De-Crowing a roo?

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

I have a small flock of 11 chickens (9 hens and2 roos) and I live in a nice suburban neighborhood. All my closest neighbors know about my birds and are fine with it and support it. Most want to have eggs once they start laying(which I'll be HAPPY to provide) They have told me that the roos crowing will not bother them at all. My fear is that the crowing(once it starts) will draw attention to them from neighbors farther away that might not be so supportive. (chickens are not aloud within city limits) I do not want to lose ANY of my birds. But I will get rid of the roos if they start endangering my gals with getting discovered. My question is... Is there a way to de-crow a rooster? Surgically? Is there a procedure to do so? Or would it be concidered cruel and unnessesary? Which is FAR from my intentions, but the contrary! I would have it done out of love. I want to keep ALL of them! I havent called around to any vets yet, I thought I would ask on here first.(if I get any responses) Also to find out if there would be any other alteratives.
Thanks,
Mark

 

[AHappychick]

i wish there was but if you could even find someone to do it, the surgery is risky and the roo could die, I would do the same thing I wish my roos could frolic outside with my hens.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Quote:
I don't want to do anything that would endanger them. I never heard of anything either...just thought I would see if anyone else has heard of anything. Bot of my roos have started crowing. If that what you want to call it!

They sound Horrible! Like they are choking or something! But It's not that loud at all!

But as much as I hope they will stay at this volumn,

I'm SURE that they will get louder. Right now the duck's morning quacking is louder than theirs.

 

[AHappychick]

oh just give them time they will get their voice soon

good luck, let me know if you figure anything out cause I am interested.

I actually have wondered if anyone has used botox, doesn't that paralyze muscles, I wonder if it could be used to paralyze the vocal cords temporarily.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Quote:
Wow, yeah! I wonder too. But it's just temporary though, right?

 

[arlee453]

An old-timer once told me 'there ain't but one way to de-crow a rooster'

Needless to say his method involved a stump and a hatchet.

This is one of those questions that comes up from time to time and nobody has ever been able to share a method that works 100%.

If there IS a surgery, good luck finding a vet who would do actually have experience doing it. Even avian vets sometimes will not treat chickens as they consider them livestock, and livestock vets don't often know too much about chickens as individual patients since commercial farmers are more worried about flock husbandry and biosecurity in the commercial setting rather than treating wounded and sick individuals.

Some folks have done containment method to stop the crowing - keep the rooster up in a darkened location during the early morning hours and not let them out until the sun is well in the sky and the prime crowing time is over (or at least until the neighbors have all gone to work...)

If you find something that works for you, please do share!

 

[lurky]

I think the people farther away wont hear them loud enough to be a bother. I think a distant rooster crowing is a pleasant sound to most people. Its the immediate neighbors that could be bothered by it, but since you have their blessings, i think you should try not to worry about it.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Quote:
LOL, I don't want to use the "oldtimer" method. And if I do find a good method I will definately let everybody kno. Happychick's thought about botox "sounds" logical. But if there was someone to do it, I don't know if I would want to take a ckicken to have it done every few weeks or months though. Pretty pricey I would think.

 

[pkeeler]

Roosters are going to crow. If it is illegal for you to have birds, I think you are setting yourself up for trouble.

In one of the popular chicken books, they mention a surgery to remove the crower. But, as someone mentioned, nobody on this site has tried it or even found a vet that would do it. I don't think it would be in that book if it wasn't possible.

If you could find a vet that would try it, I would go for it. Even if chances are that the rooster would die. Most likely, if you give the rooster away, it will be eaten. Nothing wrong with that. But if the surgery worked, it would have a nice life with your hens. If it didn't, you could maybe eat it. I'd wager the rooster would take that bet.

If they are practicing crowing, they will most likely be crowing for real within weeks, if not days.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Quote:
Honestly, I'm not 100% positive their illegal. Some people have said yes and some have said no. I read the codes and ordinances and they state "There will be no poultry productions within city limits" I take the wording of "Productions" to mean as in commercially selling meat, eggs, chicks and/or birds on a larger scale. Not a small flock or pets. But Thats where I'm not sure. I am probably wrong. I havent inquired mainly because if they are illegal I don't want to draw attention to myself. And as I've said, all my neighbors are cool with it. And I do have a privacy fence.