I thought I would start this thread because I know there are probably a few BYC members who have had to get rid off / slaughter their otherwise beloved roosters because of the neighbors & town ordinances.
Please feel free to add your story about your rooster.
Myself, I slaughtered 4 roosters because of neighborly concerns before I put my foot down & said "enough!"
I wanted my roosters & loved them as much as my hens. I wanted a proper flock, complete with a friendly rooster or 2 so I could have fertile eggs & enjoy the dynamics. I didn't want anything excessive, just one or 2 roos.
My Story:
We hatched 6 eggs in a brinsea Eco manual incubator. 6 out of 6. I was delighted at first, but as soon as the last egg hatched my heart sunk. The chick only had one eye that wasn't fully "right" & no eye on the other side. Also the other side was flat, like the skull had not developed.
It was weak. After 2 days of it not eating or drinking, I had to put it out of its misery humanly.
The other 5 chicks were fine. I already had two cockerels in the garden & one hen, all cochin / Pekin bantams. They were happy, feathery balls of fun with big personalities. Then the older cockerel, Rocky, started crowing a bit. Then more. And more. Before I knew it he was crowing at 6am. My town allows no noise before 7am. So I had to cull him with a machete using the old "Off with its head" method.
And I cried.... I had hatched him & reared him & then had to slaughter him against my will.... he was such a lovely, well mannered cockerel & I had wanted to keep him to breed with my Pekin hen...
My worry was I would get a notice through reading "remove the noise" or worse "You have a £2000 fine" or "you must get rid off ALL of your birds..."
We moved home in december. Trouble the younger pekin cockerel began crowing & went the same way as his older brother.
My (very close) neighbors both commented on how lovely all my birds were & said what a shame it was about the roosters crowing in the early hours. They liked hearing them during the day, they explained & I agreed wholeheartedly.
Then in January one of the EE chicks began to crow. It was a rooster & another one joined in.
One was culled due to aggression & that left one final rooster, a big, fine looking boy with beautiful plumage & an amazing temperament. He was very friendly & appeasing & liked being handled & was a very sweet bird that recognized me as "the food lady".
DH soon said to me "So, when are you going to "do" him?"
And that was the point where I snapped! The other rooster was sat in the fridge waiting to be fed to the dogs & barely cold & already I was being expected to do the process again even though I wanted to keep THIS one. I wouldn't have minded, but he had the prospect of a loving home.
"We aren't, we are keeping him."
(Bearing in mind these are MY birds & I never make DH take any responsibility for them)
"What do you mean "keeping him" we can't keep him! He's too noisy!"
"I'll sort something out."
I sat down on the PC & began to research. I found that birds could be trained, not as good as a dog, but still... it was something.
And I read about keeping roosters in a dark place.
I read about rooster behavior, local ordinances, causes for crowing.
I was hooked on finding a way to keep my boy. I read about caponizing & operations. Not a route for me. I read about socks on the birds heads, locking them in soundproof boxes (obviously when they crow the noise will get out through the ventilation gaps) Someone who went overboard with training their birds & about how futile it was to try to keep a rooster in the middle of a large town.
I constructed a plan. I announced to DH "From now on he's coming in at 9PM & he goes in a cat carrier to sleep under the stairs when we go to bed."
DH just rolled his eyes & carried on watching the football "He's your bird, you sort him out."
So I followed my plan & I began rewarding quiet behavior & telling him off when he was noisy. I would catch him crowing in the garden & catch him, scold & tap him & bring him indoors. He loved his hens & hated being separated from them.
His life depended on it.... literally.
A month later my friend commented "God, he's sooo much quieter now than what he was 2 months ago."
He really is. He's so quiet I've forgotten about him quite a few times & he never wakes us up (unless we are in bed ridiculously late like 12 -1 pm!). He will sit under the stairs & be quiet until 12 - 1pm as good as gold. His training really paid off, he's generally very quiet in the garden to. He has a routine & enjoys being able to come indoors at night & "relax" on a lap or in the dog bed with the dogs.
Actually, its just like having another dog!
He was well worth the effort. He takes good care of the hens, looks beautiful & comes in at night on his own. He puts the hens away (otherwise they just stand around the garden in the dark) & then he'll sit with them for a while before he jumps down off the roost & navigates his way across the garden to the back door to tell me its time to lock the hens up.
He turns into a complete baby at night & trys to act adorable by doing "ugh" things like wriggling up your jumper & going to sleep. He has never been in the slightest way aggressive which I put down to his training, like dogs I guess they learn to respect the "leader".
Yes, I have leather sofa's, glass tables, a big tv, laminate flooring, no kids blah, blah & I can say Having a chicken indoors is no different from any other pet.
Also my neighbors are very happy & don't hear a thing if he does crow indoors.
I have four hens who all wear hen saddles (bought & put on them "just in case"), but I've never had any problems so far.
I just wanted to write to let people know its not always a death sentence for a rooster to be hatched in a town & they can still be kept very easily. My rooster gets let out every morning & put away at night, I don't have to stress about anything.
But, if I hadn't have suddenly had that idea & not persisted with it, he probably would have gone to rooster heaven.
Now we would not do without him, he is a valued member of the family just like the dogs & cat.
Yes, I will slaughter his sons & daughters for meat (if they do not sell) but I wanted that dream of producing my own chicken & now I've got it.
I would never waste a life again unless it was for a purpose.
The value for me is you REALLY do consider more whether you do want chicken for tea & you go through the work. I feel proud that our animals are raised humanely in our garden & that such effort is taken in their welfare. I enrich my coop every week & freerange my birds outside.
Roosters are wonderful birds & I sympathize deeply with anybody who has had to put their beloved pet (because it CAN BE a pet / work animal) down for no good reason other than they are not "acceptable".
What I have written works, so do not despair if you ever end up with another rooster that you really wish to keep.
Please feel free to add your story about your rooster.
Myself, I slaughtered 4 roosters because of neighborly concerns before I put my foot down & said "enough!"
I wanted my roosters & loved them as much as my hens. I wanted a proper flock, complete with a friendly rooster or 2 so I could have fertile eggs & enjoy the dynamics. I didn't want anything excessive, just one or 2 roos.
My Story:
We hatched 6 eggs in a brinsea Eco manual incubator. 6 out of 6. I was delighted at first, but as soon as the last egg hatched my heart sunk. The chick only had one eye that wasn't fully "right" & no eye on the other side. Also the other side was flat, like the skull had not developed.
It was weak. After 2 days of it not eating or drinking, I had to put it out of its misery humanly.
The other 5 chicks were fine. I already had two cockerels in the garden & one hen, all cochin / Pekin bantams. They were happy, feathery balls of fun with big personalities. Then the older cockerel, Rocky, started crowing a bit. Then more. And more. Before I knew it he was crowing at 6am. My town allows no noise before 7am. So I had to cull him with a machete using the old "Off with its head" method.
And I cried.... I had hatched him & reared him & then had to slaughter him against my will.... he was such a lovely, well mannered cockerel & I had wanted to keep him to breed with my Pekin hen...
My worry was I would get a notice through reading "remove the noise" or worse "You have a £2000 fine" or "you must get rid off ALL of your birds..."
We moved home in december. Trouble the younger pekin cockerel began crowing & went the same way as his older brother.
My (very close) neighbors both commented on how lovely all my birds were & said what a shame it was about the roosters crowing in the early hours. They liked hearing them during the day, they explained & I agreed wholeheartedly.
Then in January one of the EE chicks began to crow. It was a rooster & another one joined in.
One was culled due to aggression & that left one final rooster, a big, fine looking boy with beautiful plumage & an amazing temperament. He was very friendly & appeasing & liked being handled & was a very sweet bird that recognized me as "the food lady".
DH soon said to me "So, when are you going to "do" him?"
And that was the point where I snapped! The other rooster was sat in the fridge waiting to be fed to the dogs & barely cold & already I was being expected to do the process again even though I wanted to keep THIS one. I wouldn't have minded, but he had the prospect of a loving home.
"We aren't, we are keeping him."
(Bearing in mind these are MY birds & I never make DH take any responsibility for them)
"What do you mean "keeping him" we can't keep him! He's too noisy!"
"I'll sort something out."
I sat down on the PC & began to research. I found that birds could be trained, not as good as a dog, but still... it was something.
And I read about keeping roosters in a dark place.
I read about rooster behavior, local ordinances, causes for crowing.
I was hooked on finding a way to keep my boy. I read about caponizing & operations. Not a route for me. I read about socks on the birds heads, locking them in soundproof boxes (obviously when they crow the noise will get out through the ventilation gaps) Someone who went overboard with training their birds & about how futile it was to try to keep a rooster in the middle of a large town.
I constructed a plan. I announced to DH "From now on he's coming in at 9PM & he goes in a cat carrier to sleep under the stairs when we go to bed."
DH just rolled his eyes & carried on watching the football "He's your bird, you sort him out."
So I followed my plan & I began rewarding quiet behavior & telling him off when he was noisy. I would catch him crowing in the garden & catch him, scold & tap him & bring him indoors. He loved his hens & hated being separated from them.
His life depended on it.... literally.
A month later my friend commented "God, he's sooo much quieter now than what he was 2 months ago."
He really is. He's so quiet I've forgotten about him quite a few times & he never wakes us up (unless we are in bed ridiculously late like 12 -1 pm!). He will sit under the stairs & be quiet until 12 - 1pm as good as gold. His training really paid off, he's generally very quiet in the garden to. He has a routine & enjoys being able to come indoors at night & "relax" on a lap or in the dog bed with the dogs.
Actually, its just like having another dog!
He was well worth the effort. He takes good care of the hens, looks beautiful & comes in at night on his own. He puts the hens away (otherwise they just stand around the garden in the dark) & then he'll sit with them for a while before he jumps down off the roost & navigates his way across the garden to the back door to tell me its time to lock the hens up.
He turns into a complete baby at night & trys to act adorable by doing "ugh" things like wriggling up your jumper & going to sleep. He has never been in the slightest way aggressive which I put down to his training, like dogs I guess they learn to respect the "leader".
Yes, I have leather sofa's, glass tables, a big tv, laminate flooring, no kids blah, blah & I can say Having a chicken indoors is no different from any other pet.
Also my neighbors are very happy & don't hear a thing if he does crow indoors.
I have four hens who all wear hen saddles (bought & put on them "just in case"), but I've never had any problems so far.
I just wanted to write to let people know its not always a death sentence for a rooster to be hatched in a town & they can still be kept very easily. My rooster gets let out every morning & put away at night, I don't have to stress about anything.
But, if I hadn't have suddenly had that idea & not persisted with it, he probably would have gone to rooster heaven.
Now we would not do without him, he is a valued member of the family just like the dogs & cat.
Yes, I will slaughter his sons & daughters for meat (if they do not sell) but I wanted that dream of producing my own chicken & now I've got it.
I would never waste a life again unless it was for a purpose.
The value for me is you REALLY do consider more whether you do want chicken for tea & you go through the work. I feel proud that our animals are raised humanely in our garden & that such effort is taken in their welfare. I enrich my coop every week & freerange my birds outside.
Roosters are wonderful birds & I sympathize deeply with anybody who has had to put their beloved pet (because it CAN BE a pet / work animal) down for no good reason other than they are not "acceptable".
What I have written works, so do not despair if you ever end up with another rooster that you really wish to keep.
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