Are cocks too loud for town?

[Dannyo]

I don't have any chickens at this time but I'm thinking of getting about a half dozen Buff Orpingtons I like the look and dual purpose nature of them. I love reading the post about raising chicks but I'm afraid to keep a cockerel around due to the fact that my neighbor's house is about 15 feet from where the chickens would/will be.

What are the odds my neighbors would hate me?

I've already checked city ordinances and chickens are OK in my area.

Would I be better off to just buy more fertile eggs when I've depleted my little flock?

 

[speckledhen]

I can hear roosters who are about a half mile away. Their voices really do carry. I have four roosters, but I am in an agricultural area.

 

[LynneP]

Charlie, the RIR rooster across our valley has a crow that carries like a locomotive screechng to a halt. He's a nice boy and will dance to baby talk, but I wouldn't want to be 15' from him. You local ordinances allow roosters and hens? That's rare.

 

[DTchickens]

i live on a dirt road, trees along-side the road all the way.. and about a mile and a half-2 miles down the road there was a old friend of the family (who died last year at 94) who had chickens. the rest have died off as they were just free rangers.. and very very inbred.... as he only had about 4 hens, and my grandfather gave him a gamefowl rooster and i believe 5 hens 20-some-odd-years ago and they have bred on since that.. theres one rooster left that is absolutely beautiful and i hear him crow every morning. not very loud but i hear him.

 

[Lollipop]

Dannyo, your best bet would be ordering chicks, unless you can get good quality fertile eggs locally. Shipped eggs usually suffer a lot of abuse in shipping and that reduces their hatchability. Unless your neighbor really likes chickens, a rooster could be a sore spot. Talk to the neighbor.

 

[Teach97]

I have like 21 roosters in town! But then again we are a rural town and my one neighbor lets his kid ride a 4-wheeler through the yard (I let them turn around in back by my garage) and the others well...they don't want any attention being drawn to themselves...

...it would probably be best to double check your ordinances and talk with the neighbor

 

[new2chix]

Why don't you ask your closer neighbors? Roosters are loud, and when mine is in the coop behind the garage (detached, at the back corner of our 3/4 acre property) with the coop windows and doors shut, and my house windows and doors shut, we can still hear him faintly. It could be a problem, especially if a neighbor has to sleep during the day. We don't let ours out of the coop 'till at least 7 or 8 a.m., so it is fairly quiet since our coop is fairly tight and dense. Our neighbors don't mind, and seem to enjoy our little flock, rooster and all.

 

[CityClucks]

Check your city ordinances for anything regarding "nuisance" animals. I can't keep roosters in town for the same reason all-night barking dogs aren't allowed.

 

[Mahonri]

I had a Delaware roo once that started crowing at 16 weeks and by 20 weeks it was constant and LOUD... my wife couldn't take it. He would start at 3 AM and wouldn't shut up until an hour past sundown.

We just rehomed a 22 week old EE roo that was dancing with a number of the younger hens but had never crowed. If I didn't have my new 16 week old Blue Ameraucana roo, I would have kept him.

 

[Attack Chicken]

I have a roo in the suberbs. The house are maybe....10 ft aparts. My neighbors love my roo though lol. So I'm just lucky ^.^