the lucky family with a roo that won't crow

we had 2 roosters in our flock. they were born at the same time and would currently both be 6 months old. one was incredibly dominant, the other never made a sound and his comb stopped growing around the size of a hen's of their breed. we have never seen him even attempt to mate with the ladies. but he was definitely a roo. well, 3 weeks ago our dogs took out the dominant rooster and i was concerned about reptar (the rooster who makes no noise) being able to fill his role as the only rooster in the flock.

well, 3 weeks later, i don't even know how this is possible, but his comb started growing again after a 2.5 month hiatus, he has bulked up, and this morning i watched him awkwardly, but successfully, mate with one of our ladies!!!!!!! AND HE STILL DOESN'T EVEN TRY TO MAKE ANY NOISES!!!! not even clucking!!!! i'm thinking he is eventually going to try, but for now i am going to bask in the glorious silence because we aren't technically supposed to have roosters where we live!

is this even possible, that he just won't learn to crow? has anyone had a rooster who mated and served that purpose but never learned to crow??

Wow,

Thats awesome! I am guessing he will learn to find his voice.. But in the meantime relish the moments! He might have trouble breathing.. And also he might has a slight respiratory infection.. I would try and listen to his breathing.

He can groan a bit- I've been able to catch him a few times and talk at him and he'll make the little groaning noises at me, but nothing anyone could hear if you weren't next to him. I've never noticed any trouble breathing, but he is awfully lazy so maybe there is something going on. I'll keep a closer eye on him over the next few weeks! Thanks for the thought!

Sure!

Keep me updated please

He started his "puberty" crow!!! We barely heard him this morning! I am not even upset that he is crowing-I'm so amazed at the social dynamics involved, that he didn't mature until he became the dominant rooster. His comb is getting even bigger too. What a cool experience that I guess I can thank my dogs for!

Yep, this can happen, lower ranking cockerels maturity can stall......
.......hens can also begin to crow, grow larger spurs and act like cocks in other ways if there isn't a male in the flock.

Update, if anyone is interested: he only crows in the morning and we've still only seen him mating with one hen! His crow is pretty demure as well.

This was him months ago, before the other rooster died. The roo we have now is the one in front, and he looked like that pretty much until the bigger rooster died a month later


And this is him now!!!


He's a beautiful, relatively quiet lavender orp. Love him!

The one on the left in the first pic?

He's a good looking boy, glad it's working out.

Yes-sorry, should have said the smaller one in the front thanks!