Urgent Advice Needed!

[Nadiia]

I recently bought a rooster. And I have a heat light in the chicken coop at night time because it's very cold where we are at the moment.

The rooster crows pretty much all through the night and the neighbors are starting to complain. Do you think it's because the lights on and he can't tel the difference between day light and dark? I'm gonna turn the lights off tonight just to see what happens but any advice would be greatly appreciated

P.s. I don't want to completely stop him from crowing as I'd feel I'm going against nature and taking something away from him!

 

[JackE]

Yes, the light is what is making him crow. Get rid of the heatlamp. Unless you have some kind of thinly feathered exotic breed, they do not need any help from us to keep warm. All you are doing is running up your electric bill, and taking a chance on possibly burning your coop down.

 

[hennible]

Your rooster may still crow through the night even if you remove the heat lamp... Mine do even in complete darkness. Chickens can detect light that we can't even see, the ultraviolet spectrum, they will start crowing pretty early sometimes... He may also be crowing because he's new, but try removing the heat lamp anyway.

 

[JackE]

Your rooster may still crow through the night even if you remove the heat lamp... Mine do even in complete darkness. Chickens can detect light that we can't even see, the ultraviolet spectrum, they will start crowing pretty early sometimes... He may also be crowing because he's new, but try removing the heat lamp anyway.

That's a good point. I had a rooster that would crow at night if the porch light was left on, with the coop practically 200' away.

 

[hennible]

One of my roos was in my bathroom because of a minor injury recently... no windows no lights the first night he still crowd despite complete darkness... :/

 

[Nadiia]

Thanks guys! Much appreciated. Oh one more thing. My hen is sitting in the nesting box. I'm pretty sure she's sitting on her eggs. When I went next to the Coop my rooster sought of sqwaked at me.. Do you think she's just feeling broody or she's actually sitting on ventilated eggs?

 

[hennible]

Put on a glove stick your hand underneath her and see if she's got eggs she probably does...

 

[Nadiia]

My dad doesn't think they've mated yet as she's only 5 months old and he's only 7 months old. He wants to buy fertilised eggs and out then underneath her?! What shall I tell him!!!

 

[hennible]

Take one of those eggs from her and you could check for its fertility, I'll show you a picture of what to look for in a fertile egg... But your dads probably right there probably not fertile... Give the bird a few days before you buy fertile eggs to make sure she's really going to sit, because young broodys are not reliable broodys... Unless you have a back up incubator, don't do it till you know she is serious..
Here Is a picture of fertile egg

See that bull's-eye? That lets you know that the egg is fertile otherwise in an infertile egg you will see a white blob that isn't organize into that lovely little bull's-eye

 

[Nadiia]

Thanks for that! It's been around 4 days now and she's still sitting on her egg. There's only one but I haven't checked for the bullseye yet. She gets upto eat but that's about it..