Can you find Roosters that won't crow too loud?

[Nerdicus]

Do they exist? Preferably I would want one that never crowed, but I could settle for not loud maybe.

Also, how important is a Rooster to laying hens?

Edit:Just realized that this is in the wrong section, sorry about that.

 

[patandchickens]

You can find roosters that won't crow too loud or too often, but not necessarily before FIRST finding a bunch that DO crow loudly. A whole lot has to do with the individual.

Having a rooster won't affect egg production, although obviously the eggs you get with a rooster will be fertile whereas the eggs you get without won't. Fertile eggs, collected and refrigerated promptly, are essentially indistinguishable from infertile eggs unless you know exactly what to look for, so they are still good eatin'. If you free range your chickens, a rooster may offer some protection (but if it comes to, like, rooster vs dog, dog usually wins). OTOH a rooster may wear the back-feathers off your hens unless you have enough of them.

Good luck and have fun,

Pat

 

[Nerdicus]

Thanks! I think we will do without the Rooster to start. We have a dog that Ihope will fill the roll of Rooster around here( He is a 6 year old boxer who is the sweetest dog I have ever known. We just have to train him that chickens are part of the family and not toys to be roughed up.

)

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Um, please be real REAL cautious, maybe rethink that.

This forum is FULL of sad stories from people with the sweetest best-trained dog in the world, who they KNEW would never hurt their chickens, right up til the moment things go horribly wrong.

If you are willing to risk that, ok, but the odds seem to be fairly good that sooner or later something will happen, if the chickens are not in a very secure dogproof run...

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[ncCHICKS]

I wouldn't worry about how loud it is. My cochin isn't THAT loud, but he crows ALL DAY LONG. I'd prefer a few loud grows at sunrise unstead of a steady crowing.

 

[Nerdicus]

Quote:
No worries. The chickens will have their coop and run all nice and secure and fenced. Hopefully it will be dog, raccoon, mink and....well that's it for predators we need to worry about here- proof. I trust my dog as long as I can see him. Out of sight and we know all too well that he can get into trouble, as our strewn garbage can attest.

No, Prime(our boxer) will only be responsible to scare off anything that comes around with the hopes of eating our chickens. He won't be roosting with them or anything....though the image of Prime laying down with a bunch of hens is pretty awesome!

 

[cmom]

As stated in the other posts you don't need a rooster if you don't want fertilizes eggs which are perfectly edible. I personally don't have any. If I do they will be eaten.
There is a collar available that has like a remote control. You push a button on it and it beeps. If the dog still doesn't do what you want, another button will give the dog a shock. It's used for training dogs. Every time the dog gets too close to the chickens beep first then if no response shock. Another option a fenced in area for your birds or dog.
I have an area fenced off for my birds more to keep them from destroying my crops. They get into the plots and destroy everything. Right now they are in part of my corn field. Within the next couple of weeks I will move them to another section of the corn field, They make good tillers and scratch everything up.

 

[Nerdicus]

Quote:
The question isn't about how to get my dog to obey me, our dog is very obedient( I honestly can't stress enough how obedient he really is) and he will learn to deal with the chickens. What I want is a rooster that won't crow for no reason. we used to live next door to a family with some chickens and they had a rooster. It crowed from hours before sunup until evening, and so now we have a thing about hearing them crow too close to home.

So I'm trying to see if there are breeds that are known for being less noisy. By the sounds of it it is more about the individual rooster rather then breed...but if anyone does know of a silent rooster breed, let me know!

 

[orcasislandchickens]

Your understanding matches mine. It seems to be more about the individual rooster, and his style. It is also likely about the individual owners setup and preferences. We have people here living on acreages in states like Idaho and New Mexico, and posters living in condos in Seattle and San Diego. The ones in country areas often comment on how they and even their neighbors "enjoy the sound" and I believe this to be true. But likely they have a great deal more space and the rooster is further away from the house.

It also seems to matter how many other "dominant" roosters are around to crow with, about, or at. If there are several others kind of nearby, like in our former horsey area of 2 acre parcels, they can get a kind of round robin thing going every morning at sunup.

Sadly I have never known a quiet one.

 

[Dorothy1324]

my salmon favorell rooster hardly ever crows we have 4 other roos that crow constantly but he has a very different crow and we hardly ever here him.