Cockerels on allotment

[BUFFS]

i think the sound of a rooster is pure joy,i was a milkman years ago,so i was up before the birds and as i had a country round(26 miles thru 5 little villages),the sound of an early morning cockerel welcoming the dawn was and still is one of the joys of the natural world,a sunny morning,smell of fresh hay and the bird crowing,it brings back such lovely times .i dont have a rooster(too close to neighbours) but the lady next door loves the sound of the chooks chuntering around,says it brings back lovely memories of childhood,and she is in her 80s.we are lucky,when i go for a paper folks actually ask after the chooks and one or two are considering getting some now,i have told them of the vine and i know one of them is reading up on it before taking the plunge.....

[country boy]

townies

it's an idylic thought to think of this village of burnham market as a rural bliss, but it's not. it has countless upmarket shops selling wedding dresses at 25 grand to jack wills and all sorts of designer boutiques. the wine list at the local goes to £1500. the local population thrives off the more wealthy living and visiting there. there are more than a dozen building contractors rattling off new holiday houses for anyone that wants to buy them. there is full employment. there is ambition in this place to be far more than a farm yard and the locals do very nicely indeed. as far as i'm aware its ok to have a view of your surroundings? from the press i gather that there are a dozen or more cockerals on the site. why would you want a dozen cockerals...and if you did why wouldnt you lock them away at night so as not to be a nuisance? and if you liked them so much why wouldn't you keep them in your own garden? more to the point why would you want to antagonise fellow human beings like that. we all know that this is just someone trying to make a point. i've lived in the country all my life, and kept chickens and cockerals. whats more i would not hesitate in complaining. any sensible person would.

[Hilary B]

If someone is keeping cockerels where others can hear the crowing at an unearthly hour of the morning, and the owners can't, THAT is bad manners (and a nuisance).
I heard (quite a long time ago now) of a village where the church sold off some glebe land for development, and within a few months of people moving in there were complaints about the church bells at 8am on a Sunday.
Fortunately that one didn't get anywhere.
The 'new neighbours' next to a nursery school, who objected to the children (about 12 of them) playing outside because several of the occupants worked night shifts unfortunately succeeded, resulting in the nursery closing down. The reason I know about this is that we did a survey for the person buying the building to convert to a home.
People who arrive somewhere new and complain about things they really should have expected are tiresome.

[Alison]

I used to do a lot of work in the water industry, a woman who bought (cheaply at that!) a cottage off NWW which had been the operators cottage at the sewage works managed to sue NWW for all sorts of things relating to living near a sewage works - it beggars belief!

[sheena]

Funny that, cos although my HA states that I can't keep cockerel's, nothing can be done about the god damn dicky bird's that congregate on the roof tops full of song at 2-3am in the morning. Where's the justice in that eh?

I'd much rather have a cockerel waking me up than tiny bird's tweeting away. At least you are bound to get out of bed wanting to throttle it... (not that I would of course)

[rustylady]

Funny that, cos although my HA states that I can't keep cockerel's, nothing can be done about the god damn dicky bird's that congregate on the roof tops full of song at 2-3am in the morning. Where's the justice in that eh?

I'd much rather have a cockerel waking me up than tiny bird's tweeting away.

Me too Sheena. I'd rather have a cockerel than the sparrows, seagulls and pigeons that wake me up at stupid o'clock. At least a cockerel will either father chicks or make a good dinner. Don't really fancy seagull for Sunday dinner.

[rustylady]

it's an idylic thought to think of this village of burnham market as a rural bliss, but it's not.

Don't happen to live there, do you?

[walldanzig]

The four cockerals I had(3 now) are kept for breeding purposes. They are put away at night but they are still going to crow regardless. Nobody gets cockerals to specificly antagonise the neighbours but they have and always will be part of country life. I would keep them in my own garden if there was the room but there is not. I live in the city albeit a semi rural part and we have cockerals all around us and if you go out in a morning you can hear them but with the double glazing you cannot hear a thing. It is annoying when people complain about the noise but people will always find something to complain about wether it be cockerals or people who complain about cockerals or indeed who complain about the people who complain about the people who complain about cockerals and so on. ;-)

[Snadger]

Our allotment rules say 'no cockerels' but after killing three of the six I initially hatched I don't particularily want to nobble the others!
The householders close to the allotments have in the past complained about bonfires, so we are now only allowed a few months in the winter to burn rubbish.....fair do's!
They have complained about smoke from woodburners in greenhouses/sheds so limits have been put on these....fair do's!
They HAVE'NT as far as I know complained about cockerel noise as the majority new about the allotments before moving to there houses.
If we DO get complaints the Council will have no choice and will have to enforce the rule.
In which case I will grudgingly get rid of my boys, but until this happens my boys stay!

PS Luckily the householders are mainly retired and have been brought up in the country. After talking to some they either say they can't hear them or they actually enjoy the the wake up call!

[frias]

When I stay with my sister in France after the first morning I don't really notice the cockerels although she is surrounded by farms. Not that anyone would complain to a French farmer even if they were woken by their cockerels! Much more annoying was the police helicopter that was hovering above my house between 1am and 3am this morning. Ggggrrrr

[its hilly]

Village where I used to live some peeps bought a house actually ON a working farm, then complained about the bull bellowing. Errr...
Where I keep my chooks is about 150ft from the nearest house, and the owner also has chooks. He grumbled the other eve that my cockerals were waking him up at 5am, but then added 'but its only because we sleep with the windows open in summer, the rest of the time we don't hear them'
The peeps at the guesthouse just across complained when a cockeral kept waking guests up by crowing on their fence at 5am. I was totaly confused as they are kept in a barn. Turned out the little s*** was flying out over the roof beams, waking folks up then flying back in again just before I turned up with breakfast. Guess who had to sleep in the dog cage from then on? Fairs fair. And before anyone says it he DID have a clipped wing..

[Bramble-Poultry]

i have around 15 cockerels in and around my house at the moment. This is because i am doing my bit to conserve rare breeds.

i dont mind the 3am calls, and i am about to move in 2 weeks to a larger holding where i will have more again. its a working holding and the neighbours all know whats coming.

[country boy]

nope dont live there. spent many happy days there though and see clearly the benefits the locals get from a thriving community. i have however seen peoples lives torn apart by noise pollution. i wondered if a barking dog would be considered as a country noise? anyone fancy living next to a couple of those? i adhere completely to the rare breeds argument and in fact dont mind at all the sound of a crowing bird from time to time BUT heep them at home and see how your wife/husband/neighbours /kids get on with them, do not leave them in someone elses back yard.

[RichmondHens]

I can see both sides to the argument. I live in an isolated spot where no-one can hear the cocks but me, and I love my cocks (more than the hens really) but they do even drive me crazy sometimes! Luckily we have enough land to be able to site the henhouses well away from the house and can only hear the 3 am crowing when it's so hot we have all the windows open. Actually the worst time is in the day as I have two persistent escapee bantam cocks who once let out, get out and come and hang around the back door. Then they have crowing competitions and it's ear splitting! I have to keep chasing them away with a flapping tea towel.

If I lived next door to me I would be seriously aggravated!

[lindyloo]

i think the rules depend on the local town council's policies. my town allows chicken on the allotments. the town where my aunt lives, doesn't. ( of either sex)

i do not have an allotment, but live at the end of a cul-de-sac, with allotments 2 doors down. i love the sound of nature,, including cockerals; it's why i live in the country. i dont mind dogs barking either, there used to be 3 who were kennelled and so out all the time ( no burgleries while they lived there either). at this time of year , it is daylight at 4:30, and we all wake up that much earlier, irregardless of what it is that wakes us up.

what i dont appreciate, is the lorry drivers who use the road behind me, as a rat run, at 4:00 in the morning, or the milkman, who delivers , in the dead of night- 3:00, or my nieghbors, who are awake til all hours , slamming doors etc. to the point where my pictures are crooked, and the light fittings rattle. the nieghbors from down the next road, whose children come here to play football. or the teenagers who play music full blast. oh yes, and the nieghbor who has his screen on the chimneybreast of the bedroom, which he plays car racing and world domination games on-- such a joy to go to bed with that thumping through the wall. or the previous owners who did nothing but d-i- y for 4 years. those are real noise problems, not a animal expressing itself as nature intended

we all , unless we are wealthy, have to live in a house that has good and bad points, including it's surroundings; we cant expect for everything to change, just because we dont like it. so if you live by a farm, you expect to hear cattle, tractors, sheep ( now they make some noise when they have young lambs at foot) you expect to have flies and occasional ripe smells- that is the rural community. and i wouldnt swap it for the fumes, the loud music, and the hustle and bustle of a large town- which i assume is why so many "townies" want to move into the country. but if you have moved to it, you have to take the downside without complaining. nothings perfect. if it was there when you moved there, its really is you who should adapt.

we in the country have had to adapt to traffic volume, inappropriate driving around country roads, noise polution, scarce housing, etc. so it has to be viewed as a live and let live situation. we all have to try to be considerate of each other, but if all you have to complain about is a cockeral growing, i personally think you have it relatively easy.

my solution; wear ear plugs when you want to get a decent nights sleep, or if you want some peace and quiet. thats what i do.