Quiet Rooster project

[BrattishTaz]

Quote:
My BO could wake the dead. Combine a normal crow with the sound of someone slowly releasing air from the top of a pinched balloon, run it through a megaphone, and then you will have something close to Archie's crow.

 

[brahmapapa]

Brahma roos are known to be quieter, more docile and crow less and more muted than many breeds.

 

[Illia]

Love the descriptions of crows, people.


Yes, I've got a Frizzled Polish rooster with a very weird sounding crow. . . I call it a "whimsical" crow but I've no clue how to describe it. It's kind of like a weird cry/whine, then at the end there's a high pitched sound like he's sucking air back through a large tube.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I always thought it made sense that if people could breed for longcrowers, you ought to be able to breed for little- to non-crowers!

It would definitely be a matter of tracking down roosters with a predisposition to not crowing, or crowing rarely and quietly. This could prove problematic since some crowing seems to be influenced by environmental factors. (How many roosters, presence of females, possibly more. Is it something that could be in part a learned behavior, or at least in frequency?)

I've thought a lot about this lately. I am now in the city and can't have a rooster, which is KILLING me! Most of the joy I find in poultry is breeding. I don't even eat many eggs. Problem is, I'd have to move to the country in order to invest the next 20 years to breeding a non-crowing rooster so I could have one in the city. LOL!

 

[Illia]

The thing that makes me

is the thought of just how many roosters, hens, or just simply breeds and strains of those breeds you'd need to obtain, then how large of an area you'd need for the different environments just to find even one rooster qualified to be the first dad to the project.


Again -

That's a BIG project.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I think the way to do it would, at least first generation, make it a community project and have various flock owners collect eggs from their existing quiet crowers' flocks. But you're right, it's mind boggling. Probably have to keep them on tie outs in yards for 6 months plus and spend a LOT of time observing who's making what sounds...and imagine that generation after generation! The backyard chicken craze would probably be passed by the time you got anywhere close!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
Most likely at least a year. One of my strains of Orloffs I never had a single crow until about eight moths old and almost a year before getting regular crows.

I bet it could be a real craze if it could be done though.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
Most likely at least a year. One of my strains of Orloffs I never had a single crow until about eight moths old and almost a year before getting regular crows.

I bet it could be a real craze if it could be done though.

Tell me, which strain? Once they did start crowing, was it normal pitch and sound?

I did notice my Orloffs seem quiet, but i only have had hens. My Delawares were LOUD! Even the hens!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
Most likely at least a year. One of my strains of Orloffs I never had a single crow until about eight moths old and almost a year before getting regular crows.

I bet it could be a real craze if it could be done though.

Tell me, which strain? Once they did start crowing, was it normal pitch and sound?

I did notice my Orloffs seem quiet, but i only have had hens. My Delawares were LOUD! Even the hens!

The Robert's strain. They all have fairly short crows and sound about the same, that strain just started much later. Seem to be a lot slower to mature too. The pullets are just now laying and are almost a year old. Just got Earhard strain this year, so I'll have to see on them as they grow. The Orloffs in general are one of the quieter breeds we have and the hens are very quiet.

 

[gumbii]

i have a shamo that is so quiet... my quietest OEGB is louder than him... and henry the OEGB crows like he has a sore throat... but the shamo... sounds like a fat man trying to imitate a car that just slammed on the brakes and the ABS went off... it's a short "ERR ERR ERR!" noise...


if you hear it, you will never know it's a rooster... and i only hear him crowing once or twice a day... and that's it... sometimes i don't hear it all day... my friends think i'm lying...

since he's going to be a breeding project, i'm only going to breed quiet roo's back in the program... i also can't have roosters... LOL...