New breed ‘No crow roosters’

[TXchickmum]

A rooster crows for a reason. IMO, it would be useless to have a rooster that couldn't alert his flock. (I live where only hens are allowed, and have to take the necessary precautions for their protection. When life offers the opportunity, I'll retire to where I can have a loud, crowing rooster to do his job and protect the flock). -can't imagine a poor rooster without the ability to crow and do what nature intended.

 

[BDutch]

So it's not necessarily true that you couldn't do this without impacting fertility or masculinity, but it is true that you'd have to work pretty hard at it and it might bring some unfortunate trade-offs alongside. Effectively, you're trying to disconnect a secondary sex trait from the cascade of sexual development cues and break the regulatory relationship between the trait and your male birds.

If I was going to try this, I'd look long and hard at Sebrights, which already exist as a breed that has accomplished a similar disconnection between "male-ness" and a common secondary sex trait in chickens (in their case, feathering). What you're trying to do is break the regulatory relationship between vocalization (well, motivation to vocalize) and sexual development in a particular direction, and that's exactly what Sebrights have achieved with hen feathering. I don't have the breed knowledge myself with Sebrights to recall how hard the hen feathering was to achieve or how aggressively the breed was originally selected, though.

Maybe you are right. I don’t know much about breeding and selection, beside that this is done with all kind of breeds since the golden age. At first for ornamental reasons (eg Polish) or as a side effect to obtain small egg (Dutch) . Much later they started to select on egg numbers and laying through winter. As if laying 300 eggs a year is a natural thing for a bird that originally laid maybe 20 eggs a year.

Btw , there are more chicken breeds with similar feathering . Vorwerk has that too . Vorwerks come in normal size and in bantam size.

I know some people like the crow of the rooster. But it’s just not an option for many people who have hens (like me) to keep a rooster. So the people who want such a rooster the most are the ones, who can’t breed with them.

 

[raingarden]

One thing that's bothering me about the whole concept is why breeding a crowless rooster has not been done before. Roosters crowing has been the source of contention forever; way before city ordinances and HOA rules. People gotta sleep, you know, so a crowless rooster may have been as deisirable in ancient Rome as it is today. With all the modifications that make up the modern chicken, I think that if it was possible to breed the crow out of them then someone would have already done it.

 

[BDutch]

One thing that's bothering me about the whole concept is why breeding a crowless rooster has not been done before. Roosters crowing has been the source of contention forever; way before city ordinances and HOA rules. People gotta sleep, you know, so a crowless rooster may have been as deisirable in ancient Rome as it is today. With all the modifications that make up the modern chicken, I think that if it was possible to breed the crow out of them then it someone would have already been done it.

Good argument!
I can imagine this is true.

 

[Chicken Heel]

I have fourteen bantam roosters, mostly OEGB but also a Dark Brahma, Barred Rock and a Dominique and each one has their own distinctive crow. I can be sitting inside the house and tell which rooster is crowing. A rooster that couldn't crow would probably be sad as hell and I would be sad for it.

Sitting here this morning with my windows open listening to all my roosters crow back and forth and thinking back on all the chickens I have had for over a half century now. Thanks again to my father and Grandpa Shook for getting me started raising them all those years ago. Chickens have brought me so much joy.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

No crowing would certainly be useful for people in urban/suburban areas, specifically ones with rooster laws (because of crowing). Although I feel as if a rooster who doesn't crow, or crows very little, would diminish some of the importance of having a rooster. There are various different reasons a rooster crows, but one is to tell predators and other cocks to stay out of their territory. I feel like if this breed came into existence it would become prey more easily, especially because roosters who have more testosterone fight back predators more efficiently. Not sure if that's right, but that's what I once read.

 

[BDutch]

No crowing would certainly be useful for people in urban/suburban areas, specifically ones with rooster laws (because of crowing). Although I feel as if a rooster who doesn't crow, or crows very little, would diminish some of the importance of having a rooster. There are various different reasons a rooster crows, but one is to tell predators and other cocks to stay out of their territory. I feel like if this breed came into existence it would become prey more easily, especially because roosters who have more testosterone fight back predators more efficiently. Not sure if that's right, but that's what I once read.

I dont know if that is true.
But I do know that most people don’t tolerate dogs that bark in the middle of the night / early mornings if there is no burglar trespassing.

A rooster that crows to alarm the hens when he sees a predator is a great plus. But a rooster that’s waking up the neighbours because he has too much urge to crow is stupid. Because this rooster has to go elsewhere.

In the winter period a rooster is no problem for me and my neighbours, but the cockerel/ roosters I had , had to go in spring when the sun is coming up early in the morning. Even my last rooster who had a warm and not very loud tone was not a welcome alarm clock .

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Question, has anyone raised a crooked beak that did not crow? (I know that would not be a good bird to breed, but I was curious.)

Perhaps unrelated to the rest of the thread but I do have a crooked beak male that didn’t crow until 10 months old. He’s about to be 12 months old by the end of the month, and has only crowed 6 times in total(2 occasions: 3 crows and then he’d stop), the last occasion being a month ago. Relating to that, he has been one of the most slow-developing roosters I have had. His comb didn’t come in until after the hens from his hatch started laying, his saddle and hackle feathers came in incredibly slow, and he has not yet attempted to mate a single hen. I’m a little bit thankful for that last one though, I don’t want him potentially fertilizing any eggs.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Ding, ding ding it is directly related to testosterone. Breed out testosterone you won't be breeding anything

I still believe breeding a mute bird rather than one that doesn't crow at all would be the easiest way to get this to work.

 

[BDutch]

I still believe breeding a mute bird rather than one that doesn't crow at all would be the easiest way to get this to work.

If a rooster is not louder than the loudest hens, there is no problem in the neighbourhood I live in.
He can even cry out loud a couple of times in the middle of the day without bothering anyone. It’s only the wake up call that’s bothering me , MDH and some neighbours. The last rooster we had was a sweet dude and the noise was tolerable for MDH an me. But we needed to rehome him anyway bc the neighbours complained.

We don’t have rules that roosters are forbidden. But if neighbours get annoyed by their noise we need to rehome him. cull him or keep him in a soundproof cage during the night, asap.