First Crows - Surprising Lesson for Me

[valkerri]

In the past week or so, I had heard a few squawks in the mornings before the coop was opened but this morning, four boys woke up with songs in their hearts. These are 8.5 week olds (hatched June 7). A couple of surprises. Two were cuckoo marans. I have three of these and the two that crowed are bigger than their sister with bright red combs and somewhat large wattles. Not too surprising there. The biggest surprise was the Araunca/Americana who I would have bet money was a pullet. The fourth boy was one of the Brahmas. Also not too surprising as he and his bro have been strutting their stuff for a couple of weeks now.

I'm a first-time chicken owner and loving every minute of it! I think the biggest lesson I learned this morning is that I probably have a lot more boys than I thought! The crowers can look a lot like the non-crowers at this age. I got a straight run from McMurray Hatchery which included a free extra BO and one rare exotic. We lost two right away but the other 25 are eating and thriving (emphasis on the eating!). I'll have some tough decisions to make in about a month as I plan to keep only one or two roos.

 

[BroomFarm]

We had pretty much the same dilemma that you are facing when one of our dogs just couldn't ignore his instinct anymore and "played" with our rooster until he stopped playing back. The SLW wasn't dead, but close enough to it that the only humane thing to do was process him. Tasted like chicken, he did.

However, we could not have guessed how much we'd miss his enthusiastic efforts to greet each new day. At first, he sounded like the screeching tires of a multi-car pileup, but after a while he started to hit a few notes. At first, my LW and I only wanted eggs, no crowing and no little bug-catchers running around. Now, we've both decided that would be a much more "complete" experience than just keeping hens and processing any birds unfortunate enough to have been sexed incorrectly at the hatchery.

I hope you enjoy both the rooster you keep and the ones you...make other uses of, as much as we have.

 

[valkerri]

Yeah! I'm thinking it will be a more complete experience. Lucky we're in the country where the choice is not dictated by zoning ordinances. But it's going to be really hard to choose. I've got a choice between BO, SLW, Cuckoo Maran, Araucana/Americana, and Light Brahma.