Cockerels on allotment

[DaveJ]

Came across this story on BBC today. A small group of residents in Norfolk are trying to ban an allotment from keeping cockerels due to the noise. They have complained to the local council. According to the BBC report the Allotment Act allows you to keep hens on an allotment but not cockerels. Didn't know that.

[Alison]

There's a cockerel on ours although apparently it was dumped in with the chooks on that plot one night and the plot holders just kept it. It's huge and flaps a lot but isn't actually that noisy.

[MaureenHall]

Our allotment rules also stipulate that we can't keep cockerels. I think it's a general rule, though some people get away with it

[Bramble-Poultry]

allotment act 1950 states that you can keep hens. it doesnt make a distinctionbetween hens and cockerels, however, should a nuisance be caused, and this must be a regular persistant thing noted down not an occasional one, then the act provides a clause to have the hens removed.

[Snadger]

No cockerels or ducks are allowed on our allotments. (Which is a shame cos I have six cockerels on my plot at the last count, but don't tell anyone!)

[Alison]

Put dresses on them Snadger and tell people they're cross gender!

[Bramble-Poultry]

oh i see, snadger has 5 "i'm game" cockerels on his allotment, not 5 indian game......

[walldanzig]

nobody has ever said I can't keep my 4 cockerals on the allotment but then again I never asked.

[kirsty b]

Think I saw something in the paper about it. Its 'townies' who have second homes/weekend cottages that are making the complaints apparently because they don't like the crowing early in the morning. Think the village has been dubbed Chelsea-on-Sea

Why is it people won't complain about yobs being a nuisance, or live next to busy, noisy main roads but the minute they hear a rural noise in a rural area its handbags at dawn?

Rather than a ban, could some sort of compromise be reached whereas the birds are kept in a wee bit later in the morning, and the sheds be kept darker so they sleep in?

[di]

There's a Co op near the gates of our lottie...every night,just before dusk they start playing annoying tinny music til Gawd knows what time to put the 'yoofs' off of hanging around(we can hear it on our plot).....yet still people found the need to report our Boys.

[DaveJ]

I have had a look into this rule in a little more detail. If you want to keep cockerels on an allotment there maybe a loophole depending on your local association. One local allotment association have said that you do not have the automatic right to keep cockerels on the allotment but you are OK with hens. However, and I quote "Cockerels are only necessary if you want to breed from the hens, which you may want to do if you are conserving a rare breed." So if you claim they are purely there for breeding does that mean you would get permission?

[BUFFS]

to andi&di,it seems that some people need to get a life,if they object to chooks,then they should stop eating eggs, or stop being so two faced,as has been said ,townies trying to take over,when it was tried here,they were told in no uncertain terms to "fit in or ship out"...so now they understand exactly where they stand...end of problem.

[country boy]

cockerals in burnham market

i'm astounded that anyone thinks its ok to keep a cockeral on an allotment if it even remotely disturbs any of the neighbours. its just arrogant stupidity and stupendously bad mannars to hide behind the 'country vs townie' argument. being woken up at 3.am in the morning by anything is unacceptable....thats why the law states air planes will not fly at that time or that you may not sound the horn of your car in the midle of the night. i assume that by the simple definition that these cockerals in burnham market are on an allotment, the owners live away from the din. do not be seduced by this townie argument. i challenge anyone to think its a lovely country noise to hear at 3.00am in the morning or that the owners persistance in keeping them is anything more than bullying. i note that in the next door village , burnham overy, cockerals are BANNED from the allotments. i wonder why. bully's should be dealt with by the parish council who have fallen woefully short. i feel total sympathy for those who live close...even some sorrow. totally and utterly unfair

[BUFFS]

i dont see that people can move into an area and start dictating to the lifelong residents what they can and cant do,i think there is a lot of truth in the local saying "london and edinbourgh have the same benefit ,they keep all the self important numbties in one place",its when they move out and start laying down the law,just because they have money,does not mean they have any common sense.a better idea would have been to come to an arrangement with the chook owner instead of doing the big i am.its letting this sort a lot of freedom thats got this country bankrupt,and they are still rewarding themselves for that...

[di]

A bit of a full on first post there Country Boy.
Personally I don't see it as a country vs townie argument,although I think sometimes that is the case.Growing up in a very remote little village I saw first hand 'townies' moving into their nice little village cottages(for the weekends only)and straight away expecting their neighbours to give up their country way of living because it disturbed their Sunday morning lie in.
The reason I was annoyed that we were reported for having cockerals is that the people or person that reported us would have had to really strain themselves to hear our boys...our plot is well away from any houses.
'Some' people,it would seem,have decided that the sound of a cockeral is an annoyance and regardless of whether it actually is loud enough to disturb them or not feel it's their right to kick up a stink and get rid.
Our site does have a no cockeral rule and we had no intention of keeping them anyway,just wanted to fatten them up enough to make a half decent dinner.