Inherited rooster crow.

[Cammo77]

Hi all, I saw a video of a grey Junglefowl rooster crowing and it sounds nothing like a red Junglefowl or any other rooster I've ever heard. Can a quieter or shorter crow be bred into a line or is it too unpredictable to breed for? The grey Junglefowl crow I heard sounds like any other forest bird and I'm sure would be less "offensive" to those who hate the sound of a rooster.

 

[Debbie292d]

@MysteryChicken has bred Junglefowl with other breeds so might be able to answer this.

 

[Cammo77]

@MysteryChicken has bred Junglefowl with other breeds so might be able to answer this.

Thank you. I'm still pretty much a newbie when it comes to genetics and breeding.

 

[Down Under]

The green seems to have the quietest crow and are a stunning bird, but I think we only have red Junglefowl here unless someone has managed to import green or grey recently. Here is a thread on cross breeding greens with domestic breeds:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...tic-chicken-and-successive-offspring.1504385/

 

[NatJ]

Hi all, I saw a video of a grey Junglefowl rooster crowing and it sounds nothing like a red Junglefowl or any other rooster I've ever heard. Can a quieter or shorter crow be bred into a line or is it too unpredictable to breed for? The grey Junglefowl crow I heard sounds like any other forest bird and I'm sure would be less "offensive" to those who hate the sound of a rooster.

Crowing can be at least somewhat inherited.

For example, the "Laughing Chicken" Ayam Ketawa has a distinctive crow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayam_Ketawa

And there are several long crowing breeds, that crow for a much longer time than most roosters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-crowing_chicken

If someone could breed long-crowing chickens, I'm sure someone could breed short-crowing chickens. I don't have any personal experience, and I haven't seen much information on this, so I don't know whether it would turn out to be a simple or a complicated project. I don't know if long or short crowing would be related to physical traits like body size or shape, or something about the lungs and vocal cords, or something about the hormones, or if there are genes that directly affect the length of the crow apart from other traits.

Really tiny bantams tend to have crows that are higher pitched and don't last as long, compared with roosters of larger breeds. I believe the junglefowl tend to be small compared with many domesticated chicken breeds, so maybe size is part of the explanation? Or maybe not?

 

[Down Under]

It looks like it can be done as a grey junglefowl hybrid, if you can find some grey junglefowl:

I have hybrids between Grey junglefowl and longtail chickens. The F1 rooster was from a male Grey Junglefowl and a female Red Phoenix. I bred that F1 rooster to a number of mixed longtail hens. All of the F2s are quirky and skittish, like a grey junglefowl, and the roosters all have an abbreviated crow that sounds a lot like a grey's crow. most of the roosters show a good deal of the grey's feather texture and shape, but show very little of the feather color. The hens all have funky markings although they are very "duckwing-ish" They are wonderful birds for the yard and are very wary of strangers and predators. Some even have nice long full tails from the phoenix and yokohama in the background.


Here is a picture of the F1 rooster.

Here's a video of a few grey hybrids.

 

[MysteryChicken]

@MysteryChicken has bred Junglefowl with other breeds so might be able to answer this.

I've had Red JungleFowl Fowl cross cockerels. The crow ends up like hybrid between the Wild Crow, & Domestic Crow of both birds.

 

[Cammo77]

The green seems to have the quietest crow and are a stunning bird, but I think we only have red Junglefowl here unless someone has managed to import green or grey recently. Here is a thread on cross breeding greens with domestic breeds:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...tic-chicken-and-successive-offspring.1504385/

I've only ever seen Reds advertised but that's not to say there's not more here. Surprising being so close to SE Asia we didn't end up with more of the breeds like Ayam Cemani, Sumatra, Junglefowl here. Are they impossible to import with our bio-security laws?

 

[Cammo77]

Crowing can be at least somewhat inherited.

For example, the "Laughing Chicken" Ayam Ketawa has a distinctive crow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayam_Ketawa

And there are several long crowing breeds, that crow for a much longer time than most roosters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-crowing_chicken

If someone could breed long-crowing chickens, I'm sure someone could breed short-crowing chickens. I don't have any personal experience, and I haven't seen much information on this, so I don't know whether it would turn out to be a simple or a complicated project. I don't know if long or short crowing would be related to physical traits like body size or shape, or something about the lungs and vocal cords, or something about the hormones, or if there are genes that directly affect the length of the crow apart from other traits.

Really tiny bantams tend to have crows that are higher pitched and don't last as long, compared with roosters of larger breeds. I believe the junglefowl tend to be small compared with many domesticated chicken breeds, so maybe size is part of the explanation? Or maybe not?

Thank you. I did see the laughing chicken and long crow when I was searching for Greys. I think you're right about size as I'm sure different sized lungs would give a different pitch and volume. The length and "tune" would be hard-wired into the brain though I'd imagine? I'm going to have to look into what differs physiologically between birds that can adapt a call versus birds who have the same song. Oh no, I just had a crazy thought.... imagine chickens that could talk like a parrot or raven That's probably not a good idea

 

[Down Under]

I've only ever seen Reds advertised but that's not to say there's not more here. Surprising being so close to SE Asia we didn't end up with more of the breeds like Ayam Cemani, Sumatra, Junglefowl here. Are they impossible to import with our bio-security laws?

Yeah importing is near impossible here and costs a fortune, a couple of years back a group in SA lost hundreds of thousands of dollars bringing in fertile eggs because one tested positive for salmonella. Avgen managed to bring in a heap of birds over several years but it cost her millions, she managed to rent a quarantine station in England somewhere which helped her get them in.
It seems that when they relaxed the import ban from the early 1900's they increased the bio-security on bringing birds in so it is only the most hardcore enthusiasts with deep pockets that will give it a try.
The Sumatra are here but Australia has a history of focusing on high production poultry so the ornamental breeds were never seen as worthwhile to those that had the means to bring them in.
Here is some old chats about Junglefowl, there is mention of an import around 2013 but nothing about if it happened or by whom: http://www.australianpoultryforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3796 http://www.australianpoultryforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42043