Decrowing Roosters.

[bluedogsonly]

Hey all, I have added several video of some available roosters to youtube. You can view them at the website http://www.quietroosters.wordpress.com
Just contact me if anybody is interested. Thanks all.

Dr. James

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

Just wish they werent so pricey

 

[miquwid]

True it's pricey but worth every penny! One of the best things about it is being able to provide fresh chicken meat and eggs to my child and the cost of someone else raising free range meat for you is insane. So that is where the cost is effective for me and my family we can easily raise meat in an urban environment (with a permit of course) under our control granite it takes 4-6 months for maturity instead of 2 but still a healthier product for my family. And he keeps the peace amongst the ladies! My one hen requires everyone to leave while she lays an egg or she will attack. This is a 12x8 coop getting at 6x12 addition all 6ft high, so the Roo follows her in and makes sure no one bothers her while she does her thing. Silly as it may seem but it keeps me from having to keep a small flock in separate pens which was a pain.

 

[insanity]

Just wish they werent so pricey

I agree with Miquwid. It was the best investment I've made for my flock. Check Dr James prices list I think he has some less expensive listings.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I wonder how that red sex link would do putting him over something like a CX or a freedom ranger hen for meat bird production...

Dr James, if I bought him and had him shipped here to Cleveland how much would the shipping be?

 

[miquwid]

Most sexlinks are quite meaty! Im using my leghorn roo with sexlinks to get some birds for meat n egg production. Growing fast but super fiesty should fun to cull lol! Good luck if you get him i think he will do great in a flock my girls are hardy n strong and dont take crap .

 

[Countrywantabe]

This is Teddy ROOsevelt who had a procedure done on by Dr. James Richards of OK to lessen his crow. Some call this procedure a de-crow, but as you can see he can still crow although Dr. James Richards never heard him as he was not the dominant rooster in the Dr.'s flock. Our hens are louder than Teddy when they do the egg song. The Rooster is well behaved and has never attacked us he has come to defenses of the hens.

 

[insanity]

He's beautiful. I hope you enjoy him as much as I do my Daryl.

 

[Victoria-nola]

We are so very happy we took our rooster up to Dr James Richards of OK. I agree that "de-crow" is complete misnomer for this surgery. "Lowered volume" is much more correct.

Here is the report I wrote about our experience and posted in this thread previously:
I apologize for the length of this report, but I figure people might want the information. You should have seen the first draft!

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I drove my very sweet, lovable rooster to Dr James to have the crow softening surgery, which occurred June 20, or 24 days ago. We loved his crowing, and all our neighbors loved his crowing, except for one neighbor, the newest one, who’s been heard to say, “I just want more control”.

Deeply concerned, I found Dr James’ thread and read up on this possibility. My partner and I agreed that we really wanted to keep our rooster. I moved Dred (the roo, as in dredlocks) to a foster home in the country, and made arrangements with Dr James. The week prior, I took Dred to the parish (county) extension agent in charge of chickens, who took blood and tested for pullorum, issued a health certificate, and put a band on Dred’s leg. The test was free, the certificate was $24.

Dr James’ office staff were friendly and sympathetic, and I really liked Dr James. You know how vets often have a single animal species that they really resonate with, even though they can treat all animals? Dr James is like that about chickens. He really likes them. He genuinely would like more people to be able to keep chickens and to have the whole life-cycle of chickens if people wish. His desire to help with a crow-softening is purely a desire that more roosters could live out full lives. So number one, Dr James is a really nice, thoughtful person whose heart is totally in the right place, and whose skills are very highly developed (he makes his own surgical implements for this surgery). The idea that some have expressed that he may be only doing it for the money is absurd, considering the amount of time he had to spend to arrange the whole thing with me, and the training and study he’s done, the money is not a lot; and moreover, if Dr James didn’t charge for his services he couldn’t stay in business, and that wouldn’t help anyone.

The procedure was done under proper sterility and anesthetic. I went to visit a local archeological site and returned several hours later to find Dred awake and alert. Dr James talked with me about how it went, what to expect in the next few days, and specifically about clipping the stitch that was holding some bandaging in place but that would need to be released after 24 hours.

During the healing process Dred made various sounds, including some gurgling sounds that came and went, but after the first week the only sounds we heard were his deliberate voicings. The gurgling was part of the healing but isn’t there any longer.

Dr James suspects that the less a rooster crows (or attempts to crow) during the first 3 weeks after the procedure, the more successful the procedure will be. Accordingly, I kept Dred indoors and put him in a good-sized crate, and controlled the light he got to minimize the desire to crow. I cut a piece of foam-core poster board and used zipties to create a false, lower ceiling in the crate in order to prevent Dred from stretching out his neck completely, since one of the suggested ways to keep a roo from crowing is to put the roost so close to the ceiling that the roo can’t stretch out enough to crow. After the first couple of days, he did still find ways to crow, but not as robustly as usual, and the sound was very airy and not loud. I took him out of the crate every day to flap his wings, stretch, and walk around; we also provided him with lots of tempting healthy goodies, including filtered water, organic grain, probiotics and nuturitional supplements, fruits and vegetables, and dried mealworms.

The night we got back I clipped the stitch, and after it came out Dred cuddled his body close against me, put his head on my shoulder, and just hugged me like that for some long minutes.

Suffice to say, we hated keeping him confined but it didn’t make any sense to us to spend all that time and money and then not follow through and give it the best possible shot we could. We wanted Dred to succeed and get back to his family. Dr James observes that older roosters have less easy success with this procedure than younger ones do (they can tend to regain more voice), and our Dred is 2 years old, so we wanted to give him every chance.

After two weeks, we just couldn’t take it any more and I took him outside to his girls. When I carried him out the sidedoor and he recognized where he was, he squirmed and I set him down, and he hit the ground running full bore out to the yard. He was and is still ecstatic, and the girls were stunned to see him-- chicken love ensued immediately. They congregated the instant he showed up and have remained a single flock since then; during Dred’s absence they had disintegrated and didn’t keep together while out ranging during the day.

While Dred was in foster care, we put up privacy fencing on our side of the chainlink fence that separates our property from the controlling neighbor. So once we released Dred back into our yard, the neighbor could no longer easily gaze and watch our business. We have heard nothing from that neighbor (I knock wood) since releasing Dred 10 days ago. So, I cautiously say that it seems to be working.

Sound levels: If anything, Dred’s crow has gotten even softer since he moved outdoors. I don’t know how that could be, but it seems so. We hear him crow, but it’s so attenuated, so airy and light, that it doesn’t carry far, whereas he previously had this huge forceful sound that would carry a long way.

Behavior: The girls still love him. He still does all the things he used to in terms of watching out for them and finding food. He rounds them up when it’s time to roost, and he periodically checks during the day and brings in the stragglers who might wander. He still makes the range of sounds he always did, and he’s still audible enough to communicate with the hens. He’s the same as he used to be on the roost, where he rotates which hen is his favorite.

How do I feel? Well, Dred trusts me now-- he was wary before (and I of him). I had been afraid his personality might change as a result of all this, but it didn’t. If anything, since he now trusts me and got to know, while indoors, that the dogs are harmless, he’s even more laid back than he was.

I wish we hadn’t been forced into this, but we were, and I’m just deeply grateful that Dr James had talked about his procedure on backyardchickens.com, and that I found the discussion, and that I followed through, and that we still have our wonderful rooster. I wish Dred still had his full voice, but that wasn’t possible if he was to stay with his family, and I saw with my own eyes his ecstatic joy when he realized he was back at home with his ladies.

So yes, this is not a procedure for agricultural operations, but presumably such operations don’t have neighbors who have a right to complain. This is a procedure that can allow a rooster to stay in a family who has a pet or backyard chicken coop in the suburbs or the city, or that can allow a family to buy a rooster who has already had the procedure, with the knowledge that the rooster’s calls won’t become a problem in the future. I am grateful, so very grateful.

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UPDATE, 2/16/14: Dred is still the fabulous rooster he always was, and the neighbor did indeed at long last acknowledge the rooster's crow is sufficiently dampened that he's ok about it. The girls are happier than ever, and I even added a stray hen that showed up in a neighbor's yard and she's integrated with no ugly scenes of any kind-- took a few weeks but she's right in there in the middle of it now. And he chooses different places on the roost to settle for each night, with different lineups of the girls around him. They all get a chance to be next to or nearer him over time. He's a cool rooster dude and we remain grateful.

 

[sonyeta]

hi there my name is misty. im in Victoria Australia. i have two beautiful birds i love to death and wish this procedure is done here. i love my boys to death. i so far have kept them here but one day i worry ill come home and the council would have taken them. i think its a great idea. i know it can seem harsh but id rather my bird live 10 years quieter the 8 months to die.