Silkie rooster behavior!

[myaeger]

Hi everyone,
I have a few questions about my silkie rooster. His name is Donnie. My boyfriend and I have raised him since he was about 25 days old, and he's recently started crowing (within the past month). First he just did it in the morning, then crowed once or twice in the afternoon, but it wasn't anything alarming. In fact, my boyfriend and I assumed he crowed in the afternoon because that's when we get home from class. But the crowing is getting progressively worse. It's more frequent, and lasts a lot longer. Is there any way to discourage (in a non threatening way) his crowing? We don't mind it in the morning because it's expected, but the crowing in the afternoon is starting to get frustrating.

Also, Donnie's starting to get a mean streak about him. I'll go to open his cage in the morning, and he'll bite me. Usually I'm quick enough to move out of the way, but this last time he actually got me and drew blood. He's done the same to my boyfriend. Donnie has also got to where he turns away from us and is weird about us picking him up. We used to pick him up all the time, and I still do. When I'm holding him he's fine. He's just funny about the initial pick up. So needless to say he's becoming distant to us and starting to get aggressive. We don't know what to do. Any ideas?

My parents have agreed that if worse comes to worse they would take Donnie and a few females to let him roam in their yard since my boyfriend and I don't have a big one. My boyfriend and I were just hoping to fix the situation so we didn't have to do that. Donnie is our world.

Thank you so much for your help,

Mary

 

[Basil G]

I have the same problem with my F1 NHRxBO cross. As long as you hold him he's fine.
What we've been doing is keep him in an isolation pen until we are ready to be chased by him. Though I've notice he won't try to murder us when we are hand feeding him.
As for the crowing.......there is a $200 plus surgery out there so he won't crow if you want to go that far. I have had experience with 7 different roosters (at crowing age) over the last 2 years. When they crow in the afternoon they only crow when something in their environment has changed. There is the exception of NJ the F2 NHRxBO cross who had a breathing problem (we think it hereditary only one hen has the same problem) NJ doesn't run because he's concentrating on breathing (same with crowing) I has crowed, but not long or loud.
The thing is each chicken is different so besides having food on hand and hand feeding him a lot I can't offer that much more

 

[donrae]

I've had lots of roosters over the years. Roosters crow. Am, pm, middle of the night on a full moon, anytime. When dogs bark, when hens lay eggs, when the neighbor revvs his motorcycle, or as my dad puts it "just to hear his head rattle". Some folks have had roosters decrowed and it's gone well. You can search for username bluedogsonly, he's the vet on the board that does it. You don't have a location, I beleive he's in Oklahoma. Someone on here had intermittant luck with using a hormone implant for small female dogs, but I've only seen that on one person and finding a vet to use the implant off-label might be a challenge.

As far as the aggression.....roosters just don't make good pets. He's hitting sexual maturity and feeling the need to assert his dominance. He's also wanting to mate, and not being able to do that can lead to extra frustration and aggression.

My best advice would be to buy him some ladies and let him live at your folk's place. He will be so much happier that way. If you want a pet chicken, try a hen. They're much more accomidation to being pets.