It seems the UK is going through a new kind of pandemic – rooster dumping.
Urban folk keen to ensure their own egg supply at the start of lockdown unwittingly purchased pullets which turned out to be the non-laying – and noisy – male variety.
In turn, animal welfare groups are now finding roosters abandoned on roadsides and have asked people to stop buying chickens.
As Mrs Dealer commented, it wouldn’t be the first time the male of the species was left out in the cold.