Options to Muffle Crowing at Night?

[Araucana Nest]

Howdy ya'll. I've spent a week in my backyard - 12 acres surrounded by woods with neighbors only on the east side and they are several hundred feet away. This is an agricultural area so I'm only concerned about annoyance/sleep disruption to my neighbors. I hadn't realized my roosters are crowing at 4 am but I did hear a rooster at a distance also crowing. Not sure if mine started him or he started mine.... but 4 am is an annoyance to say the least, to my closest neighbors. It certainly was to me.

I've searched the files and read about collars and other alternatives and most aren't acceptable or don't apply. Roosters do just crow for the heck of it anytime or day or night, it seems.... It was okay when I just had one rooster or the occassional two but now I have quite a bit more than that. I'm interested in a black-out "coop" though I remember having a rooster in total darkness during a trip to deliver him- he had to stay inside a motel room with me- and being horrified when he started to crow in the middle of the night while in total darkness. It's much, much louder inside a room than it is outside, let me tell you.

Please share civil opinions on this. I love my boys; they all have fresh food, clean water, rotate free-ranging. They have their hens to themselves - no competition. The closest pens are spaced about five feet apart but most are much further way from each other than that. Would it help at all to keep the flocks inside black out "coops" (with ventilation etc... of course) if there is a rooster at a distance crowing? These are my breeding roosters. Slaughtering is not an option, though moving the coops to the very back of the property and having to tote water back there may be an option, just not unless there is absolutely no alternative. Maybe locking them up in a black out coop would at least muffle the sound enough to eliminate any annoyance factor during the night?

 

[DobieLover]

Howdy ya'll. I've spent a week in my backyard - 12 acres surrounded by woods with neighbors only on the east side and they are several hundred feet away. This is an agricultural area so I'm only concerned about annoyance/sleep disruption to my neighbors. I hadn't realized my roosters are crowing at 4 am but I did hear a rooster at a distance also crowing. Not sure if mine started him or he started mine.... but 4 am is an annoyance to say the least, to my closest neighbors. It certainly was to me.

I've searched the files and read about collars and other alternatives and most aren't acceptable or don't apply. Roosters do just crow for the heck of it anytime or day or night, it seems.... It was okay when I just had one rooster or the occassional two but now I have quite a bit more than that. I'm interested in a black-out "coop" though I remember having a rooster in total darkness during a trip to deliver him- he had to stay inside a motel room with me- and being horrified when he started to crow in the middle of the night while in total darkness. It's much, much louder inside a room than it is outside, let me tell you.

Please share civil opinions on this. I love my boys; they all have fresh food, clean water, rotate free-ranging. They have their hens to themselves - no competition. The closest pens are spaced about five feet apart but most are much further way from each other than that. Would it help at all to keep the flocks inside black out "coops" (with ventilation etc... of course) if there is a rooster at a distance crowing? These are my breeding roosters. Slaughtering is not an option, though moving the coops to the very back of the property and having to tote water back there may be an option, just not unless there is absolutely no alternative. Maybe locking them up in a black out coop would at least muffle the sound enough to eliminate any annoyance factor during the night?

Have your neighbors complained?
My coop is about 80-100 ft from my bedroom and I've never once been awakened by my boys crowing and I know they start at around 4:15. If I'm already awake, I think I can hear them crowing but they certainly didn't wake me. If I'm outside I can hear them easily.
If this were me, I wouldn't do a thing. Yes, being inside a building with a crowing rooster is quite an experience. I'm surprised the hens don't gang tackle him to the floor to shut him up.

 

[SueT]

I wouldn't do a thing either. If you live in a rural area, roosters crow, that's part of the experience. Dogs barking, cows mooing, donkeys braying---I love it all!
I actually feel comforted if I hear my roosters before it gets light, it means the chickens are okay!

 

[Araucana Nest]

Have your neighbors complained?
My coop is about 80-100 ft from my bedroom and I've never once been awakened by my boys crowing and I know they start at around 4:15. If I'm already awake, I think I can hear them crowing but they certainly didn't wake me. If I'm outside I can hear them easily.
If this were me, I wouldn't do a thing. Yes, being inside a building with a crowing rooster is quite an experience. I'm surprised the hens don't gang tackle him to the floor to shut him up.

Ah, thanks ... no one has said anything lately. Over a year ago, the closest neighbor called me while drunk only time anyone has said anything but I'm sensitive, and it's been on my mind. I deliberately placed the new coops much further back.
The intrepid roo was alone on a trip from Florida to Tennessee to his new home. I best if he'd had some hens with him they would have toned him down. Total darkness, inside a concrete wall construction motel room... I may have lost some hearing that night

 

[Chickenman MAN]

Howdy ya'll. I've spent a week in my backyard - 12 acres surrounded by woods with neighbors only on the east side and they are several hundred feet away. This is an agricultural area so I'm only concerned about annoyance/sleep disruption to my neighbors. I hadn't realized my roosters are crowing at 4 am but I did hear a rooster at a distance also crowing. Not sure if mine started him or he started mine.... but 4 am is an annoyance to say the least, to my closest neighbors. It certainly was to me.

I've searched the files and read about collars and other alternatives and most aren't acceptable or don't apply. Roosters do just crow for the heck of it anytime or day or night, it seems.... It was okay when I just had one rooster or the occassional two but now I have quite a bit more than that. I'm interested in a black-out "coop" though I remember having a rooster in total darkness during a trip to deliver him- he had to stay inside a motel room with me- and being horrified when he started to crow in the middle of the night while in total darkness. It's much, much louder inside a room than it is outside, let me tell you.

Please share civil opinions on this. I love my boys; they all have fresh food, clean water, rotate free-ranging. They have their hens to themselves - no competition. The closest pens are spaced about five feet apart but most are much further way from each other than that. Would it help at all to keep the flocks inside black out "coops" (with ventilation etc... of course) if there is a rooster at a distance crowing? These are my breeding roosters. Slaughtering is not an option, though moving the coops to the very back of the property and having to tote water back there may be an option, just not unless there is absolutely no alternative. Maybe locking them up in a black out coop would at least muffle the sound enough to eliminate any annoyance factor during the night?

I agree with everyone else mate. I wouldn't worry! If no one is complaining and it isn't against the law to keep a roo it's all good I have heard that the anti-crow collars can work, however, I'm not so sure, there are too many people saying they don't and I don't believe it is good for their breathing. As far as I'm concerned you are doing great!

 

[Callender Girl]

Since I bought my place, an absentee landowner put up livestock confinement buildings within earshot. If my neighbors are okay with the sounds of those poor, unhappy creatures, a happy rooster shouldn't be a problem.

I think country people expect to hear country sounds. But, it's nice of you to be considerate!