Help! ...Rooster 🐓 questions.... can i keep him?

[justfowl]

Who has advice on how to keep a rooster quiet in an urban neighborhood and how NOT to have baby chicks?? One of our chicks turned out to be a roo and my kids have grown attached to the little feller and I have too he's so sweet and beautiful. But he's awfully loud early in the am and we don't want any more chicks. This may be a dumb question but.... how do we prevent baby chicks?? Is it as simple as eating the eggs? We've only ever had our regular unfertilized eggs. I am looking into a collar and/or a night enclosure for him to help with the crowing. Neighbor has already started to complain and I'm sure others will follow.

 

[Isadora]

As long as you collect the eggs daily there won't be any chicks.

 

[Brooks_]

Agree with above and do not support the collar.

 

[Lilion]

Gather the eggs and stick them in the fridge. No chicks, simple enough. But, keeping a rooster quiet is likely not going to happen. Depending on the local laws, you may not be able to keep him if anyone complains to the authorities. Sorry.

 

[JedJackson]

There is no good way to control crowing. Collars work by choking the rooster when it tries to crow, which many of us find unacceptable. You may need to find a new home for him and frame it as a learning experience for your children. The choice is always yours but my advice is to weigh the pros and cons of keeping him very carefully.

You won't get babies unless you allow one of the hens to brood eggs. It takes 21 days, so lots of time to stop it before chicks hatch.

 

[DickMidnight]

check your local laws. are you allowed to have a rooster?

if so, don’t worry about the noise. you’re doing nothing wrong.

if you’re not allowed to keep him, then do the right thing and rehome him.

 

[3KillerBs]

I agree with the above.

First, find out if he's legal. If yes, then make sure you're following all regulations about setback, etc. and you're OK even if people gripe.

If no, then rehome.

You'd be surprised sometimes how reasonable people can be about roosters. When we had the in-town flock the neighbor on one side had grown up on a farm, liked the sound, and brought his grandchildren to visit our chickens. The neighbor on the other side figured that if we didn't mind their muscle car they didn't mind our rooster.

 

[Mrs. K]

How old is he? How old are your children? Cockerels go through a darling stage, and then often times turn into a nightmare. They will attack children first. If a child is under 6 years of age, they tend to take the attack to the face. Roosters have ruined the whole chicken experience for a lot of kids. Inexperienced people tend to vastly underestimate the violence of an attack.

Cockerels need a lot of experience IMO, often times signs indicating future aggression are misinterpreted by novice peoples as friendliness. It is very confusing, because when people are kind and playful with puppies and kittens, they develop life long friends, and that does not work out with cockerels a huge percentage of the time.

Rehome him if at all possible. He is darling now, but this forum is full of posts where the darling became the nightmare in an instant.


Mrs K