My son (10) has some pet chickens and a cockeral, for eggs and to hatch some chicks. We live on the edge of town on a part council/part private estate. This morning I got a letter from environmental health saying that someone has complained about the cockeral crowing in the early hours - I don't know what to do - my son adores his cockeral and would be heart broken if it has to go, also he plans on raising a few hens form chicks to take to market to supplement his pocket money.
My first thought is that the cock doesn';t crow till after 6am anyway - hardly the early hours. Secondly it annoyed me because we have a problem with barking dogs at all hours of day and night, next door has parrots which shriek from around 6am (probably waking the cock up!), neighbours start hammering and sawing at 7am on Sundays and children play out till late at night (noisily) - yet someone moans about Joe's cockeral.
We made a mistake moving here and are desperate to move on but we bought a run down house to do up and it will take another six months at least to finish it so we're stuck for the moment.
The council have told me that the complainant can take me to court and I could be fined £5000........
Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
What should I do?
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im sure Ive read somewhere that if you keep a cockeral in darkness theydont crow
so could you keep him quieter by keeping him in the dark till a more reasonable time?

We have a few hens & I want to try & hatch a few chicks too, but I won't have a cockeral because of where we live -- we have a large "funny" shaped gardens, which means we have about 15 gardens backing onto ours. What I plan to do is when my hens go broody - buy some eggs, for them to sit on.

That doesn't really help you with your problem & I don't really know what you can do about it, but the idea of buying some (hopefully fertile) eggs may be a way of Joe hatching some chicks - without the need of the cockeral.

I know of a great place to get hatching eggs from too. A place near Cheltenham, she will let you have anything to order. She is currently incubating me some Wellsummers - so that I can have them as day olds & hopefully soon I can get some eggs from her to try & hatch myself.

if you keep the cockrell in a dark place at night.a cage with a blanket over it it shouldnt crow .they start to crow at the first sign of morning.so by keeping in the dark untill a reasonable time should do the trick it worked for us.

In addition to covering up his crate at night, if you make sure that he hasn't gor the room to actually stretch his neck out fully, then he won't crow - or so the old wives' tales go!

Margot

A rescue centre might look after them for a few months until your house is ready, or a local farmer.

we once had a neighbour so we used to put our non breeding males in tea chest sized boxes, in a big indoor cupboard with no daylight....did this about 11pm bedtime & then let them out about 8am......worked a treat!

smudgeley what will you do with the male birds you hatch out then???

Lol! If your luck's anything like mine, you'll hatch three times as many cockerels as henbirds.

Our Cockerel crows even in the hen house before we let him out - he usualy starts at about 6 am but will get earlier and earlier as the days lengthen. - and yes he is VERY LOUD. Don't think that Roosters and built up areas go well together but you could try some of the suggestions on here - good luck :)

Yvonne

I didn't say I planned to keep all the chicks Sam!

what do you plan to do with the hatchlings?

My large buff orpingtons have very loud crows but the pekin cockerells we hardly notice - could you change your breed to a quieter one?

but it's 'William' that he loves, Joe is soooo sensitive about his pets, we tried covering the mesh front of the hen house with tarpaulin last night and he didn't crow till after 8am, so hopefully that will work.

I emailed the council yesterday responding to their letter and pointing out the noisy nature of the neighbourhood and assuring them I would cooperate. They replied thanking me for the prompt response and said they would monitor the situation - apparently they haven't investigated, just written to me because of one complaint. So hopefully the problem is under control.
I also suspect it's a malicious complaint - my portugese neighbours got a puppy last autumn and kept it in the garden, no shelter, never walked, only fed once a day, never been in the house since it messed as a baby, out all winter in the snow and barking constantly, after complaining to them to no avail I (along with half the street) rang the council - funny that was one week ago and then I get the letter......the pup nexr door has now vanished :(

On the chicken front I've just got an incubator and plan on hatching some chicks (fingers crossed) - what do you do with the cocks? The books I've read says to cull them - do they sell at market or does it mean the freezer?

Keep them to 12 or 16 weeks and freeze em :D  My freinds used to move these in an arc so they could graze as well to supplement their feed.  Mind you I hate plucking so prefered to keep bunies for the freezer, as skinning was much easier than all those feathers.

I don't know if I could actually do the deed myself........would they sell if I took them to market (in other words pass the buck)!

Kerioak- I really like Orpingtons & did consider getting some. Maybe I will in the future.  :)

Knowing me I'll buy a dozen eggs - 6 won't be fertile & the other 6 will be male - LOL - If I do manage to hatch some babies - the lady I am getting my day olds from (& who I will get the eggs from) will take back any unwanted cockerals - obviously she won't buy them back - but will gladly have them. I'm more than happy with this arrangement.  :)

well i was up at5.30 am this morning off to the fcr champshow guess what the birds where sing at that time

Um no I doubt if they will sell, most people dont like plucking etc and will hapilly pay several times as much for an oven ready one. Sadly in this day and age most people dont know where to start when it comes to this sort of thing. BUT perhaps you can find a frinedly game dealer or butcher who would do them for you?  

We live in the country and get woken up by a cockeral every morning but it doesn't bother us, the bird was here before us :D :D However, my oldest daughter lives on a houseing estate where the chap in the house nearby bought a cockeral and it started waking everyone up at 6am. Daughter and a few others complained and the bird was removed eventually

Sorry but I feel for your neighbours...a housing estate is not the place to keep a cockeral that makes a noise. If you have a problem with other peoples noise then you can complain about them you know ;) Consideration works both ways , you are as entitled to peace as they are

There are allotments in front of my house and chickens and a cockerel are kept there.  When we first moved in he woke me up for the first few days but then I got used to it.  I only notice now if he's not there for some reason :D then I wake up and can't understand why for a few minutes :)  I'd really miss him if he was gone for good.