non crowing

[shabbychick23]

Any suggestions for not crowing? Do neck wraps work???

 

[chooks4life]

Ah, lol, because of the wording I thought you were asking how to fix a lack of crowing, but I assume you're trying to stop crowing?

 

[shabbychick23]

Stop crowing

 

[chooks4life]

Not sure what you mean by 'neck wrap', but people use such things as soundproof rooster boxes they put them in every night, or cages where they can't lift their heads to crow (but one of mine would stretch his head and neck out underneath or alongside his body to crow, so I had no options but to kill him); some people get them surgically de-crowed but that's expensive and probably not too humane, and like debarked dogs they can 'grow' their vocal abilities back. Attempting to muzzle them is more likely to harm them.

What works depends on your rooster, you'll probably have to try a few things.

With some of mine, I would go into the cage if they went off at night and put them on the floor. Feeling unsafe, they no longer wanted to draw possible predator's attention to their location. Unfortunately they can usually see their way back onto the perches where they can start again.

A really dimwitted male will crow no matter what so the only option with those ones is to cull. It appears to be a spasm which the smarter males control and the dumber ones can't. I've seen some extra stupid males crow while drinking or eating and nearly kill themselves.

Generally speaking a male who crows at night is a nuisance, stressing out humans for miles around, as well as the flock itself. They feel vulnerable at night and a noisemaker yelling out their supposedly safe sleeping position is stressful to them. They may not show it physically but you will often see production suffer, because he is not only keeping humans up, but also the hens, if he yells at night.

Personally I'd like to see an appropriately low output electric collar or anklet for roosters. It doesn't have to hurt them to distract them or break their pattern of thought/behavior. If it detected them getting ready to crow it could stop them, or just make crowing something they want to avoid. Of course this would only work on the smarter males. It'd probably only need to vibrate, not shock. In a few generations you might be able to breed noncrowing roosters. Ah, we can dream...

Best wishes.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Roosters crow. If you can't deal with that, get rid of the rooster.

 

[chooks4life]

Roosters crow. If you can't deal with that, get rid of the rooster.

No doubt that has already been considered and is still being considered, but it's an old problem many people come up against and want to change, and plenty do manage to get around it or control it, so making a statement like you did isn't really addressing the situation in a helpful way.

 

[Cindy in PA]

No doubt that has already been considered and is still being considered, but it's an old problem many people come up against and want to change, and plenty do manage to get around it or control it, so making a statement like you did isn't really addressing the situation in a helpful way.

None of the options usually mentioned on here are practical & many are inhumane to the roosters. I am really tired of hearing about how chickens & roosters make noise and it may bother someone. There is a reason chickens were usually kept in rural areas. Just saying that roosters & hens make noise. The noise is so much better than leaf blowers, car horns, radios & many other things, but it is a fact of life.

 

[chooks4life]

None of the options usually mentioned on here are practical & many are inhumane to the roosters. I am really tired of hearing about how chickens & roosters make noise and it may bother someone. There is a reason chickens were usually kept in rural areas. Just saying that roosters & hens make noise. The noise is so much better than leaf blowers, car horns, radios & many other things, but it is a fact of life.

Actually, most of the options I mentioned are practical and work for people. Some I agree are somewhat inhumane to downright inhumane. Electronic collars are not inhumane if used correctly. A lot of people don't get the distinction there, they think it's all electrocution, lol.

I didn't mention getting birds decrowed as chicks because that's severely inhumane. Caponizing I think is also inhumane, and I didn't mention that previously, but there's plenty of livestock husbandry practices which are inhumane yet difficult to get around without getting rid of all livestock.

Intermediary measures are preferable sometimes, like putting a rooster into a box where he can only sit, not stand, overnight, to prevent his crowing rather than killing him instead.

With all due respect, if you are really tired of hearing about something, but have no helpful suggestion to offer regarding it, then why bother to post in a thread about that topic? We all have pet peeves, but there's a time and place for them, and better methods of communication you could employ rather than something that could be viewed as confrontational, like saying:
Quote: I'd guess you can probably see how quote of yours could be taken offensively. It's certainly not helpful.

I realize this could be considered as confrontational, though I don't intend it that way, and I apologize if you find it to be so, but it's good to remember there are rules on this forum about joining threads about things you don't like just to offer a negative opinion in response to the OP's requests for help. Generally you'll only see that rule quoted about pest control topics though.

Anyway, plenty of people in suburbia want to keep roosters and plenty manage their crowing one way or another without killing them or getting rid of them, or even being inhumane, though I guess people's definitions of that term vary.

Best wishes to all.