OK! last thing... i am currently incubating serama eggs, i was just wondering. if i do end up hatching cockerals, do you guys think that combs size has anything to do with how loud the crow is? and i read thant some people tape the mouths of roosters so they dont crow, only opening the tap to eat and drink. should i try this/ and is their any way to make a serama not crow?
I have been trying a lot of things out because if someone could just figure out way to stop or minimize the crowing it would make a HUGE difference to a lot of peope who would like to have a roo but can't because of city violations and whatnot. I found a lady who came up with an "anti-crow" harness/device thingy and I got the plans from her to test out and try to tweak it to see if I could help. Its basically a metal ring that you slip over the head and another that you slip over the leg, connect the two with a ling strip of Velcro and cinch it up. They can still run around and eat and drink, but if it's cinched up tight enough they cannot crow - however this discourages them from mating as well, so they basically become useless. She has had a handful of her tester boys after wearing this harness for a few months not crow after taking it off, but after a week or so have to put it back on to discourage the behavior again. I do not know if they started mating after that.
I tried it, it worked for 3 out of 4 of my boys, and I have not tried it on serama because I don't trust it enough yet, seems a litte too hash for their fragile little bodies and I only have Taco so it's not like I have a group of boys to compare their results against, but they became useless to me so I have moved on to other ideas.
There is a vet in Phoenix that developed a surgery to "de-crow" a rooster, and he taught another vet, I believe he is in Oregon or Washington, and he offers the procedure for around $200 if you are willing to ship your bird. I have not talked to him about the size of the birds he has worked on though, and considering the entire procedure is done at a 90 degree angle through an opening the size of a nickel, I don't know if there is any way to do it on a serama yet either. He would definitely be the man to talk to about it. I am learning as much about the procedure as possible, and am pretty sure I could perform it on a live bird (have only experimented with chickens bound for the freezer after the kill) but I don't have the ability to even try because I am not a vet, and don't have access to the anesthesia needed to keep it humane. It's just a centimeter or so from the heart so it's much more delicate than caponizing so anesthesia is absolutely necessary to protect the life of the rooster.
Lots of people are interested in the idea of a rooster that doesn't crow, and I have done over a years worth of research into the idea, but at this point in time, short of an expensive surgery and one of only 2 vets in the country, the best way to get a non-crowing rooster is to house a dominant and a submissive together so only the dominant crows.
Thanks!
