rooster

[CB3fish]

A friend gave me 3 adult Rhode Island red chickens, he raised them in a group of 35 chickens. He thought he had all hens. He is not a chicken watcher but cares for them, collects eggs and that is it. I took them home and never got 3 eggs on one day!! I had them from mid August 2014 and still have them. About 2 weeks ago, I notice one chicken had spurs!! Now I thought, Growing up on a farm, I am not sure but I only saw spurs on roosters; so I thought I will have check this out, but before I could find the time, I saw that chicken mount a hen and breed her, what I thought was Martha was really Mark!! Mark never crows and that was why my benefactor never knew he had a rooster! Nor did I !! I have 6 Rhode Island red hens that are 6 months old and one has started to lay and in the laying box provided. But I have not seen Mark do anything but peck at them when they try to eat from the same feeder!! They are starting to grow combs so I do not know if I need to give Mark a shot of whiskey to get him going?? I wonder if no crowing indicates low male performance ??

 

[Foghornnmsprisy]

My Roo mostly crows early in the morning. Maybe youre just missing it. You can hear other roosters crowing in the neighborhood that tends to get him started crowing. In the beginning he would just make weird noises trying to figure out how to do it right. Its cute.

 

[krista74]

A friend gave me 3 adult Rhode Island red chickens, he raised them in a group of 35 chickens. He thought he had all hens. He is not a chicken watcher but cares for them, collects eggs and that is it. I took them home and never got 3 eggs on one day!! I had them from mid August 2014 and still have them. About 2 weeks ago, I notice one chicken had spurs!! Now I thought, Growing up on a farm, I am not sure but I only saw spurs on roosters; so I thought I will have check this out, but before I could find the time, I saw that chicken mount a hen and breed her, what I thought was Martha was really Mark!! Mark never crows and that was why my benefactor never knew he had a rooster! Nor did I !! I have 6 Rhode Island red hens that are 6 months old and one has started to lay and in the laying box provided. But I have not seen Mark do anything but peck at them when they try to eat from the same feeder!! They are starting to grow combs so I do not know if I need to give Mark a shot of whiskey to get him going?? I wonder if no crowing indicates low male performance ??

Some roosters are slower to mature than others. I have heard of 10 week old cockerels trying to crow, and at the other end of the spectrum I have heard of 8 month old cockerels still not crowing! If he is indeed a he, he will crow in due course when he is ready.

Would you like to post up a picture of your suspected cockerel? The only reason I ask is that (1) Hens can have spurs too and (2) If you have a flock of all hens, it is not unheard of for the dominant hen to mount other girls. Strange but true!

It's worth checking, anyway. You never know your luck!

- Krista

 

[CB3fish]

I do not know for sure what is happening but if Mark is not a Roo, I can say she-he does not lay eggs. That chiken is 2 years old at least and still makes no noise. One of the 6 month old hens sings the egg song, she lays very early in the AM and I hear her in the coop. I lock them up in the coop at night to protect them from the coons and such at night.