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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Next door's cock...

76 replies

mojito55 · 15/01/2018 08:19

...erel is driving me up the wall. Since they decided out of the blue to become chicken farmers two months ago, I have been woken from my much-needed beauty sleep every day around 6am. I am then treated to its shrill, dramatic noise (squawking? barking? whatever) ALL MORNING. I thought they do it a few times at sunrise and then shut up? Is this one broken? And WIBU to chuck a fox over their fence?

OP posts:

Tika77 · 15/01/2018 13:46

You don’t need cockerels to get eggs, that’s true bit they keep the chickens happy and prolapse is a lot less likely with a cockerel around, they break up fights between the girls and look after them. I miss my cockerels. (My neighbours reported be without speaking to me first - nobody else on the street complained, people used to stop me on the street to compliment how nice it was to hear them).

LordWalterTheCourageous · 15/01/2018 15:03

Start breeding foxes

Roomba · 15/01/2018 15:10

There are at least two cockerels on or next to my street. They drive me insane, especially in summer, as they crow all day long! It starts in the middle of the night and wakes me constantly when it gets to May/June onwards.

I do not live in the countryside btw. Why the hell does anyone living in a city think their neighbours should be subjected to this?

Caspiana · 15/01/2018 15:41

@tika77 I understand that councils recommend speaking to neighbours before complaining but what would you have done if they had spoken to you? I don’t mean this aggressively, I am genuinely interested in your perspective, surely you bought that cockerel knowing that it was going to cause disturbance to your neighbours? As I said above, we have spoken to our neighbours and they’ve done nothing. I am really curious as to why people keep cockerels in inner city areas and what they think about their neighbours and the impact on them.

ptumbi · 15/01/2018 16:00

My neighbour keeps chickens - she got some chicks but one turned out to be a cockerel. (You don't need a cock to gegt eggs - in fact, you only have to have a cock if you want fertilised eggs (so, chicks) - most eggs are unfertilised TG)
This bastard crowed at 5am every morning. In the middle of town. I think one of her neighbours reported her to the council, as she got a Noise Abatement notice. At this point she wanted to keep the cock in a darkened shed (so it wouldn't know when it was sunrise?) as she wouldn't take it back to the breeders (instant neck-breaking time)
Eventually I think she got rid of it. She had to. It would have been court, next step.

Tika77 · 15/01/2018 16:16

I didnmt buy them, I hatched them. But we live in an area where people have big gardens and I bough this house for that. (Ours is about a fouth of an acre.) I don’t see a point of big gardens if it’s just there... and I didn’t think about the neighbours when I bought my dog, cat etc. I’m a live and let live kind of person and animal noise doesn’t bother me. The recommendation is (and this is what I’ve done) that you keep them in a dark box until 8 am (this is the time the environmental team recommended when I called them after the first letter). This worked fine (until one morning the stupid dog broke the box door and they did reqlly make a racket a 4 am - which was bad but the neoughbour didn’t even give me a chance to sort it out, had a letter from the council the next day threatening with fines etc.
This is clearly controversial, so is keeping cats and allow them to toilet into other peoples garden etc. Noone else complained here just the one house where we had issues with the people since we moved in. Those cockerels were pets and I had to dispatch them. Silly but I’m still not over it, after 3 years.

Tika77 · 15/01/2018 16:17

Maybe you could speak to them and ask them to keep them boxed in until 8.

winglesspegasus · 15/01/2018 16:23

stewpot...too tough to roast

Mrsknackered · 15/01/2018 17:30

I feel for you, I'm never in the mood for morning cock

Mrsknackered · 15/01/2018 17:31

Adoodledoo's

steppemum · 15/01/2018 17:37

the dark box does not work.

Our cockerel crows anytime from 5 ish and it isn't even vaguely light until 7.

BUT the dark box does act as quite a good noise barrier. Ours in shut in his nest box at night where he cannot be heard nearly as badly as if he is out and about.

MaryPoppinsPenguins · 15/01/2018 17:44

Earplugs?

unicornonabicycle · 15/01/2018 19:02

You might be able to do something about it if it's a recent acquisition. Complain to the Council and do it sooner rather than later. It's a horrible noise nuisance and it happens at dawn. If it annoys you at this time of year, imagine in June, when dawn happens REALLY bloody early.

We moved into a house not realising that our neighbours had a cockerel. At one point, the neighbour said to me "I don't know if you have noticed, but we're looking after a second cockerel for our friend who's doing a stretch inside..." I was so appalled by every bit of that sentence that I failed to ask how long for.

SweetIcedTea · 15/01/2018 19:29

We live next door to a small holding, in a residential area, a couple of years ago two small holders both had Cockerills, competitive crowing, horrendous.

SweetIcedTea · 15/01/2018 19:29

We live next door to a small holding, in a residential area, a couple of years ago two small holders both had Cockerills, competitive crowing, horrendous.

PricillaQueenOfTheDesert · 15/01/2018 19:54

Get in touch with your local authorities now. By May when sunrise is 4.25am you’ll be too exhausted to complain as cock-a-doodle will start well before Dawn!

Caspiana · 15/01/2018 20:14

@tika77 thank you for responding. Keeping it in a box till 8am won’t deal with the crowing throughout the day - I work from home and so many days I have to leave the house due to the incessant crowing. I lived in a terraced house previously with a dog and a baby next door, and they had an extension built. NOTHING noise wise comes close to the disturbance of crowing. I appreciate the noise doesn’t bother you but the fact our neighbours keep a cockerel renders our house unusable for parts of the day and I find that indefensible. If your neighbour experienced anything like the misery our neighbours’ cockerel causes us then I can understand why she complained. I am sorry though that you had to lose your pets.

@marypoppinspenguins I know you’re joking with that comment but earplugs (not that it is remotely acceptable for someone to have to wear earplugs in their house because of their neighbours) do not keep out the noise of the crowing, it is so loud!

user187656748 · 15/01/2018 20:19

Ooo you're going to love the light summer mornings OP...

We ended up with a cockerel once by mistake (seller told us they were all hens). He was very noisy and we were sad but also very slightly relieved when he went the way of the fox.

averylongtimeago · 15/01/2018 20:25

My neighbours have a cockerell, and yes I can hear it but it's not a problem, for me anyway.
It starts at about 4 am in the summer and carries on all day, but the occasional box of eggs is nice!

Mind you, I hear your birds and raise you: donkeys, which sound like the guardians of the gates of hell. My neighbour has got two and they hee haw all the bloody time!

newtlover · 15/01/2018 20:45

as many pp have said, it's unlikely your neighbours intended to et a cockerel as they're not really needed, we are definitely not allowed to keep them (local bye laws) but once you have one it's hard to get rid of, as no-one wants them. Try talking to your neighbours, they may be feeling embarassed, and wondering what to do.
If it was mistakenly sold to them they can take it back. If they hatched it themselved they need to re-home.

itsalldyingout · 15/01/2018 21:02

I feel your pain, OP.

Our neighbours had one. It crowed ALL day. Unbelievably loud - it sounded like it was perched on my sill whilst the window was open.

I was working 12 hour nightshifts in the NHS at that time so was getting no sleep. I tried earplugs but after three consecutive ear infections I gave up. They didn't work anyway.

I was so worn out I had to take time off on the sick as I felt I was going to make the kind of mistake that could hurt or kill a patient. My commute was a 40 minute drive each way and I was finding myself nodding off at the wheel.

Unfortunately, it was the middle of the summer so the bloody thing was crowing 18 hours a day from 4am and I still wasn't catching up on any sleep. (Their barking dogs were also a problem but at least they only started at 8am. Went on til 11pm, though, but that's another story.)

I was so tired I felt depressed to the point of suicide - or murder.

I spoke to a locum GP about anti-depressants and explained why I was so depressed and he got in touch with the local council for me. They served a notice, birds were removed by the owners and peace was somewhat restored. I recovered and was back at work in a few weeks.

I really hope you get the bird or birds removed (my neighbour actually had 3 cocks so no wonder it was so noisy. Who the hell needs one let alone that many!). People who can sleep through anything are very lucky and have no right to make light of this kind of situation. There's a reason sleep deprivation is used as a method of torture - it works!

Councils should make noise nuisance a priority. It's awful for people who have to live with it, whatever the source. I'm still prone to bouts of depression since it kicked off with this and I feel truly sorry for people who suffer with hyperacusis.

Good luck.

SheGotBetteDavisEyes · 16/01/2018 01:20

There's a cockerel near us and I actually love the sound, but I accept I'm in the minority .

We sadly got rid of two beautiful cockerels just as they started crowing - beautiful things, but completely unfair on the neighbours.

CremeFresh · 16/01/2018 01:30

Why do people that have noisy animals never seem to be disturbed by the noise themselves ?

MrsFezziwig · 16/01/2018 01:41

My neighbours bought a cockerel (no idea why as they weren’t intending to breed) who learned to crow on the exact day that I was doing six sets of viewings on my house.
They then decided it would be nice to allow it to roam free in the garden, in an area known to have foxes.
Problem solved.

HicDraconis · 16/01/2018 03:46

We have hens, which lay 10 eggs a day very happily without the need for a rooster to keep them in order. They do a victory squawk which goes on for ages when they’ve laid something but it isn’t as irritating as crowing.

You can buy rooster collars which work the same way as dog bark collars to stop a rooster crowing if your neighbours are determined (and allowed) to hang on to theirs. It really does depend on whether you’re in rural farming country (rooster part of the general background cacophony) or in town (rooster should be in stockpot) as to whether you’re unreasonable to be annoyed by it though.

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