Hello all, I have a blue lace RW rooster who is about 20 weeks old. We hatched him and kept him in the house til about 14 - 16 weeks of age. He had a hen in here with him. While in the house, he began crowing w/o provocation or noise from us. I loved it! Well, we put him out in the coop with the others (older than he) after slowly introducing them. He and the hen were "put in their place" by two RIR's and an easter egger. He hasn't crowed since he's gone outside. :^( He has begun to "service" the hens, and is coming into his own as far as becoming more independent. He still gets pecked a bit by the reds, but not as much. My question is, does anyone have a similar experience as this? Whats the chance he'll begin crowing again? I have no other rooster and we have five hens. Also, I had searched a bit but found nothing similar, so I figured I'd ask the brain-trust! I truly appreciate any thought/input you may have. Floyd T.
He is still probably somewhat intimidated by the dominant hens. He will crow again when he is the BOSS,
That's kinda what I thought but being new to chickens, I wasn't sure. He is a beautiful rooster and know he'll be strut tin his stuff come spring. Thanks. Floyd T.
Yep its being in a new place with hens that are dominate over him for the time being. Sounds like hes already beginning to move up the pecking order and soon those hens will be his flock. Recently I was given a RIR rooster to go with my 8 hens. When I first got him he was scared of the hens and most of the day he would just set on the perch in their run and only get down to eat when the hens all went into the pen. He never crowed either. Now hes the one doing the chasing and is no longer scared of the hens. He is keeping the hens well "serviced" and is crowing. His crows isn't all that great but hes getting better and louder.
All you need to do in order to understand why a rooster crows is to watch him while he does it. You can easily see he crows because he feels fine and fit and in control of his flock and he is satisfied with his place in it. If any of those elements are missing or off even a little but, a rooster may not feel like crowing. When yours begins to crow again, you will have no doubt he's found his mojo again.
And this is why I come here for advice. The number of people and the amount of experience is beyond reproach! Thanks you all. Good news, too. Henrietta(got his name before we knew "she" was a he) got his crow on last night, when my wife got home. She went out to check on em and the 'ol boy ripped off a big one!! He was under the coop, and when he crowed, the RIR inside began scraping the wood chips and headed for the door, as if to say, Oh no he didn't!!! This morning Henrietta was sounding off, like he had in the past. I think we're over the hump. We'll see. Again, thanks for your time and comments. I greatly appreciate them. Floyd T.