How early do Roosters crow?

[LadiesAndJane]

Speaking of Hawaii, I bought coffee (it was the cheapest dark roast) that says it was imported from Hawaii.

I live on the big Island and we’re famous for Kona coffee and even here it’s about $25 for a small bag! One of our biggest export products. That and Macadamia nuts!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I'm expecting him to start becoming aggressive from the stories I have read about cockerels maturing but I haven't seen much craziness.

I've had a Silkie cockerel crow as early as 3 weeks! My friend has a Brahma who didn't crow until 18 months.

Don't expect aggression.. often it's the human miscommunication with the cockerel that creates the issue. And humans assign the term aggression to their natural pecking order behaviors. Don't believe everything you read.. I've raise hundreds of cockerels and only been attacked by one Stew Pidasso. PEOPLE think "friendliness" is a thing when it's actually confidence.. that makes these animals less flighty and more willing to be close and handled.

Best wishes with yours!

ETA: rooster to hen ratio depends on your set up and the individuals. Give a roo all the ehns he can lay his eyes on and if he chooses a favorite and over mates her then it is what it is. I have 2 cockerel with 4 pullets and NO issues at about 35 weeks. Bantams are NOT IMO easier on the ladies then their large fowl counter part. They are just as hormonal. Each situation is individual NO matter what statistics say.

 

[Araucana Nest]

I love it when they start to crow. Always takes me by surprise. "What on earth is that sound????" But yeah, crowing is an individual thing.

 

[Madhouse Pullet]

There’s a lot of debate about this in the threads! Seems one rooster per 10 hens is the one most people agree on. If you have bantam breeds the ratio can be less. Some people have two roosters with a dozen hens and they get along just fine, a lot of it has to do with how much room they have. If you don’t have enough hens per rooster it can result in over mating of the hens that you have.

So, there's hope!

I live on the big Island and we’re famous for Kona coffee and even here it’s about $25 for a small bag! One of our biggest export products. That and Macadamia nuts!

I will get a picture of what I have... I love macadamias nom nom nom! I want to visit hawaii one day, it sounds dreamy! I've known a couple people who lived there but I don't recall which islands they were on.

I've had a Silkie cockerel crow as early as 3 weeks! My friend has a Brahma who didn't crow until 18 months.

Don't expect aggression.. often it's the human miscommunication with the cockerel that creates the issue. And humans assign the term aggression to their natural pecking order behaviors. Don't believe everything you read.. I've raise hundreds of cockerels and only been attacked by one Stew Pidasso. PEOPLE think "friendliness" is a thing when it's actually confidence.. that makes these animals less flighty and more willing to be close and handled.

Best wishes with yours!

ETA: rooster to hen ratio depends on your set up and the individuals. Give a roo all the ehns he can lay his eyes on and if he chooses a favorite and over mates her then it is what it is. I have 2 cockerel with 4 pullets and NO issues at about 35 weeks. Bantams are NOT IMO easier on the ladies then their large fowl counter part. They are just as hormonal. Each situation is individual NO matter what statistics say.

Thank you! I am hoping for the best. My sister-in-law's boyfriend (non-chicken owner) guaranteed he would be aggressive because he's been attacked by so many roosters. I've been curious if this is true.

I love it when they start to crow. Always takes me by surprise. "What on earth is that sound????" But yeah, crowing is an individual thing.

Omgoodness I thought the same thing! But it is one of my favorite sounds every morning

 

[CluckerFamily]

I love the sound of a rooster's crow.
They do crow all day or all night. They have a hard job of watching for predators, defending the ladies, breaking up the hen arguments, with all that work, he crows whenever he feels like it.

 

[Madhouse Pullet]

When do they mature completely?

 

[333113]

There’s a lot of debate about this in the threads! Seems one rooster per 10 hens is the one most people agree on. If you have bantam breeds the ratio can be less. Some people have two roosters with a dozen hens and they get along just fine, a lot of it has to do with how much room they have. If you don’t have enough hens per rooster it can result in over mating of the hens that you have.

And it depends on the breed, too.

I have pairs of chickens together, and I very seldom see "overbreeding." I have Nankins, Belgium D'Uccles, Booted Bantams, Crevecoeurs, Sultans, Delawares, and Houdans.

I have seen roosters that run hens ragged, break feathers, and chase them from food. I do not use those roosters for breeding. No one should. But, if you read Dr.Temple Grandin's books on animal breeding, you can see that breeding for only certain characteristics can allow unintended traits to appear and be propagated (like hip dysplasia in German Shepherd dogs).

However, I will say some cockerels go through a hen-crazy stage, and by the time they are two are much better behaved. This happens more often if there is more than one cockerel (competition!)

 

[EggSighted4Life]

When do they mature completely?

My understanding is about 2+ years.. for roosters/chickens.. though I don't currently have any studies or information to site about it.

My sister-in-law's boyfriend (non-chicken owner) guaranteed he would be aggressive because he's been attacked by so many roosters. I've been curious if this is true.

Your sister-in-Love's bf.. is misinformed about animal behavior and sounds essentially clueless about chickens, stopping at that one subject as I likely have no room to point any fingers.. (You see I call them my family in LOVE because the law does NOT keep people together or cover transgression and short coming the way love does. Love is a choice not a feeling. In MY experience, we love people even when we don't "feel" like doing it.)

A chicken is very well intelligent enough to recognize different threats and resources unlike some people I know. They are smart enough to tell the difference between another chicken and a human or even a dog or a cat and a hawk or a barn swallow.. Their "aggression" will be directed at those things they either deem a threat, competition, or a part of the pecking order to be dominated (still competition). A rooster who is stupid enough to attack the giant that brings food daily.. earns his place in the stew pot. The meaner the roo the sweeter the stew.. are basically true words.

Chickens can recognize up to 100 different human faces.. AND act accordingly! They read YOUR body language.. is it saying I'm scared and weak attack me? Or is it saying I own my space respect it?!

Note chickens attack weak things.. it's in their nature.. to elevate their own place in the pecking order which secures their access to resources and is a way of life. By eliminating the weak they keep the flock strong.. from disease (including parasites) and thus predation as both are attracted to the weaker among us. What we see as "aggression" they see as survival!

Non chicken people also think roosters fight to the death if kept together. Uninformed folks think that pit bull's have locking jaws in fact they are just powerful and determined to hold on with NO locking mechanism.

But, if you read Dr.Temple Grandin's books on animal breeding, you can see that breeding for only certain characteristics can allow unintended traits to appear and be propagated (like hip dysplasia in German Shepherd dogs).

I haven't read that book yet, but do find myself extremely interested in the genetic part of breeding chickens. Even considered ordering some Crisper cas9 to save myself YEARS of breeding for certain aspects )
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/genomeediting
(also note with this therapy available the US govt is protecting big pharma by not allowing it to treat things like type 2 diabetes. We are already playing God by using birth control, antibiotics etc! This is not a moral issue.. it's a $ issue!)

I will share ONE such trait I've discovered in chickens.. Breeding ALL rose comb for generations on end, can lead to low sperm motility and ultimately breed OUT fertility from your flock. This is WHY every now and then folks get a straight comb GLW from hatchery chicks..
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3386170/

https://www.rosecombs.com/documents/low_fertility.pdf?page_id=116

 

[333113]

My dad's breeding advice was to wait 2-3 years before breeding a chicken. A lot of chickens drop out of the "keep" pens in the first two years through egg-laying problems, bad feather color or size (if you are showing), health problems, behavior problems, etc. You want to see them as an adult before you commit the feed, pens, and work to making more of them!

My dad also used to say to the roosters, "Be nice, or be dinner."

I am not sure about the various studies on rosecombs. I know the researchers have found a genetic link between a variant gene that produces a rose comb (as opposed to a single comb) and fertility. But I wonder if they have exhaustively studied all the genes that create the rose combs, since there are several variations of rose comb.

I've had rose comb and single comb Nankins since 2006. I separated the flocks when I first got them, and I don't cross-breed them. Egg for egg in the incubator, I don't see any difference in fertility between the two flocks. I have noticed that some rosecomb Nankins will start setting sooner than single comb Nankins. Many of my rose comb Nankins are of the "Four eggs suffice" persuasion, and will start setting at four, sometimes five. My single comb Nankins tend to wait for 7 or 9 eggs before going broody. I don't think this is what they were talking about with fertility, but I don't know for sure.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I don't think this is what they were talking about with fertility,

No, because that has nothing to do with fertility.

The rosecomb info I quoted was specifically related to sperm motility as stated. Which would not take place until there had been no new blood bought in for several generations of line breeding is at least my current understanding.

I tried that whole waiting until birds were 2-3 before breeding them.. I ended up with folks generations ahead of me while I was still holding caution up against the wall with NOTHING to show for it. So while appreciate that thought and even value the process.. fact is, MY life is too short.. and now I'm having fun too (plus feeding my family) instead of watching all the chick hatch at other locations.