Sub-tropical chooks - picture heavy

[cwrite]

You know your suspect roosters may not crow at all while they are with you. The RIR rooster I hatched then subsequently sold did not crow in the 14 weeks I had him

So there is hope for peace and quiet yet for a while longer.

That gives me hope! Hopefully they won't learn just yet without having a rooster to copy. : )

 

[ChickyChickens]

That gives me hope! Hopefully they won't learn just yet without having a rooster to copy. : )

Yep////

 

[appps]

You know Murphy's law says not only will they all learn they will probably teach the girls too lol

 

[cwrite]

You know Murphy's law says not only will they all learn they will probably teach the girls too lol

Boo appps.

Actually I heard a rooster crowing in the distance yesterday afternoon. I was torn between having a good laugh at some unfortunate soul

or shushing it in case mine picked up any tips.

 

[chooks4life]

That gives me hope! Hopefully they won't learn just yet without having a rooster to copy. : )

Sorry to be negative here, but I've been roosterless many times and reared male chicks up without adult males around, and they begin crowing with or without an example.... And that long-distance rooster you heard crowing is likely to start them off sooner, unfortunately. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst I guess.

If they had adult males with them, chances are they'd hold off on regular crowing until more developed, because when a cockerel begins showing mature behaviors (especially crowing) he then attracts the attention of the mature males. A crow is a claim on territory more than anything else. Naturally enough, mature males generally don't like young boys proclaiming they own the same territory the mature male lives in. In the wild that would likely be the cue for the father to escort his sons to the boundary of the parental territory.

Cockerels can get away with being treated like a chick for longer and get in a lot of sneaky, uninterrupted matings if they just don't crow too early, whereas the sooner they crow the sooner the adult males will start trying to prevent matings and trying to see the young males off. (Depends a lot on the males, though, my roosters never had a problem with younger males mating as long as they were polite to the hens.)

If the mature males are at a serious distance though, not interacting with the cockerels, the cockerels tend to pipe up sooner, basically answering as it were.

That's been my experience anyway.

About the stress, best thing you can do is work on how to handle that because it's generally a regular feature of owning chickens in suburbia, even when the neighbors are getting eggs they are generally a common cause of stress, with or without noise or smells... Most people just simply don't appreciate having 'livestock' type species in suburbia, they can ignore all the same smells and frequency/volume of noises from 'pet' species but show intolerance for 'livestock' species... It's an unfortunate mentality but as common as dirt. If you're at all able, (I know most aren't), moving to a rural area will alleviate much stress for you, always ideal but not always achievable.

Best wishes.

 

[K Spot]

Sorry to be negative here, but I've been roosterless many times and reared male chicks up without adult males around, and they begin crowing with or without an example.... And that long-distance rooster you heard crowing is likely to start them off sooner, unfortunately. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst I guess.

If they had adult males with them, chances are they'd hold off on regular crowing until more developed, because when a cockerel begins showing mature behaviors (especially crowing) he then attracts the attention of the mature males. A crow is a claim on territory more than anything else. Naturally enough, mature males generally don't like young boys proclaiming they own the same territory the mature male lives in. In the wild that would likely be the cue for the father to escort his sons to the boundary of the parental territory.

Cockerels can get away with being treated like a chick for longer and get in a lot of sneaky, uninterrupted matings if they just don't crow too early, whereas the sooner they crow the sooner the adult males will start trying to prevent matings and trying to see the young males off. (Depends a lot on the males, though, my roosters never had a problem with younger males mating as long as they were polite to the hens.)

If the mature males are at a serious distance though, not interacting with the cockerels, the cockerels tend to pipe up sooner, basically answering as it were.

That's been my experience anyway.

About the stress, best thing you can do is work on how to handle that because it's generally a regular feature of owning chickens in suburbia, even when the neighbors are getting eggs they are generally a common cause of stress, with or without noise or smells... Most people just simply don't appreciate having 'livestock' type species in suburbia, they can ignore all the same smells and frequency/volume of noises from 'pet' species but show intolerance for 'livestock' species... It's an unfortunate mentality but as common as dirt. If you're at all able, (I know most aren't), moving to a rural area will alleviate much stress for you, always ideal but not always achievable.

Best wishes.

Yes, chooks4life, you are correct.
I live on acreage with no other roosters in my immediate area so my rooster (while I had him) probably had no cause to crow or felt like he needed to announce to the neighbourhood this was his patch of dirt.

I have 2 other roosters at the moment, a cuckoo faverolles that will be moved on in a couple of weeks and a pencilled rock bantam who I intend on keeping around for a while. The fav is 6 weeks old and the rock is 8 weeks, with naught but typical chick peeping coming from both of them for now. I do know, however, that the age at which a cockerel will being to crow is something that you cannot predict, but for now, while they are both around, I will continue to enjoy them.

 

[chooks4life]

Yes, chooks4life, you are correct.
I live on acreage with no other roosters in my immediate area so my rooster (while I had him) probably had no cause to crow or felt like he needed to announce to the neighbourhood this was his patch of dirt.

I have 2 other roosters at the moment, a cuckoo faverolles that will be moved on in a couple of weeks and a pencilled rock bantam who I intend on keeping around for a while. The fav is 6 weeks old and the rock is 8 weeks, with naught but typical chick peeping coming from both of them for now. I do know, however, that the age at which a cockerel will being to crow is something that you cannot predict, but for now, while they are both around, I will continue to enjoy them.

Good luck with that. Chicken's voices break just like humans' voices do, so once you hear their voices breaking... You know what's around the corner. Often they start crowing within a week or so of having their voice break.

You can always hope you get a funny crower whose voice is hardly identifiable as a chook... I recall one bantam rooster who crowed (in suburbia) as 'erk-ee-erk!' Quite high pitched, with very short syllables. Most people wouldn't have identified that as a rooster, took me a while and I've heard all sorts of bizarre crows before, lol.

Best wishes.

 

[ChickyChickens]

So...any updates??

 

[cwrite]

Naturally enough, mature males generally don't like young boys proclaiming they own the same territory the mature male lives in. In the wild that would likely be the cue for the father to escort his sons to the boundary of the parental territory.

About the stress, best thing you can do is work on how to handle that because it's generally a regular feature of owning chickens in suburbia, even when the neighbors are getting eggs they are generally a common cause of stress, with or without noise or smells... Most people just simply don't appreciate having 'livestock' type species in suburbia, they can ignore all the same smells and frequency/volume of noises from 'pet' species but show intolerance for 'livestock' species... It's an unfortunate mentality but as common as dirt. If you're at all able, (I know most aren't), moving to a rural area will alleviate much stress for you, always ideal but not always achievable.

Best wishes.

@chooks4life you make it sound so civilised.

I'm pretty sure the escourting of the son to the boundary of the parental property involves violent encouragement. It's a nice picture though.
I totally agree with how livestock are viewed and my long term plan is to move somewhere I have a bit more elbow room. I don't plan on having any livestock other than chooks, I just need space even if it's not quieter because of noisy animals. : ) I look forward to being able to plant very large growing trees.

@ChickyChickens it's been fairly quiet. Hedwig started laying again yesterday so that is the end of all broodiness, hopefully for a while.

I also had my first egg stolen this morning. I collected two eggs between doing the various morning chook chores and left them on the patio table. When I arrived home after doing the school run, I went outside to retrieve my breakfast only to find that there was one egg there. My suspicions on the species of culprit were confirmed when a crow flew over and walked all over the patio table looking for the egg it left behind. Lesson learned.

The chicks are getting used to being handled. For some reason they find it easier to climb the ladder, go through the tunnel into the coop, walk down a ladder, jump onto the bottom half of the stable door (from half way down the ladder where they can see straight outside) and fly out than go out of the run door. I think it's because the step into the run has wire mesh in the middle that they can see through so they can only go straight. However, the trip through the coop only involves travelling forward rather than looking above something they can see through. I might block the mesh and see if there is any merit to my theory. When I get them back into the coop I always take them through the run door. It has taken ages for only a few chicks to learn to jump up and go in by themselves. The rest get picked up and put back into the run. They now 'let' me catch them, but squeak anyway as if they weren't waiting to be helped in.

 

[ChickyChickens]

@chooks4life you make it sound so civilised.

I'm pretty sure the escourting of the son to the boundary of the parental property involves violent encouragement. It's a nice picture though.
I totally agree with how livestock are viewed and my long term plan is to move somewhere I have a bit more elbow room. I don't plan on having any livestock other than chooks, I just need space even if it's not quieter because of noisy animals. : ) I look forward to being able to plant very large growing trees.

@ChickyChickens it's been fairly quiet. Hedwig started laying again yesterday so that is the end of all broodiness, hopefully for a while.

I also had my first egg stolen this morning. I collected two eggs between doing the various morning chook chores and left them on the patio table. When I arrived home after doing the school run, I went outside to retrieve my breakfast only to find that there was one egg there. My suspicions on the species of culprit were confirmed when a crow flew over and walked all over the patio table looking for the egg it left behind. Lesson learned.

The chicks are getting used to being handled. For some reason they find it easier to climb the ladder, go through the tunnel into the coop, walk down a ladder, jump onto the bottom half of the stable door (from half way down the ladder where they can see straight outside) and fly out than go out of the run door. I think it's because the step into the run has wire mesh in the middle that they can see through so they can only go straight. However, the trip through the coop only involves travelling forward rather than looking above something they can see through. I might block the mesh and see if there is any merit to my theory. When I get them back into the coop I always take them through the run door. It has taken ages for only a few chicks to learn to jump up and go in by themselves. The rest get picked up and put back into the run. They now 'let' me catch them, but squeak anyway as if they weren't waiting to be helped in.

Awesome!!