No Crow Collar, opinions?

[Chickassan]

The only experience I've had with the collars is repeatedly freeing my neighbors rooster from assorted things branches, fence, got his own foot stuck in it once.Eventually it will stop his crowing I'm sure.

 

[bobbi-j]

The collar impedes the rooster from getting enough air to crow. This is what I've been reading. How do you think that happens? It may not keep it from breathing entirely, but from what I'm understanding is it keeps him from being able to take a full breath. Imagine that for a minute. You can't get enough air. I truly hope your miracle chick is a female. Otherwise, I hope you can maybe find someone else to take it. I can't imagine having something around my throat day and night, preventing me from taking a deep breath. (I do understand why you're asking, though. You worked so hard to save this chick! I get being attached to it.)

As far as the surgery goes, I don't know enough about it to have an opinion. I know that I couldn't make myself spend $500 to keep a chicken. But mine are livestock, so there's the difference. I would spend it on my dog.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have asthma. Even before that, I could not wear a turtle neck due to the sensation of having something around the sensitive area of my neck.

IMO the no crow collar is a device that should be outlawed. There was a previous thread about the no crow collar, and one poster stated that the instructions state: the collar does not impede swallowing. An other statement in the warning info states that birds using the no crow collar should be fed crumble and not have pellets. Now... those 2 statements are contradictory, if I have a decent understanding of the English language. I would like to know how a rooster is going to manage the warnings about eating only crumble when he encounters one of those massively huge grass hoppers, a nice big chunk of grit, some lovely dandelion greens. Or perhaps he will get caught up in a game of mouse or frog scrimmage. We all know what happens to that morsel when the one in possession of the morsel gets a moment to swallow. Down it goes, in one massive bolus... unless it happens to be a roo wearing one of those chokers. I pity the roo living such a life.

 

[Impatient]

I appreciate all your replies, it has given me a lot to think about. It seems like I would be most interested in the surgery then if this chick ends up being male. The small flock I'm working on starting is meant to be more pets/eggs for personal consumption and to produce compost/manure for my tiny garden. I'm only going to have 3-4 due to the backyard flocks laws, that's all I can have on my property. I also get how some of you have the thought of "why waste the space with a rooster when you can have more eggs". Well I don't eat THAT many eggs and personally I've found hens are happier around a rooster so long he treats them right, also to keep egg production up, I would have to have new hens periodically and "retire" the old, having your own roo helps with that. In regards to those of you worried it may affect his ability to warn the hens, they will be in a coop with run full time, so I'm not worried about predators that the roo would need to warn the hens about. Since we're talking a small flock and the roos I've had in the past have been some of the best pets a girl could ask for, the money for the surgery does not seem too bad to me, though for those on here whom their chickens are livestock I totally understand why it wouldn't be an option.