Is this a silver French cookoo maran hen??? It is 3 months old with heavily feathered feet. Lots of

[Flockandfowl46]

It's a cockeral this is mine

and here is one of his cockerals

 

[Defenderdenise]

How bad is the crowing. And is there a way to stop him from breeding with hens if they free range

 

[PachecoPeeps]

How bad is the crowing. And is there a way to stop him from breeding with hens if they free range

You would have to keep them separated. Maybe allow them out at different times? Breeding isn’t a problem though as long as you collect the eggs everyday and don’t let the hens incubate them (unless you want more chicks!) there is no way to keep them from breeding.

As far as crowing it kind of depends on the bird. Some crow all day and night and others are off and on.

If you live somewhere where you aren’t allowed roosters I wouldn’t risk keeping him.

 

[Citychickengal]

I don’t have much experience with roosters in general, but if he’s your only roo and there aren’t any others nearby that he can hear you might have hope with the crowing issue. My roo only crows for about 10 minutes in the mornings, and very occasionally he’ll throw out a random crow in the afternoon. Otherwise he’s no louder than the hens. But that’s just my guy, I can’t speak for any others, he’s the only roo I’ve ever had!

 

[DobieLover]

I have two 13 week old cockerels so no crowing... yet.

I've read about no-crow collars. You can read up on the pros and cons of these devices. Some have had great success with them. Some have inadvertently killed their birds with them.

I think that the goal of these collars is to lessen the volume and frequency of crowing, NOT to eliminate crowing. I think that is where folks went wrong when their birds died. They kept making the collars too tight to try to eliminate crowing.

 

[Defenderdenise]

You would have to keep them separated. Maybe allow them out at different times? Breeding isn’t a problem though as long as you collect the eggs everyday and don’t let the hens incubate them (unless you want more chicks!) there is no way to keep them from breeding.

As far as crowing it kind of depends on the bird. Some crow all day and night and others are off and on.

If you live somewhere where you aren’t allowed roosters I wouldn’t risk keeping him.

I guess I’ll have to wait and see he’s about 13 weeks. I don’t even know what to do with him if I can’t keep him

 

[Alexandra33]

As others have stated, Barred Cochin cockerel. So sorry keeping him could be problematic for you.

~Alex

 

[BreanneRN]

I agree, beautiful barred Cochin cockerel... I have 2 barred Cochin hens, really love them. I have a Splash Cochin Rooster. He is actually pretty quiet, only crows once in awhile. He is kind of a layed back kind of fellow. He is big and fluffy, and I named him "Puffy"! I would try to keep him if I were you... They are sweet guys...

 

[Defenderdenise]

I’m definitely gonna try to keep my guy. When did yours start crowing

 

[BreanneRN]

Not sure of your personal situation, what size lot your on, zoning, non-chicken friendly neighbors etc., but there are a lot of things you can do to see to it that he doesn't disturb others much. Planting shrubs or hedges along the fence lines will muffle noise a lot, as will solid fences, wood, cinder block, for those areas closest to neighbors houses. Also, you can confine him at night in your garage or in a chicken house and not let him out until it is a decent hour like 8 or 9am. The early crowing will be muffled by the chicken house or other building, plus if it is dark, he will not crow as early. Mixed reviews on those crow collars, don't think I would use one all the time, but 2maybe when there was a reason you needed to hide him, and keep him temporarily quiet it would come in handy... How hard it might be would depend on if you can stay home or have to go to work early or not... And what the neighbors and their habits are (hopefully no night shift workers).