Tell us about your silent roos!

[amazondoc]

Funny you should post this.

I was at a farm picking up some ducks this afternoon. She had a silkie roo that was crowing, but he was crowing verrrrrrrrry quietly. I dunno if that's a breed characteristic or not, but you might check it out!

 

[HBuehler]

We have 9 fully grown roos and only 4 crow the king his prince and 2 in training.

It's a dominance thing here. But even my baby leghorns start early.
My Loud guys are my leghorns and Minorca's.
My non crowing are
Jersey Giants, Delawares EE's and RIR
BUT I just sold one EE that had never crowed here..didn't dare but had no trouble announcing to his new home he was there.

 

[NancyDz]

I had an EE that barely croaked out crow. He also had some respiratory problems as a chick so I think that is why. For some reason I gave him away???

Shoulda kept him, he was pretty and big and QUIET!


Nancy

 

[atarunomiko]

Thank you for creating this post! I was asking about something in this vein and didn't get many responses:

I have a Polish crested who had been crowing since I got him in the beginning of June (rehomed rescue). I was told at the time he was about 2 months old. He didn't crow much at first, only once every few days, and steadily increased to around 5 or 6 times a day for a duration of about 4-5 crows in a row. But now for the past few weeks or so he has not crowed at all.

Neither he nor any of my other fowl (chickens, ducks, guineas and a goose) exhibit any sign of gapeworm, and all my other birds make the same amount of noise as ever. He is the only rooster. We have a male goose but he is kept separate, and some young'uns that might be cockerels, but they haven't been introduced to the big chickens yet.

He doesn't seem sick or depressed, either. All his behavior is the same as always, gentle, curious, tolerant of being held and petted, eating, drinking, strutting, and sleeping necks entwined with the same silkie he always goes night-night with. (So cute.) Crop's not impacted either.

It's really strange, as if one day he just changed his mind about crowing and decided, "Okay, I've had enough of that." He still makes his normal happy noises when eating or startled noises (being a Polish, his crest limits his vision and so lots of things startle him), that sort of thing, but no crowing.

I did have one possible theory. I have two EE girls who are dominant over the whole flock: might this be why he isn't crowing? I didn't think that a dominant female would have the kind of effect a dominant male would on a lower-ranking male, because she herself wouldn't be crowing (well, 99.9% of the time; I know there are exceptions - the DH used to have one).

But the thing is, my rooster had been living in the same coop with the alpha females for about 7 weeks (after his 6-week quarantine) before he stopped crowing. If that is what's going on, would it have taken this long for the change to occur? He was crowing more and more, not less, before he suddenly stopped.

I'm keeping an eye on him anyway. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this, a rooster suddenly no longer crowing for no apparent reason after months of crowing. Based on the responses to this post, I'm sure a lot of people who can't have roosters due to the noise factor would love to have a roo that doesn't crow. Maybe I shouldn't look a mute gift roo in the mouth.

I would also like to respond to other posts in this thread:

Quote:
I've heard that roosters often stop crowing or crow less when there is a more dominant roo higher up on the the totem pole.

Quote:
I've heard conflicting reports on the noise level of silkie roos.

I think it mostly depends on the individual and where he ranks in his flock. Are we sure it's even genetically determined? For example, late crowers can father early crowers and vice versa, etc., so I wonder if how crowy a roo gets is genetic or completely environmental. Based on anecdotal evidence I would guess that it's always at least somewhat environmental.

 

[silkiechicken]

Crowing is going to depend on the individual bird, and the surroundings....the only silent roos I have... well, are in the freezer.

 

[chickenbottom]

the only silent roo is a cooked one lol

 

[jjdward]

All my roosters are very quiet. Until I answer my cell phone down by the chicken pens. Then they get in a contest of who can crow the loudest.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
Fortunately, I do not have an incubator. If I did, I'm sure it would be full all the time. 4 chickens was my goal and would have been the ideal number. Now I have 13.

I'm not allowed to have any chickens, so I can't risk a roo tipping off the entire neighborhood about the girls too. Someday I'll find my mute roo... For now, it looks like I'm stuck in the job!

 

[Year of the Rooster]

I have two roosters. Only one is quiet and that is because he is the subordinate rooster (aka Second in Command).

 

[TK Poultry]

i just bought two young roos today on my chicken shopping spree but any way so that puts me up to 2 BR roos 1 NHR roo 3 EE roos and not many crows at all. all less than a year