Sound of Silence 6am - No More Crowing

[Audio51]

I found a page www.facebook.com/roostercollars . She sells collars for 10 dollars each. Her video looks like it works well.

She is now having them commercailly made and the price is now $14 each with $3 shipping. Anyone using them?

 

[insanity]

I got mine in last night but none of my roos are old enough to crow yet. When one does I'll let you know how they work. The design is pretty simple.

 

[logansgirl]

Following

 

[adiekaty]

do they wk?? I have a serama too.. 12 weeks old, i sent her measurements and will be ordering later today. I hope this wks!!

 

[lizgarf]

Hi, my young rooster started crowing a couple weeks ago and I have been experimenting with rooster collars (after finding this thread, thanks for starting it!), and I can only report mixed results. When the collar is adjusted as tightly as possible (without hurting him), my rooster can still crow, but it's not as loud as he would be crowing without it. I think this may be a workable solution in my neighborhood, but it would not be in every neighborhood. I should note that my rooster does not seem overly bothered by the collar, which is a relief. Some roosters may crow less than my rooster, though, so it seems to be very situation-dependent. In any case, it takes a lot of experimenting and noise to get it to work.

Here's some more detail of my process:
When my BCM Desi first started crowing, it was so loud, I realized I needed to do something right away and didn't have time to wait for the patent-pending no-crow collar to arrive. I looked at Lauren Taylor's "rooster collar" facebook page to get ideas and made one myself, by cutting a section off an old neoprene knee brace and stitching velcro onto it.
Collar #1:



Desi with collar #1:


Collar #1 didn't stop the crowing, so I made collar #2 with a wider piece of velcro that was sewn on to the entire length of the neoprene, so that the neoprene would loose its stretch:


After many adjustment attempts, I finally got it tight enough so that Desi's crows were not too loud for my neighborhood. He'd basically start off with a decent crow and sort of croak it out, like "Raueruerurch...urch...urch.." I was worried that this collar was uncomfortable for him (though he didn't particularly act like it was) and was hopeful that Laruen Taylor's collars would work better, so I ordered one and it arrived quickly.

The main difference with the commercial rooster collar is that the material is a light mesh, which seems more comfortable for the rooster, but I was already skeptical that it would work any better, and it didn't. The first morning with the new collar, Desi's crowing made it into my dreams, where I was thinking, "hmm, that sounds like a rooster crowing, I have a rooster, good thing my rooster doesn't crow . . ." before I jumped out of bed and ran outside to adjust the collar. As of now, the new collar is as tight as I can get it on Desi and his crows are a little louder than they were with my personal collar #2, but probably quiet enough for my neighborhood (he's actually doing it right this minute and I can hear it very clearly inside my house, but he's right outside my window).
Ms. Taylor's collar:



I am probably going to try to make a third collar with some of the best qualities of my #2 and the commercial rooster collar. I think Desi is too determined of a crower to stop altogether, but this may be the best solution for us in my unique semi-urban neighborhood. There's a very good chance that someone will ask me to get rid of him, and since I can't legally keep roosters here, I'll have to comply.

 

[Ezs Choukies]

Hi, my young rooster started crowing a couple weeks ago and I have been experimenting with rooster collars (after finding this thread, thanks for starting it!), and I can only report mixed results. When the collar is adjusted as tightly as possible (without hurting him), my rooster can still crow, but it's not as loud as he would be crowing without it. I think this may be a workable solution in my neighborhood, but it would not be in every neighborhood. I should note that my rooster does not seem overly bothered by the collar, which is a relief. Some roosters may crow less than my rooster, though, so it seems to be very situation-dependent. In any case, it takes a lot of experimenting and noise to get it to work. Here's some more detail of my process: When my BCM Desi first started crowing, it was so loud, I realized I needed to do something right away and didn't have time to wait for the patent-pending no-crow collar to arrive. I looked at Lauren Taylor's "rooster collar" facebook page to get ideas and made one myself, by cutting a section off an old neoprene knee brace and stitching velcro onto it. Collar #1: Desi with collar #1: Collar #1 didn't stop the crowing, so I made collar #2 with a wider piece of velcro that was sewn on to the entire length of the neoprene, so that the neoprene would loose its stretch: After many adjustment attempts, I finally got it tight enough so that Desi's crows were not too loud for my neighborhood. He'd basically start off with a decent crow and sort of croak it out, like "Raueruerurch...urch...urch.." I was worried that this collar was uncomfortable for him (though he didn't particularly act like it was) and was hopeful that Laruen Taylor's collars would work better, so I ordered one and it arrived quickly. The main difference with the commercial rooster collar is that the material is a light mesh, which seems more comfortable for the rooster, but I was already skeptical that it would work any better, and it didn't. The first morning with the new collar, Desi's crowing made it into my dreams, where I was thinking, "hmm, that sounds like a rooster crowing, I have a rooster, good thing my rooster doesn't crow . . ." before I jumped out of bed and ran outside to adjust the collar. As of now, the new collar is as tight as I can get it on Desi and his crows are a little louder than they were with my personal collar #2, but probably quiet enough for my neighborhood (he's actually doing it right this minute and I can hear it very clearly inside my house, but he's right outside my window). Ms. Taylor's collar: I am probably going to try to make a third collar with some of the best qualities of my #2 and the commercial rooster collar. I think Desi is too determined of a crower to stop altogether, but this may be the best solution for us in my unique semi-urban neighborhood. There's a very good chance that someone will ask me to get rid of him, and since I can't legally keep roosters here, I'll have to comply.

What an amazing process. Thank you for posting so much information. I was over run with roos oh my even the bantys are so loud especially when their competition crowing starts. It made me laugh when you wrote about it invading your dreams; been there done that. How did you determine the width/height of the collar? Also is it something you constantly have to adjust our once you get it right it will stay fired a few days?

 

[lizgarf]

What an amazing process. Thank you for posting so much information. I was over run with roos oh my even the bantys are so loud especially when their competition crowing starts. It made me laugh when you wrote about it invading your dreams; been there done that.

How did you determine the width/height of the collar? Also is it something you constantly have to adjust our once you get it right it will stay fired a few days?

Thanks for appreciating it. I basically guessed on the size. When I was trying to decide what to use, I noticed that the strap on my knee brace looked similar to the width of the collars on the rooster collar facebook page, so I cut it off and used it. Collar #2, the most successful so far, is about 2.2 in by 9.5 in. The purchased collar is a little under 2 in. by 10 in. I'm probably going to need to put #2 back on Desi, because his current crows with the purchased collar are still too loud and I don't think I can get it any tighter.

I think it'll need regular attention, but not necessarily regular adjusting. Meaning, it needs a lot of adjusting the first day (don't sub it out at night, like I did!), and after that it'll probably need some adjusting once in awhile as the rooster grows or as the velcro loosens, but probably not more than once a week. It's still too early in the process for me to have a sense of long-term success or requirements.

 

[lizgarf]

Update: I had to remove the purchased collar and return to my collar #2 because Desi was crowing too loudly with the purchased one and I didn't think I could adjust it any tighter. I found that collar especially hard to adjust, for some reason, and already spent almost 10 minutes trying to get it as tight on Desi as I could, so I didn't think I could get it any tighter.

When I put #2 back on, Desi seemed a little disoriented at first - walking backwards and lurching forward. I felt horrible and wondered if it was finally too tight, but then he perked up and was back to normal very quickly. I'll post with info about my next home-made collar attempt once I have it.

 

[Bens-Hens]

I am keenly interested in this thread, I am just popping in so it stays in my subscriptions...now off to start from the start!

EDIT:, OK, I'm back! We live in a residential area, the crowing bothers me as I worry about the people around me. If we lived in an area with more space I would love to have a couple ringing it in every day.

So far, we have managed to keep everyone on side with the handing out of eggs, and the use of a night box (build info in my sig)

I have seen a bit about with these collars, and tried my own velcro band last week sometime, then stumbled over this thread! I have newly inspired interest to continue testing. My velcro bands failed, but reading this I think it may have been too high up, must try again with a MK II.

I am interested in trying a thick zip tie too. I have concerns about them becoming tighter and strangulation so I think once I have it set right then thread a piece of wire into the latch to pin it into position. It would only work as long as it was regularly checked though.

Thanks for the info, would love to hear how the OP got on.

 

[lizgarf]

I am keenly interested in this thread, I am just popping in so it stays in my subscriptions...now off to start from the start!

EDIT:, OK, I'm back! We live in a residential area, the crowing bothers me as I worry about the people around me. If we lived in an area with more space I would love to have a couple ringing it in every day.

So far, we have managed to keep everyone on side with the handing out of eggs, and the use of a night box (build info in my sig)

I have seen a bit about with these collars, and tried my own velcro band last week sometime, then stumbled over this thread! I have newly inspired interest to continue testing. My velcro bands failed, but reading this I think it may have been too high up, must try again with a MK II.

I am interested in trying a thick zip tie too. I have concerns about them becoming tighter and strangulation so I think once I have it set right then thread a piece of wire into the latch to pin it into position. It would only work as long as it was regularly checked though.

Thanks for the info, would love to hear how the OP got on.

Hi Ben. What's an OP?
Your rooster box is way more impressive than anything I can imagine undertaking. Thanks for the link. I built my coop with help from a friend into the front deck of my house and built the run attached to it, but that's the extent of my building skills. I had a very frustrating morning with Desi's crowing waking me up at 5:30. He crows in the dark and off and on throughout the day. It's looking like the only way I'll get to keep him is with a successful combination of collar and night box. (I say "successful" because so far, I'm not having enough success with the collars, but I still have some hope). I can't build something like your box for various reasons. But, there happens to be an opening to the crawl space under my house which is reachable from inside my coop. I could put Desi in a cat carrier and then inside the crawl space. This would be darker for him (not that that appears to matter) and quieter to my neighbors, but not necessarily quieter to me, unless he's unable to fully extend inside the cat carrier. I probably wouldn't be able to put something big enough to contain a roost inside the crawl space (the opening is pretty small), so he'd just have to nest it. What do you think?

The zip tie sounds way too dangerous to me. I wouldn't try it. One thing about these velcro on cloth collars, is it's been very hard to get them tight enough to work, but then again, it's also hard to get them tight enough to hurt them. I think it would be too easy to choke them with something small and inflexible like a zip tie. At least with the velcro/cloth collars I can get them tight enough to muffle the crow a bit and know I'm not hurting him.