The Italian Cockerels must go
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens | 31 comments
Photo: Alfonso and Massimo
Yesterday evening I noticed a brown envelope on the front door mat. I assumed that it was a circular and turned it over just in case. It had our address hand written on the front so I pulled out the typewritten letter and as I read the first few lines, my heart sunk.
“Danny, it’s a letter from our neighbours. The cockerels are waking them up at 4.30 am – they can’t cope.”
We have four cockerels. Beatyl, the diminutive cockerel hatched by Mrs Boss, Baby the tiny undersized Leghorn and the two Italian cockerels. Danny is not over keen on the latter. They do make a racket and are prone to covering some of our elderly - no longer maiden hens - on a daily basis. Even the gentle Massimo can be a bit of a bully with the smaller birds. But I do like the Italian cockerels – they are beautiful and elegant.
As the letter stated that the disturbance had been going on for a year now this correlated to the time that the Leghorns arrived from Caroline and Kevin’s care. So hopefully Beatyl’s cries can’t have been a problem. Baby can’t crow yet, thank goodness.
“Why not ask Emma if she’d like a couple of cockerels? She took the Guinea Fowl.”
“Most people don’t want cockerels. Especially if they have a breeding flock – they are usually trying to get rid of their cockerels. I remember offering her one before.”
“Oh.”
“The best option is to offer the birds to Doug (another neighbour). He’d know how to kill them and prepare them for table. We could even try eating one ourselves.”
Danny looked unimpressed.
“Or we could take them to the chicken rescue place. But that would just be passing the problem onto them.”
Danny telephoned the neighbours and assured them that we will get rid of the noisy cockerels. Now we just have to decide whether they go in the pot or to the chicken rescue.
My Aunt Pickles regularly slaughtered her own birds and they were the most delicious chickens that I have ever tasted. She had a few named pet chickens and the rest of the flock in the meadow were there for meat and eggs.
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Oh, such a dilemma, although something you have always been concerned about. Do you and Danny not hear the cockerels at 4 am? They are magnificent birds with such extravagant plumage. However, I say eat them - with great ceremony and much enjoyment!
I'm so sorry to hear that.
I did once read about someone who used to put their cockerals in cat baskets when they were dozy in the evenings, then put a cover over the top and put the whole thing in a shed. That apparently used to muffle the noise of the cockerals. It is a bit of a fag to do if you have a few conkerals every night, but maybe if you kept one of them back so you could use him to breed with it might be more feasible.
Your neighbours have been patient, but didn't they say anything to you personally? Maybe you could invite them around to share in a meal and cement a friendship?
a chicken dinner Joanna?
A sad conundrum but, on the whole, I'd say 'to the pot with them'. Your neighbours have been patient though!
I'm voting for the pot, too, as hard as that may be.
Chances are, you're going to eat chicken some time in the next couple of weeks. If you were to buy it from the market, it's a good bet that the bird had a rotten life (here in the US, a VERY rotten life). But if you consign your cockerels to the stewpot, you will be eating animals who were treated well and lived happily. That, I think, is the essence of responsible meat eating.
Big talk, coming from me ... we haven't eaten any of our chickens yet -- and we just got four turkey poults.
I agree with Tamar, a lot of animals slaughtered for our tables aren't given the respect and happy life that your animals certainly have had. Eat them and enjoy them.
(However the vegetarian in me still cries out," Save them!, Save them!" !!!)
We solved our problem with our former neighbours by locking Clovis our first rather noisy cockerel in the darkened chicken shed and letting him out with the hens in the morning. They don't crow if they can't see daylight. Mind you, that didn't stop him during the day. We renamed him Pavarotti.
I'm with the others advocating murder. I butchered my first chicken in April - a rather randy boy raised by my brother-in-law from a day old chick - and found it easier than I expected. Not fun but easier than I'd thought it would be.
Throwback at Trapper Creek wrote an interesting post about it at the start of the year actually: http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/grow-a-pair/
My heart sank reading this - I disagree with the comments as I'm rather sick of ASBO's for cockerels when here in London I am often woken in the early hours by noisy delivery vans, shop alarms going off, binge drinkers etc. None of these can I do anything about - least of all eat them - so I think your neighbours are unreasonable but I'm not surprised. Your cockerels would only make boilers at their age - I suggest offering some chicken soup to your neighbours and wish them a goodnights sleep
Laura
Please do not listen to your neighbours!!...they are beautiful birds, and should you really need to satisfy your neighbours by letting them go, then please at least let them go to a place somewhere, where they will be able to live their lives out in peace!!!!!
I'm afraid I do rather see the neighbours point. Being woken repetitively at that time in the morning is really not nice, whether it's from alarms, cockerels etc. If you have problems with sleep like me it can be seriously debilitating and depressing. A cockerel crowing very early a couple of weeks ago near where I live woke me up and my heart absolutely plummetted thinking it was here to stay but since then I have only noticed it after about half 7 so I think they must have gone for the darkened room option. If this is practical perhaps try it otherwise my vote is also for the pot.
My parents kept hens in our otherwise sub-urban house & garden. It became my job to feed them twice a day, check the water was clean etc. Fuel was cheap then, (or at least compared to price of eggs) and they were fed cooked potato peelings (they loved them), along with "layer's mash" which I had to buy in 56lb bags and haul
to the car. I forget why the peelings were cooked, other than my father's dread of potato eelworm. The hens would be desperate to get at the dish as I approached.
We never had a cock but sometimes one hen, I guess the top of the pecking order, would give her own dawn chorus, taking over the cock's role. We never had letters. We did have escapees, which I had to round up.
It must be 30 years ago since the last batch of hens were retired (to Aunt's). Her chicken house is still in the overgrown garden, rotted beyond use.
Ooooh its a toughie!
One of my neighbours has a cockeral too...its far enouhg away though that my earplugs do the job though. I am one of those annoying people who once they wake up cannot get to sleep again as well! I can understand a neighbour's frustration - it sounds like they have been tryng to ignore it for a while...but have finally plucked up the courage to say something.
At the end of the day its your decision what to do. You have talked about a bird for the pot before, or you could try muffling tactics if you want to keep them as pets. Or offer them on freecyle!
Might also be worth thinking about what you will do once Beatyl and Baby start crying as well.
I sympathise, having had cockerels to dispose of myself. If they're old, remember they won't make good roasters, maybe you could get someone to do the deed for you to make it easier. I don't know where you live, but I do think if you live in the country, people should expect to hear country noises, including cockerels which I love to hear.
I love my hens and ducks to bits, but the only two who have names are the old ladies of the flock. However I will still give them the respect of eating them when they are gone.
I had two cockerels until recently and the way they tried to outdo each other meant for a very noisy hen run. I took the decision to cull the younger one and he duly went in the soup pot.
If you keep animals you must have the courage to do what is necessary when required.
Don't think I don't understand how difficult it is, but Fiona your neighbours have been patient and you do have to live there. People need their sleep ( and the goodwill of their neighbours )
Hi Fiona - You have my absolute sympathy, they are beautiful birds though. Weve found that as long as we have a curfew on our rooster and lock him in at night he doesnt make any noise until hes back out in the open. This method does have its drawbacks though, like when you forget and have to round up a rooster at 4am in your PJs!
I am up at 5am anyway so it wouldn't bother me ... well maybe at the weekend. Personally I would have to go for the dark room option, that way you get to keep them and the neighbours are happy. I agree with Cottage Garden Farmer though that they are part of country life, indeed they are part of the sounds of the landscape of rural France. Part of me says let the neighbours decide, "Do you wanna kill 'em, darken 'em or send 'em away' ?"
I had a cockerel raised from a chick last year which I decided to put in the pot in the end. I couldn't risk upsetting my lovely neighbours and he was bothering the other hens- including his sisters! I wasn't sure if I could do the deed as I have never done it before, but I did lots of research plucked up the courage and did it. I slaughtered him after dark as I thought that would be less upsetting for me, him and the neighbours. I then plucked him and gutted him that evening, but I know you are already an experience hand at that Fiona. I really didn't find it that bad an experience and I would do it again.
I have to say it was the most delicious chicken I have ever eaten and made the most amazing stock. But that might have been because I really went to town with the preparation as I wanted to do him justice. He was about 6 months old at the time and the meat wasn't at all tough.
Good luck whatever decision you make.
As I type this, our Araucana cockerel is crowing outside in the garden. He's a year old, we adopted him 6 months ago - in his previous home he had started to become a noisy nuisance. I'm hoping one of the hens will go broody as they did last year and we'll let her raise chicks.
He is kept in the henhouse until 7am, so the sound is muffled a bit, our garden wall also muffles the sound. Luckily our neighbours have been tolerant/polite/deaf. And I tolerate his flying attacks when I wear my orange Crocs!!!
But if they did complain, we'd cull him and he'd go in the stew/soup pot. Yes, it would be difficult - he's beautiful but not a pet. It would be done with respect and he would have had a good life - I eat chicken and so how can I justify not eating him?
When I was small I loved helping my Gran look after her poultry. Each year she bought a batch of day-old male chicks and raised them for the table. She loved all her birds, they were never stressed and she dispatched them quickly. The flavour of the meat was fantastic.
You can do it Fiona and Danny - it's the sensible and respectful option.
Celia
I have heard that if you have a low ceiling above their heads they cant stretch up and crow.
Having had enforced coq au vin recently, I really do sympathise! We had to do this for similar reasons. Though we live in a rural village, we didn't want to fall out with the neighbours - and to be honest, the cockerel had become overly protective of his ladies and was a risk to me and visitors.
I agree with previous comments. Though not easy, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. And he'll most definitely have to be coooked slowly!
Hey if you don't wanna slaughter the cocks, my friend puts his cock in store room which is dark before he goes to bed.
He they release the cock when he wakes up at 7. Unless you wanna eat them, I say slaughter them.
I think you ought to kill them rather than upset them by moving them or pass the problem on to someone else. They may not like a cockeral rescue if they are one of many fighting with other little kings for top place. But in saying that I would definately make a point of turning up on the doorstep of the neighbour with a carcass. Gut it if you like but leave the head on, and feathers, let them see what they are responsible for. I really don't understand people who choose to live in the country then moan about birds making a noise. Its like these saddo's who buy a house in the flight path of heathrow airport then go on rallies to stop planes flying overhead DDDOOOHHH! Sorry they have to go they are such a handsome pair x
I do sympathise with your dilemma; I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd be torn between trying to keep the neighbours happy and resentment that 'normal' country noises are now seen as disruptive.
It's a particularly sore point for me as I have been reported to my local council for being a 'nuisance neighbour' because of my chickens and ducks! We live in a small village and don't have a cockerel. The council, actually, have been great, but it's still been a difficult couple of months. (Incidentally, we've lived here for years, as have the neighbours in question.) I know the standard response is to butter them up with some eggs, but they're not the easiest of people anyway(you wouldn't believe the other things we and other neighbours have been accused of!) and I REALLY don't want them to have any of my precious eggs!! I can just manage to be civil to them at the moment...
Hopefully it'll all blow over, but it's horrible having this animosity hanging over us.
Good luck with whatever decision you make.