Axminster Chicken Keeping Saga – Hugh Responds!

Over the last few days I’ve posted on the chicken keepers in Axminster, who seem to be hitting the headlines in both local and national newspapers.

Check Cock-A-Doodle-Don’t and Keeping Cockerels for the stories.

Anyway, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s company (River Cottage) have responded with the following comment;

“River Cottage continues to support and encourage everyone to grow, or produce, more of your own food.

“We believe that this is not only good for individuals, but also a benefit for the wider community.

“Keeping chickens for eggs and/or meat at home is one way to do this. But we would always advocate a responsible attitude to both the health and welfare of the livestock – their environment, as well as consideration for your neighbours within your neighbourhood.”

So as you see, a commonsense attitude to keeping chickens is what’s required – as I said on the post Keeping Cockerels.

Check out the article published in full in the Midweek Herald.

I wonder if this is going to be the end of the Axminster Chicken Saga?

Keeping Cockerels

We are surrounded by chicken keeping neighbours, so perhaps for us the problem wouldn’t be so bad; but some people seem to object to the ‘noise’ of a cockerel crowing.

Some councils have been known to threaten those keeping cockerels with noise related ASBOs!

The thing that surprises me about this cockerel keeping problem, is that it was whilst staying in rural Normandy on a recent holiday to France, that my last chicken keeping barriers got broken down.

The reason being was the house we stayed in was next door to a small holding and we awoke in the morning to the idyllic noises of cows, sheep and chickens. But first up in the morning was obviously the neighbour’s cockerel…

Now I don’t know whether it’s because we usually wake up to the sound of traffic on the road, due to people making the early morning run into work; or because we live just outside the M25 and if you stop to listen you always seem have the gentle background hum of the motorway – the joys of living in the suburbs eh?!

One of the first things we always notice when going on holiday to more rural areas is the ‘noise’ of the quiet. When you’re used to background noise, the quiet can sometimes be very loud and difficult to get used to! 

So we settle in to the new routine and get used to the quiet, the next thing we notice is the early morning cockerel crowing. Now for me, the sound of a cock crowing is nothing short of idyllic. It tells me I’m on holiday!

If given a choice between the early morning sound of vehicles on the road or the early morning sounds of a cockerel crowing, I know which I’d choose ‘hands down’ each time.

But once again back to the point in question, I do not know whether the neighbours (especially the non chicken keeping neighbours) would appreciate us keeping a cockerel with our chickens.

It does seem a little ironic that the newspaper site entry in question about keeping cockerels is in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s home area of the UK.

According to the report one person is quoted as saying; “I think people are being petty and everybody is guilty of it. I just wish everybody would get on with each other. It would be a much more pleasant life if they did.”

It looks like Hugh’s inspirational and successful keeping chickens at home television series has caused the local council’s beuracrats all manner of problems!

Although in my opinion it would makesense to be considerate of one’s neighbours, sound them out about your plans on keeping a cockerel and perhaps give them the occasional box of eggs!

One thing’s for certain though, with the rise of suburban chicken keepers and potentially therefore a rise in people also keen on keeping cockerels, neighbours may have to get used to the sound of something other than mechanically propelled vehicles in the morning.