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Sadly, the joyful crowing of a rooster doesn't translate well to the suburbs.

In April, local radio reported that some Westport residents are at wit's end because a neighbor's rooster crows day and night. Residents have asked the rooster owner for years to end their torture, but he's not giving up his cock-a-doodle-dooer.

Happily, we in Stamford are not at high risk for harassment by roosters. The city has very specific animal ordinances, including one written just for roosters: "No person shall keep any rooster in such location that the crowing thereof shall be annoying to any person occupying premises in the vicinity. Upon complaint of any such person so annoyed, the director of health shall have authority to order the owner of such rooster to remove the same so that such annoyance shall cease."

The neighbors of the Westport rooster are petitioning the town's legislative body to pass a similar ordinance, since a private agreement with its owner could not be reached. The Westport rooster would certainly be out the door under Stamford's "annoyed" criteria.

Another Stamford ordinance requires a chicken coop to be at least 50 feet from a house. Although the Westport rooster's coop is 50 feet from the closest neighbor, the rooster is only 25 feet from the neighbor's bedroom window when he goes to the edge of his owner's yard. It's also a myth that roosters only crow in the morning; they crow at any time of day or night.

Ordinances for animals differ greatly all over the state. Last year, after a neighbor complained, a woman in New Haven had to get special approval from the city's zoning board to keep her six chickens. Neighbors went to meetings to support her cause, saying that the hens control pests, provide compost, and are quieter than many other kinds of pets. New Haven considers chicken livestock, not pets, but gave the woman permission to keep only six hens and no roosters.

So far, it seems that humans and chickens exist peacefully in Stamford. I hear reports of chickens in the Cove and neighbors delighted to receive fresh eggs. I also hear that a rooster who was crowing along Mill River Park last year was promptly captured, after a chase and some ruffled feathers by a health department inspector. A call to the health department turned up no reported problems with chickens or roosters.

Frank Fedeli, the supervisor of Stamford's Citizens Service Center, has only received six chicken complaints in 12 years, and all cases were quickly resolved. The case involving a marauding band of hens, he said, was the trickiest. (I think he was joking.)

The roosters that do live in Stamford keep a low profile. Melina Brown in North Stamford has several of them. While their crowing sometimes annoys her, her house is far enough away from her neighbors that it's not a problem. Like many rooster owners, she slips fresh (free-range!) eggs from her hens into neighbors' mailboxes to win their good will, just in case.

I asked Ms. Brown why people bother to keep roosters, since hens can simply lay unfertilized eggs on their own. Ms. Brown reports no one really wants too many roosters, because they can be aggressive in addition to being noisy. That's why she almost always has to take a rooster off the seller's hands when she buys new chickens. A chicken owner cannot avoid roosters for long; when hatching eggs at home, about half of those eggs, obviously, will result in roosters.

Ms. Brown has a rooster or two she'd like to get rid of, but she's not ready to give them away to end up in a soup pot. She keeps chickens as pets and for eggs, and her roosters are some of her most charming chickens. They have brighter plumage than the females and a lot more personality. Roosters are also known to be great watchdogs against predators; last week, Ms. Brown saw her biggest rooster chase away a hawk that approached the coop.

On a visit to the Browns, two roosters trotted briskly across the yard to investigate me before I even stepped out of my car. I had been warned that although they were friendly, the roosters might rush at me because of their instinct to protect their hens. However, the boys were gracious hosts, and, surprisingly, acted a lot like dogs. They followed their owner around the yard, let me pet them when she held them, and generally showed off, perching near me on her deck table and cock-a-doodle-dooing occasionally. I was charmed.

After a half an hour with the chickens, I could see the appeal of keeping them as pets. They are calm but odd, relaxed but quirky. Under the right conditions, roosters can be entertaining pets. Towns need to create and enforce proper ordinances, and owners need to exercise respect for neighbors. It's unfortunate that the current situation in Westport is putting roosters in the worst possible light.


Kristine Redlien created and maintains Stamford Talk (stamfordtalk.blogspot.com), a blog about the city of Stamford.

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