My Buff Orpington/Rhode Island Red cross chicks (10 of them) are 16 weeks old. The thing is that they still peep just as if they were a day old. They all sound the same, no different than my week old chicks. My question is 1) is this normal, and 2) how long will this last before they crow/ cackle. Thanks.
'Tis a bit of a sad day when their adolescent voices begin to change. Yes, their voices change as they approach sexual maturity, often around 16-18 weeks.
It's pretty normal for them to still peep, until around the time they start laying. My chickens took almost 20 weeks, but their voices started breaking earlier. Most likely your chickens' peeps would've gotten a lil deeper. I never actually noticed and thought that their voices hadn't changed... until I listened to a recording I'd taken of them as week-olds!
I have two barred rocks and they still peep ...but they also make other noises ..one is like an "off" peep ..another noise seems to be "WHAT WAS THAT!?" ..another noise seems to be like a "what did I find?" ...in other words, there's some variance but there's still the cute "peep".
I noticed my 12 week old Barred Rocks voices sounding raspy when they try to peep. It's funny.... They cluck too....
