City rooster kept inside-good or bad plan?

[arlosmine]

Welcome to the "Stealth-City-Rooster" club.

I have a trio of Mille Fleaur D'Uccles in my garage. I have huge (5X4') Northern exposure windows and I caged in the work-bench table top in front of the windows. The enclosure is about 3'X6'X4'. With a tupperware nest box for collecting fertile eggs.

I chose that side of the garage because it is the furthest away fom any neightbors and the residents look over the outside coops and runs. I am going to set up a little run outside for the hens to get out and eat some grass in the summer for part of the day, but the roo stays in.


So far: yes, you can hear the roo outside but it is very muffled and, I hope not disturbing. It sounds like he is FAR, FAR away. I wrote holliday cards to my next-door neighbors telling them that I now had a rooster in the garage and to please let me know if he bothers them. My feeling is that if it is not ear-splitting on the whole, and they feel that I am trying to be consiserate, they will cut me more slack when the big garage door is open for projects and the muffling aint working. So far, it is working- the thing I need to deal with for summer is venting the space to keep it cool without the noise getting to bad...hmmm

So, many variables to consider, but for me it is worth a try because I love these D'Uccles and want to make more hens for urban pets here in Portland, Oregon where lots of people would enjoy them.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Quote:
DO NOT DO IT!!!

We had Fred in the house for a few months and I thought even my daughter was going to disown me.
A couple of hens are one thing. But a rooster could be cause for divorce.

 

[walkswithdog]

I'm going on three weeks with a quarantined house ROO. LOL OMG!

While he is actually a sweet boy, you know when it's six am, or the puppy startles him awake. And umm yeah, they may crow whenever they get the mood.

The kitchen is south facing and I let him roam it, gated off in the afternoon sun on nasty days and put him out in the south kennel once it's over 40, trying to get him acclimated to outside again.

I don't know about keeping one in all the time. It certainly makes for a rude awakening if he's startled at night. Laura's been really tolerant but we don't have any neighbors to freak out.

Most you can do is try it. And remember - offerings of free eggs does wonders to secure neighborhood cooperation.

I love Algernon but he's headed to the coop as soon as it's prudent.

 

[crazychicken]

Quote:
Can I join ? just don't tell the neighbors they think we are still trying to find him a good home and have been unfortunately unsuccessful.

 

[cmom]

If you put him in a cage or something during the times of day he likes to crow, where he can't stretch out his neck he can't crow or the neighbors complain.

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Good luck with that. Algernon can crow QUITE LOUDLY from the inside of a dog crate. And no, he can't stretch all the way up and flap like he would outside.

He still crows any darn time he feels like it.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Quote:
That cage thing so that they cant stretch their necks is total baloney.
I had our Partridge Rock roo in a small box. Thy boy couldnt not stand or stretch. But he could still crow!
Honestly. If yo are trying to keep "stealth" or "illegal" chickens in the city, it is best to just not even go with a roo in the first place.

 

[PortageGirl]

Rhett&SarahsMom :

Quote:
That cage thing so that they cant stretch their necks is total baloney.
I had our Partridge Rock roo in a small box. Thy boy couldnt not stand or stretch. But he could still crow!
Honestly. If yo are trying to keep "stealth" or "illegal" chickens in the city, it is best to just not even go with a roo in the first place.

yeah, and not only that, good luck getting him into that crate or box when you want to, pretty soon he'll see you coming and either be up someplace you can't reach him or be flying all around the place to get away!​

 

[chickenannie]

Personally, I would just get a bunch of hens. Even if you want fertile eggs, you don't really need the eggs fertile every single day. I would "borrow" a rooster maybe once in the spring and once in the summer and get some hatches from that. You will spend too much time worrying about the crowing noises, and then, if a neighbor complains you might have to get rid of your hens too.
Trust me on this, I have wayyyy too many broody hens in the summer... It would actually be nice to have this kind of control over the hatching.

 

[Barn Maid Ann]

My roosters sleep in a stall in my barn. It is about 100 or 150 feet from our house. That double walled barn is shut up tight now during the winter. I go out to feed horses bedtime hay at around 11PM. The second I walk out my door, those roosters light up and can wake the dead, I am sure!
We are on 30 acres and live in the country. So far so good with the chickens, but a complaining neighbor caused us to have to get rid of our (very noisy) Guinea flock.