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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want a cockeral?

24 replies

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 26/08/2007 14:31

I live in a large village and have hens, would really love a cockeral. We have close neighbours. I mentioned it half jokingly to one neighbour who said she wouldn't mind, but I said I was worried about other neighbours. She said people shouldn't move to the country if they don't want to hear country noises. Does she have a point? Should I get one?

My neighbours on the other side have just got a puppy and now spend all day outside shouting at the top of their voices to the dog, So part of me thinks that I'm not too bothered about them anymore.

OP posts:

NutterlyUts · 26/08/2007 15:04

Get one only if you can deal with the producing of more cockerals, and how you're going to sort them - be it giving them away or culling humanely.

Ripeberry · 26/08/2007 20:59

I keep hens and live in a rural area.
Up to last year i had a white Silkie bantam cockerel and he was beautifull and he managed to get some chicks with a Maran hen, yes they do look strange.
He used to crow really early in the morning in summer but the neighbours never complained.
He did get very old and i had to put him out of his misery, which was very upsetting i can tell you.
AB

expatinscotland · 26/08/2007 21:06

My sister wants a cockrel. I don't think she's being unreasonable. I do think she's a nutter .

professorplum · 26/08/2007 21:08

You could always eat him if he is antisocial

dogbert · 26/08/2007 21:12

Check the byelaws on your property, sometimes it stipulates no poultry/cockerels.

If he's shut up at night and let out at breakfast you may minimise the noise but I've yet to meet a cockerel who only crowed at daybreak.

If you do get chicks, do you have enough space to raise the males for meat and keep the girls for eggs?

I'm sure your neighbours can be bought off with the occasional box of eggs.

mummymagic · 26/08/2007 21:18

Someone four doors down from us has a cockerel. If people are staying in the back room they get woken at 4am by it.

A bit odd considering we live in Hackney...

FuriousGeorge · 26/08/2007 21:28

I live in the sticks & my neighbour opposite has poultry.She has 4 cockerels,as her dd won't let her get rid of them.They crow all day & often in the very early hours too.She did ask if it bothered me & it doesn't.If you can't keep poultry in the countryside,where can you keep it? If they wake me up,I shut the window & go back to sleep again.

I'd much rather have a cockerel nearby than a yapping dog.

southeastastra · 26/08/2007 21:31

yes yabu - what a racket it'd make

mylittlefreya · 27/08/2007 08:59

It's the numerous mini-cockerels that would concern me...

fick · 27/08/2007 09:03

Can you hear them even with double glazing?

harleyd · 27/08/2007 09:06

its the countryside - theres meant to be cockrels and crowing and all sorts of farmy noises! (thats why i live in the city )

DaisyMOO · 27/08/2007 09:45

We got a cockerel last year and have never had any complaints. We live in a very rural area and a friend of mine with a cockerel did have a complaint lodged with environmental health by her neighbour. The poor environmental health officer had to come round to their house before it got light (I think he arrived at about 2am!) and camp out in their garden so he could hear it for himself He concluded that it wasn't that loud and that as it was the countryside it was tough and the neighbours would have to put up with it.

If you keep the hen-house really dark then they won't crow so early too. BTW having a cockerel doesn't inevitably lead to little cockerels - if you remove the eggs from the nest they won't hatch out!

Original poster

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 27/08/2007 11:56

Ooooh, I was thinking lots more of you would say I was being unreasinable. So I think I might get one and see how it goes. I am wanting to breed some chicks and as they would be pure breeds I believe I would have a market for selling most/some of them.

I know I would probably be left with some cockerals but a friend in the village has promised to teach me how to dispatch them with her humane dispatcher gadget.

Thanks

OP posts:

ragdollyanna · 28/08/2007 09:58

Sorry but I think you could be asking for problems.

I live in a semi rural area but do have a few neighbours. A few of us (me included) keep hens but then one of the neighbours got a cockerel. It drove us mad.

If we had our windows open in the summer we were woken up at 4am and it became normal practice for dd2 (whose bedroom was on the back) to automatically wake up at 3.45am every morning so she was exhausted all the time.

It did get better when we complained to them as they started to keep it in a different pen where no light got through so it did not start to crow until they let it at at 7.30 - a much more acceptable hour.

I would think quite carefully about it to be honest.

expatinscotland · 28/08/2007 10:00

True, rag. Unless you live in a pretty rural area, Stripey. I mean, my sister's nearest neighbour is a farmstead, so it works for her.

Lovecat · 29/08/2007 15:55

LOL re Hackney Cockerel - I got woken up at 4am a few weeks ago by a cock crowing (in Ilford!) and thought 'what barsteward neighbour has bought a flaming cockerel?!' or words to that effect... staggered out of bed to the bathroom only to meet OH who had to fly out early that morning and had set his phone alarm to make sure he got up... which was, yes, you guessed it...

To the OP - if you live in the deep country, go for it! If not... be careful!

PrincessGoodLife · 29/08/2007 16:00

all I can can say is this:

cockerel + decent double glazing = no problems

PrincessGoodLife · 29/08/2007 16:02

and also that they are a pleasure to keep

MaloryTowersHasManners · 29/08/2007 16:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

scootermum · 29/08/2007 16:17

I dont think so..especially if you live in the country ish..do you think neighbours would object to a small goat in the biggish garden of a suburban semi?

SecondhandRose · 29/08/2007 16:23

I don't think birdies should be kept in cages when they can't flap and fly when they want to. Sorry.

SecondhandRose · 29/08/2007 16:24

Sorry I am being thick I thick it said cockatiel!!

MaloryTowersHasManners · 29/08/2007 16:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ragdollyanna · 29/08/2007 18:48

I agree with the double glazing bit Princess Goodlife as we had no problems when the windows were closed.

It was just in the summer. Warm nights meant we wanted our windows open and summer morning meant an early wake up for the cockerel.

I have no objections to cockerels. The farm up the road has one and we hear that in the mornings too. But as it is not right next door it doesnt act like a 4am alarm clock.

I just think it is unfair to neighbours to keep a cockerel when you live very close by other houses. If I had brought a cottage next to a farm I would expect to hear one but not at the end of a country lane with 6 houses quite close by to each other.

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