Silkie roos quit crowing

[Ashleybess]

Hello! I have two silkie roos, eight months old, who started crowing a couple months ago but have since completely quit. I rise early in the morning so I know they aren't crowing then at all (they were before). It's so strange. They are still eating and otherwise behaving normally and mating with the hens, or at least attempting to I also had a beautiful blue polish roo that accidentally got left outside for a single night and sadly fell prey to a raccoon a few weeks ago, so that shifted the hierarchy, but the silkies continued to crow for about a week afterward then stopped.

Has anyone ever heard of this? Will they resume crowing eventually?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Sounds like they are chicken!

No seriously though... Welcome to BYC!

Sorry to hear about your loss.

If all other behavior seems normal... no wheezing, lethargy, or anything... I might just thank my lucky stars for a few moments silence!

Chickens do behave weirdly at times. Maybe they aren't as compelled to crow for some reason now. I'm sure it will return. They are likely content to have less competition, maybe more able to focus on the ladies. They have soooo many reasons to crow... never seen one have a reason to NOT crow! But they aren't roosters yet and still have a lot of maturing phases to go through. Each chicken is such an individual... the more chickens I meet the more things I see. Hardly anything seems impossible anymore. maybe.. They're just like hey maybe we better quit hollering before she leaves us out. (I'm totally kidding and will delete that if it bothers you. Sorry )

Sounds like you are looking out for clues that indicate attention is needed. Sounds like all is pretty "normal" though and I'm not hearing any cause for alarm... other than the general oddity of them not continuing to crow.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hello! I have two silkie roos... who arted crowing a couple months ago but have since completely quit....
Has anyone ever heard of this? Will they resume crowing eventually?

In the same manor that hens are influenced by the length of daylight, roosters are also affected in a sexual way by the daily hours of light.

Hens lay more eggs in response to light and roosters pay more attention to their opposite sex in response to increased light. As well as the increased likelihood that the roosters can successfully pass on their genes.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

In the same manor that hens are influenced by the length of daylight, roosters are also affected in a sexual way by the daily hours of light.

Absolutely true.

But it is stated that the cockerels are still actively TRYING to mate the ladies.. just not CROWING since the loss of the other boy who was dominant even though they crowed before and after he was gone.

You have lots of great rooster information... I love reading your posts and look forward to your articles.

 

[townchicks]

Don't have roos, so IDK, but just a few thoughts. 1) Maybe they continued to crow for a bit, thinking the Polish may come back (sorry for your loss, btw), but then when he didn't show up, felt there was no need to compete any more? 2) could the raccoon becoming back and it's prowling around scaring them into silence? 3) if they don't start up again, can you breed them and start a strain of quiet roos? (joke)

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Absolutely true.

But it is stated that the cockerels are still actively TRYING to mate the ladies.. just not CROWING since the loss of the other boy who was dominant even though they crowed before and after he was gone.

You have lots of great rooster information... I love reading your posts and look forward to your articles.

You are too kind Mrs(?) EggSighted4Life. For what its worth as of April this year I celebrated my 50th anniversary of owning, keeping, and raising Gamefowl and about the 70th year anniversary of living on, and helping on a commercial broiler and egg farm/processing plant that belonged to my late granddad.

It is difficult to spend that much time around the fascinating chicken without getting a little chicken poop in your bloodstream. It is getting late so I must go and take my nightly dust bath before I go to roost.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Absolutely true.

But it is stated that the cockerels are still actively TRYING to mate the ladies.. just not CROWING since the loss of the other boy who was dominant even though they crowed before and after he was gone.

You have lots of great rooster information... I love reading your posts and look forward to your articles.

You are too kind Mrs(?) EggSighted4Life. For what its worth as of April this year I celebrated my 50th anniversary of owning, keeping, and raising Gamefowl and about the 70th year anniversary of living on, and helping on a commercial broiler and egg farm/processing plant that belonged to my late granddad.

It is difficult to spend that much time around the fascinating chicken without getting a little chicken poop in your bloodstream. It is getting late so I must go and take my nightly dust bath before I go to roost.

 

[Ashleybess]

Thank you so very much, everyone, for the replies! Ironically I finally heard them crowing again the morning after I made this post They're not frequent crowers - I got up early this morning and haven't heard them yet - and I'm kinda hoping they stay that way as we are *technically* in city limits and not supposed to have roosters (though on a more than half acre lot with an open field behind us... the only neighbors who could potentially be bothered by the crowing told us they like it!) And thank you for the condolences on my blue polish, aka Fitzroy St. John! I was so heartbroken. He had never not gone back into the coop before! It was raining hard that might so my husband didn't do a head count when he went to lock them up