Talk to them first

Casadena

Dear Prudence,

My neighbors directly behind me recently got chickens. And a rooster. For the last week, I have been woken up and heard constant crowing for the next hour while I get ready for work. I checked my city’s municipal code and rosters are illegal. Is being annoyed by the noise enough to call and make a complaint? They are people of color and I am very aware of how people in this town are usually treated by authorities.

banana468

Can you talk to them and let them know that you know they own the birds, the rooster is illegal.

Also...white noise machine possibilities?  I realize that's super hard with an animal but can you mitigate it? 

VarunaTT

I'd walk over and ask them.  IIRC, the problem is that you can't tell if it's a rooster or a hen as a chick?  If it's just started, they might not have known they had a rooster and might be trying to deal with it.  I'd give some grace, but if it went on for a month, I'd walk over and tell them that it's interfering with my sleep and I'll be reporting if it continues another week.

There is no covering the noise of a rooster.  It's annoying, it's loud, it's disturbing...which is always the point, but that's why they're not allowed in cities.  Headphones might work, but I can't sleep in them.

levioosa

I totally sound like a grouchy asshole, but I am so tired of dealing with all of our neighbor’s animals. Every single neighbor has a dog which never shuts the fuck up morning or night, and our homes are all really close together. Our other neighbor diagonally has a rooster which screams although tbh the dogs are way worse and that house is at least set back slightly. I literally had more peace in my apartment with crazy kids next door and a train nearby which is nuts to me. So I’m team report this but I am also operating on like 3-4 hours of sleep a night for the last several months because all of our neighbors suck so take with a grain of salt.