Not your average 'noisy rooster' question

[lrballard]

Hi everyone

First of all, I have a rooster and yes he crows, but that's not my problem directly.

Here's my story.

We have neighborhood property about 5 acres from each neighbor and we don't want to bother them. We love our rooster (Rudy) and we've got a routine that seems to work most times of the year.

We have an automatic chicken coop door that opens at 8:00 am after people have gone to work (we work from home). This routine keeps his early morning vocals to a minimum bother for all of us.

However, in the summer we have a couple of hot months. Which means I have to keep the secured window open in the coop all night to keep the temperature down to cool the gang. During these months, we bring Rudy in the garage at night where it's very cool and he has his own bachelor pad in there. He gets out at 8:00 am and joins his girls.

This works great but we can't go on vacation or leave town during the best months of the year. Talk about dedication to our roo!

Is anyone else doing this ridiculous routine? Any advice other than air conditioning in the coop? LOL

Thanks so much for your help
Lynn

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Have you asked your neighbors if it bothers them? They may not even hear it, or it's so faint that it doesn't bother them.

 

[lrballard]

That's a great question and yes, we asked everyone. They say they hear him but it doesn't bother them. I can tell there are a couple people who are just being polite. I really don't want to be 'that' kind of neighbor who is inconsiderate.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

What I have done is gone out to my property line and stood and listened. I realized that the sounds of all my critters are pretty muted. I personally would ask my neighbors to let me know if it ever bothers them and for them to be truthful. I personally like a soft muted crowing in the morning.

 

[aart]

Any advice other than air conditioning in the coop?

Get rid of him?
Do you really need a male bird?
Why keep an animal that is cramping your lifestyle?

 

[lrballard]

We swore up and down, no rooster! But after raising him in our batch of chicks and seeing the benefits, we would like to keep him.
We have free range on our property within our fence line.

We have eagles, loose dogs, hawks, and whatever. He always protects them and alerts us of any problems or someone on our property. Basically better than our Doberman (who also loves him). He's easy going and sweet to us. We have a friend who will take him if necessary but we'd like to keep him if possible.

 

[bobbi-j]

I like the idea of going to your property line and listening. It may not be as bad as you think.

 

[lrballard]

oh it's bad! no matter where I stand, even in my basement, that boy is loud.

 

[aart]

I can hear the neighbors cocks crowing from hundreds of feet away, with a few hundred feet of woods in between.
So can my cockbird, and it often sets him to crowing more than usual.
Especially the ones to the west where the prevailing wind comes from.
When they have more than one cock, it does get annoying.

 

[MasAhora]

8am on Sunday's is polite, but aren't most your neighbours up earlier during the week to get kids to school, work and feed their own animals?
Also in summer they either have the air con on and windows closed or are likely up earlier because of the heat, so a rooster shouldn't be interrupting their early morning sleep too much.
You put in a lot of thought and effort to keep neighbours happy, I am sure if they knew this and you wanted to go on vacation now and then, and let them know, they'd be OK with hearing your rooster a bit more. In fact they might even listen out for him and worry about your place if they did not hear him.

Maybe try the no-crow collar?