Rooster Hormonal Stage

[LittleFalcon]

I have had a Ameraucana rooster for a few weeks now and he has never crowed or made something louder than a cluck. We got him at about 5 or 6 months old. Yesterday morning however he was just crowing away and trying to start fights with the dogs. I put a crow collar on him but he got it off and proceded to yell at the dogs from the coop. I put it back on and he hasn't gotten it off again but he is still trying to pick fights and running like the devil is after him when I go to put him up for the night. He seems more intelligent than the average chicken and I don't want to cull him so does this 'hormonal stage' ever end? I really hope it does because I don't want to kill my pretty boy.

 

[Chicalina]

It does pass to a large extent.

Why did you get a rooster if you want to suppress his crow with a collar?

That's like buying a fish and then trying to stop it needing water.

 

[Stino12]

It does pass to a large extent.

Why did you get a rooster if you want to suppress his crow with a collar?

That's like buying a fish and then trying to stop it needing water.

What? The equivalent to taking water away from fish would be taking air away from the rooster...

 

[Chicalina]

Crowing. Air. Same thing to a rooster!!

 

[LaFleche]

I have had a Ameraucana rooster for a few weeks now and he has never crowed or made something louder than a cluck. We got him at about 5 or 6 months old. Yesterday morning however he was just crowing away and trying to start fights with the dogs. I put a crow collar on him but he got it off and proceded to yell at the dogs from the coop. I put it back on and he hasn't gotten it off again but he is still trying to pick fights and running like the devil is after him when I go to put him up for the night. He seems more intelligent than the average chicken and I don't want to cull him so does this 'hormonal stage' ever end? I really hope it does because I don't want to kill my pretty boy.

Dogs are canines and as such predators. So after some weeks of adjustment his behaviour is normal wanting to clear the territory by attacking and crowing.

Do your chickens free range?

 

[Mya05]

I have had a Ameraucana rooster for a few weeks now and he has never crowed or made something louder than a cluck. We got him at about 5 or 6 months old. Yesterday morning however he was just crowing away and trying to start fights with the dogs. I put a crow collar on him but he got it off and proceded to yell at the dogs from the coop. I put it back on and he hasn't gotten it off again but he is still trying to pick fights and running like the devil is after him when I go to put him up for the night. He seems more intelligent than the average chicken and I don't want to cull him so does this 'hormonal stage' ever end? I really hope it does because I don't want to kill my pretty boy.

I wouldn't use the crow collar on him, or any rooster. He will settle down once his hormones are no longer running amok. We have a rooster that is about that same age, and he is very protective over his girls. He also uses his crow to get our attention. If he wants more food, attention, or someone knocked over the water dish (doesn't happen anymore, we got a better one) or dirtied the water where he was displeased with it, he will crow until we go out back to check on everything. He also crows in response to other roosters he can hear in the area. Crowing is simply part of having a rooster, and it is important to allow them to use their voice. I am assuming your area allows roosters, and you are not trying to keep him quiet to hide him. We had a neighbor do that at a previous residence, and we gladly kept their chicken secret.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Doesn't he put himself to bed at night? My chickens do, right around sunset.

 

[LittleFalcon]

He does free range and he used to coop himself at night but I had to close it for a couple days due to rebuilding issues so he was free all the time for a few days and now he is a butthole. He coops now again after I put him in there for the day yesterday. He used to think of the dogs as his little flock, seeing as the rest of the chicks are only a few weeks and he is allowed very little interaction time with them due to him bullying them. I have the crow collar on him because my mom threatened to either cull him or give him away if he kept crowing. She is also hoping that he will do what my last rooster did. I had put the crow collar on that one and he got it off on his own a few days later and didn't crow anymore, only clucked. But I also had a dominant hen at that time who has since passed. I just wanted to know if this stage ever ended? And how long it lasts.

 

[Chicalina]

He is probably reacting to you putting the collar on him. He is upset and fearful of you now.

Your old rooster probably stopped crowing because you damaged his throat with the collar.

The adolescent stage of any animal passes as they mature. They settle down with their hormonal behaviour to a large extent. Roosters are meant to crow though. That doesn't pass.

I'm genuinely confused as to why you have just chosen to obtain a new rooster (i.e. not accidentally) when you don't want a crowing bird. What did you expect him to do? Did you get him always planning to use a collar and knowing he will be culled if he crowed?

It makes no sense to me.

 

[Etorb1]

So the cockerel will eventually calm down? I have a similar situation. My 6 month old marans cockerel was supposed to be female. He is starting to jump at and attack my young children when they are in the yard. I know he is trying to protect his flock, but I can't have him hurt my kids. If I keep him shut up while his hormones settle, will he be more tame?