PROPOSED ROOSTER BAN IN TOWN OF ISLIP

IN ALL reality,no suburban backyard flock needs more than 1 rooster for breeding. its just obnoxious and unneccisary! as we all know a good breeder roo can keep 12 hens nice and fertile. any polite breeder with close-by neighbors will immediately seek to rid of any surplus roosters once we know they are roosters.we all do it out of common decency for our neighbors. HOWEVER there are next-door-breeders-from-hell that have several types of poultry at once on a samll lot and has too many of each creating a near-constant onslaught of various noises that can drive neighbors to insanity. these are the breeders who can mess it up for a whole suburban township and make a great case to ban roosters in their town. so please everyone, be courteous of your neighbor in suburbia!!!

I just read the article today. (I own a barred rock rooster) this is something very serious that will affect responsible owners. I for one am very nervous at what the outcome is going to become of this, and perhaps in the future even the removal of owning chickens as a whole.

Finally, an engaged neighbor! I appreciate your comments about being a considerate neighbor by keeping roosters under control. We have been experiencing a nightmare in SW Florida with our neighbors, who are a self-ascribed animal rescue facility. Even though they "operate" on a mere 5 acres of land, the density of all kinds animals to acreage is negligent and abhorrent and creates a real eyesore, not to mention a deafening flurry of squawking, braying, squealing and oinking. Their pond has been reduced to a cesspool over the past two years, and the place is so run-down. And all of this isn't our real issue - the problem is the rooster that was clearly delivered to their doorstep to take care of because it has issues with crowing. It crows all day and night, and the problem is that our master bedroom window backs up to the barn, where they used to keep the rooster. Now they let it roam, with the rest of the animals, at night. I have not really had a full night's sleep for 2 years! At first they tried to keep it in the barn and under control, but now, we are not on good terms because we have had something to say about the worsening condition of the property, and the utter chaos that exists. We are not complainers, and we have only complained about ALL the other animals only a couple of times. It's the rooster that is the problem - they do NOT breed chickens, they don't hatch the eggs, they do nothing with the rooster at all except keep it as a "pet." They have come right out and said the rooster isn't going anywhere, and that we should get a noise machine in our room to deal with it.

As a poultry expert, and if you were in our shoes, how would you handle this situation??? I do not want to be on bad terms with anyone, especially my neighbors, nor do I want any problems to result out of handling this poorly. I've recently received a serious diagnosis related to my health, and I know that part of the healing process will require healthy sleep, which I am not getting at this point. Any productive suggestions would be welcomed!!!

well, you have a few options; first one is check your local poultry/livestock ordinances. check your permit requirements if any at all apply. i doubt ANY townships codes in any kind of suburbia or mid-suburbia that your town codes would permit the rooster to roam free all night crowing!! in fact it is very unusual for any type of poultry to be awake at night to have a rooster crowing and wandering around in the yard; thats like seeing a raccoon at noon staggering along the sidewalk. something is clearly wrong with it! i know my flock checks into the coop just before sunset automatically to roost for the night in a secure,dark enviorment and does not make another sound till sunup unless there is a predator trying to get in the coop. suggest to your neighbors to keep him securely enclosed and in a totally dark space away from other animals or activity after say eight o clock at night.suggest getting it into a daily routine like you would with a dog. be consistent at the same time every day. chickens are very intelligent and can be trained quite easily! if all else fails in every attempt of troubleshooting with them on it, see the codes; in florida there is a lot more terrain and neighborhood types than here on paved over long island,and what they are doing COULD be perfectly legal, if thats the case you need to either pick a new room as your master bedroom instead of up behind the barn,invest in earplugs or yes,have a radio on to drown it out.(good old fashioned headphones from the eighties work great to muffle sound!)the final straw is selling your house and finding someplace not quite so close to a 'rescue' operation. in a lone rooster situation like that where the roo serves no purpose and isnt for sale and has obvious neurological disorders(very common in any man-made animals like dogs or poultry!)i myself personally would just do it up for the soup pot which is the proper fate for any poultry or livestock when it cannot be productive. but 'resuce' folks are a little more....eccentric and less practical than common flock owners and are likely to keep it till old age unless a home for it elsewhere is found; find out what breed it is and poke around to see if anyone is looking for a roo; casually mention where they can find it and send them knocking for it.lots of 'rescue' folks seek homes for the animals but occasionally get attached; those would be the only options you have that i can see for you. good luck with it! i hope i helped at least a bit!

well if youre a breeder in town of islip take the day off to be there and be heard on tuesday nov 18th at 2pm at islip town hall for the vote/meeting to help us fight for our basic rights to be productive and keep at least 1roo in town of islip and secure our childrens future! our kids are worth a days pay lost to secure their future neghborhood resources and retain thier rights to survive and produce thier own resources as our founding fathers died in bloody wars to protect our rights we now must stand up for the future rights of our kids!! we need our roosters to propigate; there is no future without them! anyone raising endangered or threatend american heritage breeds would be forced to watch them fade away into extinction like my delawares for instance. we the pepole have the right to live and survive and produce resources. retaining that right requires a big fight which is another basic element of our nation as well! so we must be americans and be there to be heard loudly enough. even in shtf and poultry was totally banned along with dogs over 40lbs or your kids playing in your front yard or having parties in your backyard and other dictator-type laws or codes were imposed, at least we can look in the mirror and say we fought regardless of the outcome and can one day when our kids point the accussatory finger at us for the shape of the society we left for them,we can be of the few of our generation to look them square in the eye and say 'sorry son,but we tried to preserve it for you but we lost the battle.we fought hard and fearlessly but failed.sorry son.' at least we join the ranks of others that fought for our rights and did our best. thats what being an american means! I PERSONALLY would say the codes are vauge and allow too much. 1 roo and 14 hens is really all any of us here need! or even 1acre plots can have roos but smaller lots only hens.something that is fair both ways. at least if your neighbor around the corner had a roo you could borrow a day or two during breeding season(of the appropriate breed), at least 1 of each breed in the area and we all work closely together we can keep breeder roos floatin around or even rent them out so we can all still propigate our rare breeds. currently the way its written we can have 15 roos in 500 sq ft! THATS CRAZY in any type of neighborhood!! obviously it needs to be altered,not nessicarily eliminated but limited to at least 1 roo per dozen hens would do just fine; otherwise all other poultry gets targeted next! so if youre in the township you and all other breeders you know must show up and be heard at the town meeting!! your only fear should be to do nothing about it.

Thanks so much for the advice and infio. You are astute in your assumptions and observations that 1. They are eccentric and 2. The roosters (both of them) have issues! I believe they were dropped off to these people because they couldn't figure out when to crow and when not to! While they don't roam all night, they do have free reign in and out of the barn and I believe you're right about the predators. When they all get going in the middle of the night (geese, hens, ducks, goats, pigs and donkeys) it is quite something and likely brought on by an outside disturbance. Our relationship with this couple (who only have 5 acres but a farm animal population - including 13 dogs inside their house - more suited to 50 acres) has turned unfriendly at this point because we have talked to code enforcement about the proximity of their animals (pigs and goats) to adjoining parcels and density of their animals to current code. I don't blame them for being irritated, but after two years of trying to compromise, and the fact that all the animals they have continue to multiply because they do nothing to mitigate this, the property looks horribly run down, their pond is a virtual cesspool and the rooster continues to roam about doing NOTHING productive as you say! They told us long ago that the roosters are pets, they don't hatch the eggs, and "the roosters aren't going anywhere." We haven't dealt with an inconsiderate neighbor in 25 years, so this is unfamiliar territory. I love animals, wanted to keep chickens myself, but all of this has been an exhausting exercise of trying to find a peaceful solution. I'm hoping they see the light and move themselves, to provide more room for their animals and more peace to their neighbors. Thanks for your reply and yes, it did help!

Wait, Is this meeting 2pm or 6:30pm??? I see two different meetings, but the 6:30pm is for a zobing board. Which meeting is it then?