Neighbor complaining about roosters crowing

[NatJ]

Complaining neighbor wants me to get rid of my silkie roo by this weekend. I offered to put the silkie in a back shed or try a no crow collar (wish I didn't have to), and he said it doesn't matter of the crow is muffled or less frequent because it annoys him and he and his wife works from home.

Can you find anyone to keep your rooster for a week or so?

Then tell your neighbor you did "something" that should make it quieter, and ask them to pay attention for the next week or so, and tell you how well it worked. (They will probably assume you tried the no-crow collar, or put the rooster in the shed, or something like that.)

If the neighbor says it is just as bad, but you know your rooster was actually gone at the time, then your rooster is not really the problem, and you might as well bring him home again. (And point out to the neighbor that your rooster was gone that week, so clearly whatever they heard was not coming from him.) But if the neighbor does say the problem went away, then maybe your rooster is more obvious or crowing more often than you realize.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

Single family residential doesn’t necessarily mean “no chickens”. It means you can’t have more than one residence on the property, and can’t have a commercial property. The rest will depend on a lot of other factors.

I think you need to do more research to see if he has a leg to stand on or if you are within your legal rights to have the number/type of chickens you have managed as you are currently doing.

 

[DickMidnight]

Complaining neighbor wants me to get rid of my silkie roo by this weekend.

can you clear a few things up for everyone here?

1. are you allowed, by local ordinances, to have roosters? if so, do you meet all of the necessary requirements for owning them? (setbacks, times, etc?)

2. is your neighbor in some kind of authority position? in your updates, you mentioned that he said you get to keep one rooster, and then that he said you have to get rid of yours by the weekend. is he in a position to make these rules?

if the answer to 1 is yes, and the answer to 2 is no, then just ignore this guy.

if those answers are reversed, then there's not much you can do.

 

[3KillerBs]

Complaining neighbor wants me to get rid of my silkie roo by this weekend. I offered to put the silkie in a back shed or try a no crow collar (wish I didn't have to), and he said it doesn't matter of the crow is muffled or less frequent because it annoys him and he and his wife works from home.

As I said in my original post, if your roosters are legal and you are in compliance with all appropriate regulations about setback, etc. then your neighbor can go pound sand and you don't have to cater to him.

Never give in to a bully on any issue. He'll always demand more and more and more.

If your roosters are not legal then that's a completely different matter. Find out exactly what the actual ordinances are and print a copy to give to your neighbor.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Your neighbor needs to either present you with real ordinances or leave you alone.
Call your county office. Request in writing the ordinances regarding chickens.
If the chickens are a breeding project, and you live where you are zoned to be allowed a rooster, he needs to back off.

 

[3KillerBs]

If the chickens are a breeding project, and you live where you are zoned to be allowed a rooster, he needs to back off.

If the OP lives where roosters are allowed and is in compliance it doesn't matter what the purpose of the roosters is, they're legal and the neighbor need to shut up and DEAL.

 

[DickMidnight]

The complaining neighbor has his windows open and don't understand why he can't close it during the crowing.

I live right next to the neighbor with roosters and can barely hear his roosters with my windows shut, so I have no issue with his roosters crowing. Even with my windows open, with light music and regular white noise from the house, I had to try hard to hear the other roosters.

to play devil's advocate for a minute,

all of the above is immaterial to the situation. just because something is tolerable to you doesn't mean there's no problem with it.

i see this on here a lot as a defense or justification when neighbors complain about someone's chickens.

being able to tolerate, or not being bothered by something doesn't make it right at all.

"they're not even that loud, what's his problem?!" his problem is that they bother him for one reason or another. and if you can't own your chickens legally, then his problem is well justified.

 

[3KillerBs]

to play devil's advocate for a minute,

all of the above is immaterial to the situation. just because something is tolerable to you doesn't mean there's no problem with it.

i see this on here a lot as a defense or justification when neighbors complain about someone's chickens.

being able to tolerate, or not being bothered by something doesn't make it right at all.

If it's within a person's legal rights to keep roosters and they are in compliance with all appropriate regulations about setbacks, etc. then neighbors have no right to tell them that they can't have the roosters.

Deliberately housing a dozen cockerels right under a neighbors' bedroom window would be unneighborly and, in some situations, might be grounds for a legitimate complaint of harassment. But if people want to be able to boss their neighbors around they should have moved into an HOA development instead of out in the country.

I had this argument with my own SIL a year or so ago. We share this property and when she complained about the sound of the small sawmill 1/4 mile down the road. I reminded her that she knew perfectly well that the sawmill was there when we bought this place. (We can only hear it when the wind's in a certain direction anyway and he only operates it during the daylight -- all perfectly reasonable, legal, etc.).

 

[DickMidnight]

If it's within a person's legal rights to keep roosters and they are in compliance with all appropriate regulations about setbacks, etc. then neighbors have no right to tell them that they can't have the roosters.

Deliberately housing a dozen cockerels right under a neighbors' bedroom window would be unneighborly and, in some situations, might be grounds for a legitimate complaint of harassment. But if people want to be able to boss their neighbors around they should have moved into an HOA development instead of out in the country.

I had this argument with my own SIL a year or so ago. We share this property and when she complained about the sound of the small sawmill 1/4 mile down the road. I reminded her that she knew perfectly well that the sawmill was there when we bought this place. (We can only hear it when the wind's in a certain direction anyway and he only operates it during the daylight -- all perfectly reasonable, legal, etc.).

i totally agree with you.

if the law is on your side, then there's no need to even address their concerns or complaints.

i'm talking about when people post threads, are outside of their local laws for chicken keeping, and try justifying it with "they're not even that loud/smelly/messy."

none of that matters. if you're wrong, you're wrong. people always try bringing emotional reactions in to these black and white situations.

 

[cynesthesia]

can you clear a few things up for everyone here?

1. are you allowed, by local ordinances, to have roosters? if so, do you meet all of the necessary requirements for owning them? (setbacks, times, etc?)

2. is your neighbor in some kind of authority position? in your updates, you mentioned that he said you get to keep one rooster, and then that he said you have to get rid of yours by the weekend. is he in a position to make these rules?

if the answer to 1 is yes, and the answer to 2 is no, then just ignore this guy.

if those answers are reversed, then there's not much you can do.

1. My other neighbor, who has been here for decades, with three roosters says it is legal. We live in an unincorporated area, so even if roosters are not allowed within the city proper, the ordinance won't apply. For noise times, I keep him in the dark from sunset to 10-10:30a. Lately, I've been putting him in the bathroom so he would crow is morning crow in there. For setbacks, technically we are breaking that, but with the neighbor who is alright with the rooster. We aren't breaking setback rule with the complaining neighbor.

2. No, he is not an authority figure. He bought his house at the beginning of the pandemic.


However, with all the new city people moving in that complain about the way the locals live, I am kind of worried they will push for an ordinance within the unincorporated area. Not sure if the previous owners of our house had roosters (the house came with the chicken coop), but the neighborhood as a whole had roosters first. The newcomers with small pets also don't like when the mountain lions grab their pets that roam around or are left unsupervised in the yard, lol.

My partner and I also just moved here during the pandemic. He doesn't like the motorcyclists here and I told him that the motorcyclists were here first.