Complaints of noise nuisance from crowing cockerels are on the increase. This is mainly as a result of them being kept in residential built up areas rather than in more rural locations and the trend towards keeping chickens in the garden to supply eggs.

Hens are normally quiet birds and do not often cause a nuisance, however the same can't be said of cockerels. Contrary to popular belief, cockerels will crow all day, starting when the sun rises. It is worth noting that cockerels are not required for hens to lay eggs.

Keeping cockerels in the urban environment is highly likely to disturb those residents living close by.

If you are disturbed by a Cockerel

• first, try to discuss your concerns with your neighbour, they may not realise the cockerel is disturbing you.
• Iif you feel unable to approach them directly try writing a polite letter, remember to keep a copy
• if relations between you and your neighbour have deteriorated and the noise from a cockerel is just an additional problem you may decide the best approach is to consider mediation

Making a complaint to Environmental Health

We will need you to provide the following

• Details of where the noise is coming from, the house number and street address
• What time is the noise happening, e.g. early in the morning
• Your name, address and contact telephone number

We will write to the address where the noise is happening and let them know we have had a complaint. We ask them to ring in to discuss this further with us. We will also ask you to fill in log sheets with the dates and the times of when the noise is occurring. This helps us decide if it is a statutory nuisance.

Environmental Health only take action where they are satisfied a statutory nuisance exists. ‘Statutory nuisance’ is defined by case law and therefore regularly updated by the Courts and not easy to describe. However, as a general guide the noise should be an ongoing state of events; and have a major impact on your life not merely causing annoyance.

Action we can take

If from your logs sheets it shows there may be a Statutory Nuisance then we will look at taking further action. This could be putting noise recording equipment in or an officer making a visiting to witness the noise and assess if the noise constitutes a nuisance.

If a nuisance is confirmed, we will serve a Noise Abatement Notice preventing further noise nuisance. Failure to comply with a Noise Abatement Notice is a criminal offence.

Keeping cockerels

• it is important to ensure that the cockerel is located as far as practicable from neighbouring residential property
• where more than one cockerel is kept there is likely to be competition with each other, which can considerable increase the amount of crowing
• keep cockerels in a dark coop at night which can minimise early morning crowing. Don't let cockerels out of the darkened coop until a reasonable hour
• you don’t need cockerels for your chickens to produce eggs, it is also a mistaken belief that chickens lay better when there is a cockerel around

If, after trying all the above suggestions, your neighbours are still being disturbed consider re-homing the cockerel. There are a number of animal sanctuaries that are willing to accept cockerels.

Further information

Please contact Environmental Health on 01784 446251 or e-mail environmental.health.domestic@spelthorne.gov.uk