How do I keep my rooster from crowing?

[Carebear5]

Our rooster --- a surprise and my absolutely favorite of all my new chicks --- had to be silenced the hard way. I adored him, as he was just so personable, beautiful, and friendly.

One thing --- he crowed at 4:30 in the afternoon.... could never figure that one out. It wasn't even close to sunrise or sunset then. (Our sunset was about 8:30pm at that time.)

I will not be very happy if we get a rooster again. It was really hard to kill him and eat him. It was like eating a pet.... just wrong. Ironically -- we did have 4 chickens we called "nuggets" (my boys named them) which were purposely raised for meat. Since I knew this going in, I had not one single issue with killing and eating them.

I guess what I'm saying --- if he's your pet and your "love" I want to warn you that making him into your meal isn't as easy as it sounds. You may need to rehome him (and let someone else do it or raise him). It's hard to do yourself to a pet. (From the sounds of what all you're trying, he's more of a pet than dinner.)

 

[wally escondido]

Sorry, but there is no way, that I have ever heard of, to muffle a roo. Your only choice, as I see it, is to join the ranks of those of us keeping Outlaw Roos. We are a loose knit bunch of rebels living on the edge. Waiting for that fateful visit from code enforcement when we will take our cause to the city council and argue for our birds. Some of us are successful while some give in and abide by the rules.
So hey, what have you got to loose? All my neighbors have said they like the sound (plus I give them eggs occassionaly) so until someone calls me in I will boldly defend my right to keep a roo.
Good Luck

Our Schnitzel has recently joined Melbournes rooster underground. I was hoping his behaviour was just that of a pubescent hen coming to terms with her hormones, but no. We should've seen the writing on the wall, telling ourselves the repetitive mounting of the older, only egg laying hen, was a dominance thing. Those first couple of days when he first attempted to crow; we were kidding ourselves thinking he was still just having gender issues or an insect may have bitten him. Now the nice juicy lumps on his legs look as if spurs are just going to explode out of them. His beautiful tail feathers are extending day by day, as too are all his other feathers, his punked up comb, and big juicy wattles... What a proud young man is Schnitzel, at sparrows fart each morning for the last week he has been telling us all about it using supraliminal ferocity.

I suppose we're fortunate that although living in the heart of suburbia, we've only one neighbour on either side of us, a twenty foot freeway wall across the road, and a school behind us. Our two very understanding and interested neighbours are cool with him so far. One of them even wants to borrow Schnitzel come Spring to throw over his own hens.

He's awesome and we want to hang on to him for as long as possible*. This wasn't part of our vision, but now being so attached, there isn't any other choice than going incocknito with this fella.


*Schnitzel that is. Though the neighbour is awesome also, but I would imagine it to be quite creepy to hang onto our neighbour for as long as possible (Unless you're into that kind of stuff).

 

[wally escondido]

Oh, and there was this fella on youtube:

. I don't really think that is the solution for us. The video itself gets a bit creepy along the way too.

I think the total blackout concept is a beauty and would be viable within our circumstances.