptionally quiet boy we might try on a sort of 'loan' basis. I do have sympathy for people who are kept awake by neighbouring cockerels, they can be very loud. However, during the daytime I don't think a crowing boy is any louder than dogs barking, traffic, music playing etc etc.

[Luvachicken]

I would give anything to live in the countryside and hear all those lovely noises. Far better than all the screaming children that live near me with their trampolines- I know which noises I'd rather hear. But I did hear an owl last night

[Old Speckled Hen]

I did hear an owl last night

So did I when I stood outside in my PJs at 4.30am when Flash started crowing,to check I couldn't hear the crowing outside

(We can inside but that's OK)

[keyhole kate]

I would happily swap my neighbours who live two doors away three girls who scream as though being murdered throughout the summer for ten crowing cockerells. myself and other neighbours look forward to rain and winter if only because it keeps them indoors. If they ever had the cheek to complain about my chooks they would get it both barrells. It's not that I dont like children I had four myself I just wouldn't allow them to disturb others

[Chortle Chook]

So did I when I stood outside in my PJs at 4.30am when Flash started crowing,to check I couldn't hear the crowing outside (We can inside but that's OK)

Is he really that loud? I know that cockerels don't all sound the same. To my horror my little chap was crowing this moring at 6.30 no matter that it was totally dark and that he was shut in. Luckily however he is not very loud, tending to sound more like someone being quietly strangled

 

Luckily my neighbours rather like my cockerel's funny personality.

 

What I have found is that the pitch seems to annoy men more than women, perhaps because it is a little like a crying child. When we first got him (it was an accident) my OH got pretty up tight about the noise as did someone's father who was staying nearby, but he luckily went home quite quickly.

[Old Speckled Hen]

He is quite loud and I have no problem bringing him in if one neighbour is REALLY upset by him. My problem is that he/she didn't have the decency to speak to me first........oh well.

He is left in pitch black. How does he crow at the same time is he did in the Cube?

Edit to say that I have just spoken to my step daughter who is a police officer and she has done a lot of nuisance work. She tells me that Flash's decibel level in a neighbour's house is likely to be fairly low so I should relax.

[Chortle Chook]

Good for your daughter to be able to put some sanity on it all.

I agree, it would have been so much kinder if the person had spoken directly to you, but well done you for finding your own solution.

[jomeena]

I would love to be in the country and hear all the natural noises. Would beat the London night sounds hands down.

[The Dogmother]

Try putting him in a lower box; if there isn't enough room for them to stand on their tiptoes, they tend not to crow.

[Old Speckled Hen]

Thanks for that advice,Claret. I may do that but for the moment I'd rather not squash him down. He's OK in the basement in a dog cage.

The next problem will be if we go away for a few days. I think I'll take him to mum in laws with one of the hens. They live next to a farm so noise shouldn't be a problem.

Every body has been so kind here ..... it brings a tear to my eye.

Still nothing from the council in reply to my email asking for feedback on my silencing measures so I'll post them a hard copy. The guy I need to talk to is always on voicemail

[miller30]

I was reported last september for my pekin bantam teddy crowing he goes in a box at night and then in the house with his ladies so he cant crow i live on a residential estate my house backs on to waste land and a school playground you will only hear him crow between the hours of 9.15-4.30pm but somebody doesnt want him to make any noise well after a month no one ever put any noise diarys back in and i went knocking on doors to ask who was he annoying and was told by 6 neighbours that they either didnt know i had a cockeral or didnt care very confusing as somebody must have complained i had already told my neighbours that i was gonna try keeping teddy on a trial and if anyone had a problem to come and see me as otherwise i wouldnt know but instead decided to go to the council oh well the case was dropped last october and teddy is still here and now has 7 wives so i will see what happens this year leanne

[Old Speckled Hen]

Hi miller30, glad your outcome was a good one. I have heard from our environmental officer but all he's given me is largely a rehash of the letter I was sent which was abundantly clear in the first place. I guess I'll have to wait for a return or non return of the complainant's diary