I’ve had this problem. You can hear the rooster through earplugs.
I worked shifts at the time, too, so I needed to sleep at various times. It would start when the sun came up, so in the summer it started crowing about 4am.
I complained to council who just wrote them a letter(it wasn’t against the law where I was, in the UK) and said I should keep a noise diary. What can be difficult to get across is how mental it makes you feel, hearing this thing crowing all the damn time when you are exhausted, and you can hear it through earplugs, with the windows closed, and a fan going to try to cover it up.
I decided to kill it. I really felt that was the only way to cope. I had three options - shoot it, sneak into their garden and leave the coop open so a fox would get it, or put ground glass in its feed. My grandma told me to use lightbulb glass as it’s much finer so won’t be detected. Shooting it was out because guns are illegal. Then the owners went on holiday and asked me to feed the chickens while they were away the weekend.
Hmm. Here was the perfect opportunity. But, too obvious. They would know it was me.
Looking back, I should have just discussed it with them. But I was young and stupid.
…
Anyway complete anticlimax I moved house, further down the road, away from the rooster. It died the following week of natural causes. I revelled in its death.
So in your situation, if they are breaking the law, I say grass them up to the feds immediately. If this doesn’t resolve it, kill the rooster, but not with a shotgun as you will get caught.
I voted “talk to them in person” but you may be SOL if your state has something like Michigan’s Right to Farm Act. I think many states have a version of this act; if yours does you probably don’t have a legal leg to stand on. Especially if you’re a renter and they’re long-term owners. On the other hand, if there are no work-arounds to the city ordinance about not being allowed to have roosters, then yeah: talk to them first, then call The Man.
I’m in Michigan and on the edge of rural/urban - two people in my neighborhood that I know of have chickens and roosters. In fact, I buy eggs from one of them. My township does not allow more than three pets, or “farm animals” but the Right to Farm Act trumps the township as long as the owners comply with state law and general animal husbandry practices.
So, my first reaction to your post was: why on earth rent next to a farm (that from the sounds of it has been there for a long time) if you need to sleep during the day? Animals make noise and smells, farming operations make noise and smells, often during daylight hours. My second thought was: get some type of ear protection so you can get some sleep!
Go talk to your neighbor first, Perhaps it can be resolved without bothering the Police. Contrary to what a few of you believe noise issues need to be handled by code enforcement. One of the biggest waste of times in Law Enforcement is noise complaints. Punk ass Captains and Majors lie and tell people to call 911…but trust me… i put that shit on the backburner if anything important is going on…
It’s not an actual farm, just a farmhouse with a large garden and a huge front yard. It may have been a farm 60 years ago but now it’s all suburbs. If I lived in the country I would just deal with it as country life. As I said, there’s a county ordinance specifically stating that roosters, peacocks and other loud fowl like guineas aren’t allowed within city limits. The crowing started around two months ago, which sounds about the right age for a cockerel to start crowing if he was born this spring.
As for the noise, there’s plenty of big trucks that drive past during the day and they don’t bother me. I can actually sleep through a lot of noise, and I’ve already put up thick curtains and blackout curtains in my room to make sure it’s dark. The rooster crow is like the episode of American Dad where Roger makes the annoying noise to get Hayley to give him money. Once by itself it’s not bad, but hearing it all the time will drive one mad.
This is another reason I didn’t want to call the police. I know noise complaints are one of the lowest priority calls ever, and if the police even showed up I’d be surprised. I should ask my landlord if other tenants have mentioned the rooster, she’s in pretty tight with most of the complex. Plus I live with a bunch of old people, and we all know old people love to complain!
I don’t get why everyone assumes the neighbors don’t care about other people’s quality of life. We have chickens (no roosters because we do have one neighbor who is close enough to hear it, although we’re zoned for any farm animals we’d like). If anyone complained about noise from any of our animals I’d do everything in my power to fix the problem, because I’m not a dick. Why are we assuming the neighbor is an asshole? Write a note, or talk to them in person if you’re comfortable with that. What harm could it do?
As a non-rooster owning person, I have to ask… is there really anything you can do short of getting rid of the animal? It’s not like you can sound-proof a chicken coop or cut it’s vocal cords.
There is no first dibs on noise if it goes against local ordinances.
I disagree. I can clearly hear a garbage truck picking up large bins every morning at 5 am and I’m 10 blocks away. There is no way you’re sleeping through this if you live next to it.
Whatever the solution it has to be an “either or” regarding the police. If you make a complaint and the rooster suddenly has health issues then you’ve just drawn a map to the likely suspect.
Now if you want to be creative, buy a frequency generator and plug it into your stereo and then aim a high frequency speaker at the chicken coop. Run the frequency up beyond human hearing and annoy/scare the crap out of the little troubadour. Ideally, a tweeter mounted in a tube would isolate the sound wave to whatever it is aimed at so it doesn’t drive the neighborhood dogs crazy.
After further review of the local codes/laws etc., I’d probably call the cops (make sure you call the non-emergency number… otherwise you could get a fine or worse for abuse of emergency services).
My neighbors had a hysterical, yapping, tiny dog they would lock out of the house and it would bark, non-stop, for hours.
I emailed the city ordinance about noise from pets/animals and they started to let their dog out to “do its business” and then let him back in the house.
Either they didn’t know there were laws, or didn’t realize you could hear that barking a mile away, but in any case - problem solved.
Send them a copy of the city ordinance. This will give them warning before you get the police/lawyers involved.
I never understand how anyone thinks they have the right to disturb everyone in their neighborhood. It is rude and I have not an iota of sympathy.
If it is just kids playing, or the occasional loud party (once or twice a year), I can live with that. Part of living in a neighborhood. But to have a constant annoyance next door? No. Screw you. You have no respect for me, so I am going to have none for you.
too expensive.
you can download a frequency generator for free. http://www.world-voices.com/software/nchtone.html (it just dawned on me that a frequency generator was perfect freeware material so I looked it up)
the little wind-up barking machine next door may be getting the treatment when I get the time since I have the speakers and tubes to do it with.
the last time I trained a neighborhood dog to STFU I used a hose and 30 minutes worth of water. After that I only had to make a psht sound and the dog would stop barking.
You can get rid of it. It’s a chicken. I really enjoy mine and they have more personality than I expected, but if one of mine was creating a noise problem and bothering the neighbors, I’d eat it or give it away.
That’ll teach it not to rise up so early in the morning.
