Derperella, the (weird) Faverolles, & Friends

[AllisonD]

Wouldn't that be great if we could come up with some sort of chicken IQ test and be able to sex chicks by brain power!

We do... It's called the One You Like Best is Probably a Rooster test.

 

[AccentOnHakes]

We do... It's called the One You Like Best is Probably a Rooster test.

 

[Nambroth]

Nambroth, Trousers may well be quite a bit smarter than your hens. I read somewhere that roosters are significantly smarter than hens; there's a survival advantage in them being smart... it helps them bribe hens for mating privileges and be canny when herding and protecting their flock. Hens only need enough brains to find food. There is no specific survival advantage to them being smart, they have a rooster to do all the brain work for them. I guess that's why roosters always seem to have more personality than the hens, too.

I agree with this, and evolutionarily it makes a lot of sense (even through the forced changes we've wrought through controlled breeding over the ages). I will disagree though, that hens only need the smarts to find food. They also need the smarts to survive, and raise broods, which is no small feat given that everything in the universe likes to eat chickens. They are less observant than a rooster, through only if there is a rooster around to be the eyes for them (one of my hens always has taken over as 'predator watcher' when I rehomed my last two roos, and were every bit as watchful as the boys were). I also disagree that roosters always have more personality. My roosters have never had more personality than my hens, only a different personality! Hens are obviously very food oriented, as they need to be as their body produces more eggs than it "should' in a given time span, but I've found that once my hens have a full crop, they are immensely personable.

My comment was mostly about Trousers seeming to be more thoughtful than my last too roosters, which were both just hormone factories.

 

[Pele]

Nambroth, Trousers may well be quite a bit smarter than your hens. I read somewhere that roosters are significantly smarter than hens; there's a survival advantage in them being smart... it helps them bribe hens for mating privileges and be canny when herding and protecting their flock. Hens only need enough brains to find food. There is no specific survival advantage to them being smart, they have a rooster to do all the brain work for them. I guess that's why roosters always seem to have more personality than the hens, too.

Actually, I've read studies that suggests just the opposite. I'll have to get the references out of the book I was reading when I get home. I'll edit and update the cite, it's a really interesting read!

Essentially one study was about how the two genders would interact, and it explored the mysteries of what attracts a hen to a specific roo. The study found that it depended on how 'seasoned' the hen was at 'dating'. A young inexperienced pullet was exposed to two roosters dominance fighting, then left to decide which rooster to pal around with, and stoop for. These young hens almost always chose the rooster who was more violent and who won the fights (reminds you of highschool doesn't it?). However, when the researchers exposed 'seasoned' hens who had been around roos before to the same situation, they almost always chose the losing rooster.

The study speculated that seasoned hens knew that violent roosters tend to force breeding, cause injuries during breeding, etc. Thus these canny girls would pick the more docile roo, given their 'druthers.

From the same book, another study addressed the rooster habit of 'lying' about finding food. As we all know, when a roo finds food, he calls his girls over. It is not uncommon for some roos to start lying about it, having found nothing at all, and use this as an opportunity to catch and breed a girl who was just looking for a snack. Hens, understandibly, are unamused. The study found that in a very short amount of time, the roos who lied too much got completely ignored by the hens when they food-called. More interestingly, being ignored didn't stop the roos from lying, it just made them try harder.

Oh the chicken mind, how facinating

 

[NovaAman]

cool info

 

[pdx2phx]

I know this is sorta OT for here being that I'm only a favorelle owner wanna-be (someday!), and my two boys are Serama roos, a father and son...but I have noticed some interesting things about them.

One is that the father Cujo was 'decrowed' long before his son 'Uno' hatched. Uno is now his own young roo with his own little girlfriend (aka Ninja in my profile pic)

that he breeds and dances for, but he has never fully crowed. He follows a similar pattern to his Dad, like he learned it. His Dad used to have a traditional sounding, loud crow before being 'decrowed.'

I kinda wonder how much of that could be modeling his squeaky-toy sounding dad, and how much might be random chance?? I mean, we've had other boys that were loud crazy crowers right away, without another Roo around, but in this instance we had a squeaky/quiet roo Dad, and son is also squeaky/quiet, even though he wasn't 'decrowed' like his Dad. Weird.

Uno (the son) is also extremely silly....I swear he has a sense of humor and knows how to be 'cute' to get attention/affection from humans. He likes to be handled and cuddled (so long as we don't coo over him too much when the girls are around....you know, he has an image to uphold!)

He also will lay on his side in the nestbox and coo to attract hens. His Dad has never done this. Uno loves to be preened and have his head/wattles & comb rubbed.

I loves my boys, as much as I loves my girls!

 

[drumstick diva]

pdx2phx I found your post regarding Cujo very interesting. Did you have him decrowed because neighbors complained? Post surgery is he soft enough to be a stealth rooster? I'm wondering if it
is a simple surgery the vet performs- with little risk to the roosters health. Or is it high risk? I know alot of people have to give up their roosters because everyone can hear them and keeping in the dark until later in the am, doesn't work. My friend has Tiffany that was late developing into Tobey, so she kept the Tiffany name for him - he is loud, and crows off and on all day. So far her neighbors haven't caused any problem even tho it is a residential area.

 

[pdx2phx]

pdx2phx I found your post regarding Cujo very interesting. Did you have him decrowed because neighbors complained? Post surgery is he soft enough to be a stealth rooster? I'm wondering if it
is a simple surgery the vet performs- with little risk to the roosters health. Or is it high risk? I know alot of people have to give up their roosters because everyone can hear them and keeping in the dark until later in the am, doesn't work. My friend has Tiffany that was late developing into Tobey, so she kept the Tiffany name for him - he is loud, and crows off and on all day. So far her neighbors haven't caused any problem even tho it is a residential area.

Drumstick,

I truly wouldn't recommend decrowing in most circumstances....and a lot of it would be vet dependent. It was risky and expensive, and given the same set of circumstances I don't know if we'd do it again (mainly because of the risk). I feel like i have to explain our decision process because it is an invasive surgery, and I'm just worried that I sound like a horrible person for subjecting our pet to it.

So feel free to skip ahead if you don't want to read about our reasons...


That being said, we decided to try because after having our Ladies for several years, we ended up suddenly with some seramas, including a cockerel. We knew Cujo was male and that he'd probably start crowing, but figured we'd see what happened with how loud he was (as a tiny Serama), could we keep him or would neighbors make us get rid of him, etc.

His personality is so wonderful that we absolutely fell in love with him, but despite his teeny size he was eventually very LOUD...and crowed in the middle of the night and all day....

We were already familiar with a vet in our area who works with chickens (in Phoenix), and it turned out that he basically developed the 'decrowing' procedure that we ended up having done. Vets from other states have come over to train with him to learn how to do it. Because of the cost, risk, and most folks not wanting to either pay the $ for a rooster/or take the risk on a pet (depending on perspective) it's not a very popular procedure for vets to learn to do or to perform.

As an alternative we were also very worried about finding him a home elsewhere as cockfighting is a huge problem here, and no one at the time was interested in taking him off of our hands and giving him a 'forever home'. DH and I were both of the opinion that it would be more humane to send him to 'freezer camp' than to send him off to an unknown/potentially violent death, so we took the chance on the surgery, that he'd survive it and continue to be the sweet, happy little dude that he is!

He did. recovered quickly inside with us for a week. He was actually an excellent house guest -liked to relax on the couch with us, and would 'guard' us when we napped on the couch. and was actually very tidy to take care of.

He sounds like a squeaky toy when he crows (Whup- Wheep-BEEP!), and is just as proud as he ever was as a loud-crower. He tolerates his son's antics, isn't rough on his ladies and having a roo around allowed us to hatch our our first clutches of Serama and Serama mix chicks over the past spring which is an absolute joy!

 

[Nambroth]

From the same book, another study addressed the rooster habit of 'lying' about finding food. As we all know, when a roo finds food, he calls his girls over. It is not uncommon for some roos to start lying about it, having found nothing at all, and use this as an opportunity to catch and breed a girl who was just looking for a snack. Hens, understandibly, are unamused. The study found that in a very short amount of time, the roos who lied too much got completely ignored by the hens when they food-called. More interestingly, being ignored didn't stop the roos from lying, it just made them try harder.

Oh the chicken mind, how facinating

I have observed this first hand. My first two roosters often lied about finding food, and the girls learned to ignore them. In fact, Panic Pants lied about food so often and so loudly that they actually learned to ignore him entirely-- even when he spotted danger. Not good! (I heard from his new owner recently by the way-- the older, bigger, sassy hens have him kept in line and he's been a good match for them, thank goodness)

For a long time, Lorp was the "guard chicken" and she was immensely observant to dangers. The other girls did listen to her.

Trousers doesn't lie about food, but the girls were used to fibs, so it took them a while to realize that he actually has goodies for them. Trousers is such a relief in my and their lives! It's amazing to see the dynamic when the hens aren't afraid of the rooster.

 

[Nambroth]

pdx2phx I found your post regarding Cujo very interesting. Did you have him decrowed because neighbors complained? Post surgery is he soft enough to be a stealth rooster? I'm wondering if it
is a simple surgery the vet performs- with little risk to the roosters health. Or is it high risk? I know alot of people have to give up their roosters because everyone can hear them and keeping in the dark until later in the am, doesn't work. My friend has Tiffany that was late developing into Tobey, so she kept the Tiffany name for him - he is loud, and crows off and on all day. So far her neighbors haven't caused any problem even tho it is a residential area.

To understand the risk of medically silencing a bird, we have to understand the anatomy of the bird where they produce sound. Unlike mammals, who have a "voice box" (larynx), birds have a syrnix. The syrnix is essentially an adaptation directly IN the bird's airways, where the trachea splits into the bronchial tubes (which go to the lungs). The syrnix is a small set of flaps that the bird can control to change the sound coming out of its bronchial tubes, directly into the trachea. This means that any surgery must be done on the actual airways-- the equivalent would be getting surgery done on tiny flaps in your bronchial tubes.