No crow collar help

[PoppySeedy]

I'm new to this site and I think this is the right forum to put this on- anyway, my rooster has a no crow collar (I wish he didn't need it but we like in a urban area, we are planning to move to a house with land soon though) and recently we've been having a problem where it won't stop his crow but it makes him uncomfortable when he does his aerial alarm call (he sort of throws his head back like when they first adjust to the collar)
To anyone with a roo with a rooster collar, have you had this happen with yours? Is it normal, and if not why is it happening?

I wanted to come back to this to say what we have done now. We've permanently stopped using collars after my boy nearly passed away due to them, my family kept forcing me to put collars on until I put my foot down and said that enough was enough. I said "as long as he gets to live a happy chicken life with no collar ill be happy, even if he ends up living elsewhere" so we took his collar off and none of my neighbours mind the increased volume. We've had no noise complaints and I live in a VERY urban area so im actually surprised. I even prepared to send him to an animal sanctuary just in case-

So my lesson from this. Just take the collars off, its not worth it at the end of the day and if you really love your boys, don't use them. And this is coming from someone who tried EVERYTHING; cheap collars, expensive collars, elastic, bandage wrap, velcro etc. None worked and all caused issues. My boy is actually more quiet now than he was with the collar on, only crows once in the morning in his box and once in the afternoon now, as opposed to every minute with a collar on. Less and louder is always better than more and muted.

My boy is so much happier without a collar on. I will never EVER put one on again. I hope my story inspires others to ditch the collars- its really just not worth it.

 

[lesliedow]

And on the other side, I have and continue to use them on three birds with no issues. YMMV but using crow collars are a valid and humane choice.

 

[hysales]

Old thread, but it's an ongoing debate so I'm going to revive it.

My experience with no-crow collars:

TLDR; If it's the only option, fine. But, only as a last resort.

When I researched these collars, I found most of the "hate" was from people that assumed there were other simple alternatives (like a nice farmer next door) . I know from personal experience and common sense that circumstances will arise where a no crow collar is the preferred alternative and being in the best interest of the bird.

There is also a valid argument that reducing the sound impact strengthens the viability of fertile urban chicken coops.

The benefits are obvious for the humans involved. For backyard "controlled" flocks, the roosters crow may be doing little to support the flock and plenty to annoy the neighbors.

The decision should be easy then, right? Well, this is until you find the stories from people with dead roosters or choking roosters. Without a real scientific study to go on, it's hard to know if a rooster died because of the collar or if he died while wearing the collar.

My best GUESS is that if you start a roo young with appropriately fitting collars, and control his diet with smaller food, the risk to health is minimal and he will likely acclimate to the collar. When appropriately fitted, the risk of injuries (like a leg caught in the collar) also seem minimal.

Unfortunately, "appropriately fitted" seems to mean "crazy tight." Anything less than crazy tight and you get a broken crow, not a "quiet" crow.

Now for my personal anecdote. My rooster's first experience with another chicken was a wild rooster flying into my yard, eating the food, and giving my roo a beating. My rooster was scared and a little bloodied. He was wearing a no-crow collar at the time.

I couldn't help but wonder, if he was able to crow--would that other rooster even have shown up? My roo is older and bigger but is also a big baby. So, then I felt bad and took off the collar. I'm not sure if it's because I care for him or because I'm scared of how terrible I would feel if he was hurt or killed--and something I did contributed to that.

I know that one day my roo will die. If that day he is wearing a collar, I'll never know if it was my fault. So, every morning he reminds me that he won the battle. Every night I sleep well knowing he's getting the best life I can give him.