Straight Run vs Male vs Female

[lazy gardener]

All my males start crowing around 12 weeks. So, if you butcher after that... you have a lot of rooster drama to deal with. IMO, that is the ONLY benefit of raising CXR.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Do the males crow before butcher time?

For CX - maybe, but probably not. I've seen birds start crowing anytime after 8 weeks. 12 weeks or so is more typical - but you'll definitely have crowing with heritage meat birds.

 

[duluthralphie]

It is interesting all the talk about crowing.

My CX just started crowing about 3 weeks ago, he was hatched July 30th. However, many weeks that makes. He still only crows once or twice a day, normally in the morning before the other roosters are let out.

I sent all my roosters to freezer camp, with the exception of my breeders, when they were 19 weeks old. I had one rooster that crowed, Brutus. A few others would start to crow and Brutus shut them up. He did not allow anyone else to crow. I just assumed all roosters were like him and the head rooster was the only one to crow.

I have 2 roosters now and they do not crow very often. I just picked up two more breeders today, it will be interesting to see if they crow in 2-3 weeks when they become part of the flock.

 

[rosinsk1772]

We had (lol) a purebred blue amereacana for 4H when he crowed it woke the dead two towns over. Lets just say when the townies came with pitchforks and torches it was a quick death