Is our Mariah Carey actually a Maury Povitch?

[ArianaMcGee]

Hi everyone,

We are new to chickens and just introduced 5 chickies to our family in March. We love them! But lately, our beautiful Black Australorp, Mariah (Carey) has been doing a whole lot of what sounds suspiciously like cock-a-doodle-doo... and now we're wondering if she's not a diva after all. After just a few minutes of Googling, I've got a bad feeling that I already know the answer, but I wanted to run it by the experts first.

Would you be kind enough to diagnose? Have we got a rooster or a hen?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Cockerel.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Cockerel.

 

[nuthatched]

Yep, saddle feathers say Cockerel!

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

Cockerel.

 

[ArianaMcGee]

oh my. Thank you all for the quick response. In that case... Any words of wisdom? We love her - him - but we really do not want fertilized eggs and we (along with our neighbors) are not crazy about the idea of being woken up at the crack of dawn every day. I don't suppose there's some way to sidestep those obstacles and still keep Mariah as part of our flock?

 

[EmmaRainboe]

oh my. Thank you all for the quick response. In that case... Any words of wisdom? We love her - him - but we really do not want fertilized eggs and we (along with our neighbors) are not crazy about the idea of being woken up at the crack of dawn every day. I don't suppose there's some way to sidestep those obstacles and still keep Mariah as part of our flock?

Is there a reason you don't want fertilized eggs? They are perfectly fine to eat. But if you are totally against the idea you can either remove him, or many people caponize.

 

[ArianaMcGee]

Is there a reason you don't want fertilized eggs? They are perfectly fine to eat. But if you are totally against the idea you can either remove him, or many people caponize.

Thank you again for your great, quick responses. Here I am showing my utter newbie-ness and ignorance: I did not know that you could eat fertilized eggs! Color me shocked.

I have always thought that if a rooster was around the chickens, the eggs would be fertilized and become chicks. So of course I didn't want to eat baby chicks! Or have tens of new baby chicks every spring. Clearly, I've got to do some more research since this is our new situation.

But to be clear... It's NOT eating baby chicks if we eat fertilized eggs? What is actually the difference?

And in that vein, how disruptive are roosters in the morning?

Maybe we can make this work.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Thank you again for your great, quick responses. Here I am showing my utter newbie-ness and ignorance: I did not know that you could eat fertilized eggs! Color me shocked.

I have always thought that if a rooster was around the chickens, the eggs would be fertilized and become chicks. So of course I didn't want to eat baby chicks! Or have tens of new baby chicks every spring. Clearly, I've got to do some more research since this is our new situation.

But to be clear... It's NOT eating baby chicks if we eat fertilized eggs? What is actually the difference?

And in that vein, how disruptive are roosters in the morning?

Maybe we can make this work.

A hen needs to sit on the egg for a few weeks for it to incubate to then become a chick. Collecting the eggs the same day they're laid prevents that

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Yeah, fertilized eggs can become chicks, but that requires a hen to sit on them for 21ish days. There are several things you can try to reduce the crowing, but my first question is how many pullets do you have? If you don't have enough pullets for him, you're gonna have problems.