Training roosters to not crow?

[diamondsilkies]

I'm not having trouble re-homing roosters, I just need the people who want them to come pick them up. All my roosters are bantam varieties, so they wouldn't be good for eating. I also need a couple roos for my breeding program. What I need to know is if there is any way to lessen their crowing by training, I know you can't completely stop it since it's a natural instinct.

 

[Krazyquilts]

I'm not having trouble re-homing roosters, I just need the people who want them to come pick them up. All my roosters are bantam varieties, so they wouldn't be good for eating. I also need a couple roos for my breeding program. What I need to know is if there is any way to lessen their crowing by training, I know you can't completely stop it since it's a natural instinct.

How frustrating for you that your neighbors don't like your roosters crowing. I have around 15 roosters at the moment and I love listening to them crow aaaaaaaaall day long. Of course, I think the stupid guineas screaming all day is also rather amusing, so I may not be the best judge.

I processed a bantam (I think it was a Cochin type?) and was quite pleased with it. When dressed, it looked very much like a Cornish game hen. I'm sure that at least one of the four silkie-Cochin crosses in my grow-out pen is a rooster (please please give me at least one female silkie that wants to sit on eggs!!! ) and I plan to butcher any silkie males because I already have three really cute nice bantam Roos that I like. If the silkie crosses aren't very meaty, then I'll make some really great stock with them.

 

[diamondsilkies]

Wow! 15 roosters is quite a lot!
Yeah, I think it mostly started after my polish "hen" turned out to be a rooster. He's a lot louder than my silkies and seramas, and they try to compete with him, which creates a lot of noise :/

I have someone who wants to do a trade with him, but they can't do it for a couple weeks....hopefully after he's gone things will quiet down.

 

[Krazyquilts]

Wow! 15 roosters is quite a lot!
Yeah, I think it mostly started after my polish "hen" turned out to be a rooster. He's a lot louder than my silkies and seramas, and they try to compete with him, which creates a lot of noise :/

I have someone who wants to do a trade with him, but they can't do it for a couple weeks....hopefully after he's gone things will quiet down.

One rooster is an older Black Copper Maran with a limp so he needs to be kept separated from other roosters who might attack him plus I want him kept separate for breeding so he's in the duck pasture. A gorgeous Lemon Orpington, a Black Austrolorp, and a sneaky scrappy Svart Hona take care of our free-range layers. And then in the sheep pasture are three other Orpingtons that I hope to use for breeding, three funny bantams that don't eat much, two Barnevelders and a cross bred that will hopefully be big enough to butcher around Christmas, an Olive Egger I'm saving to breed, a mean rooster I just took in from on here, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Just kidding about that last one.) And I have my suspicions about some of the young chickens in the grow out pen, so probably another 3-5 roosters. We have about 90-some poultry in all, including ducks, stupid guineas, chickens, and turkeys.

 

[diamondsilkies]

Wow! Sounds like you have your hands full!

 

[laughingdog]

Sound proofing room worked for me, keeping noise in and out, and had air purifier that stopped sound when had windows n doors of open. Concentrated Lemon juice drops are what old timer cockers, and illegal hunters etc with hounds and pitbulls, used to say stopped crowing baying and barking if in middle of city (I was vet assistant and some of those guys actually brought their animals to vet that won them whole lot of money). Black out boxes and basically Velcro straps of "no crow or bark collars", and shock collars don't always work or chaff etc necks. Don't take my word though, research and learn what may be best/enough for you and yours.

 

[uberthoth]

I wanted to post a semi success story, with a single banty rooster with a small flock (three regular sized hens may contribute to his demasculation).

1. keeping the rooster in the dark does cause the crowing to occur later in the morning in my experience
2. once the rooster is out and about in the yard he will start crowing randomly, go outside and chase him while flapping your arms, if you happen to catch him, grab him and put him in a timeout spot for 15 minutes (the upper room of the coop works for me).

If you are consistent with step 2 you can greatly reduce crowing behavior, the working theory behind this is that the rooster is trained that the "hawk" comes out to prey on him every time he crows. The more consistent you are with this the better. This is of course negative reinforcement, and I am not BF Skinner, but when I get my rooster doing backflips when he hears a clicker I'll let you know how positive reinforcement works on roosters. For now a 95% reduction in crowing is appreciated. Most of the time if I hear a single crow I can just stand outside and flap my arms a few times and he quits, I only have to chase him around the yard a couple of times a day.

 

[Lady Lionheart]

I wanted to post a semi success story, with a single banty rooster with a small flock (three regular sized hens may contribute to his demasculation).

1. keeping the rooster in the dark does cause the crowing to occur later in the morning in my experience
2. once the rooster is out and about in the yard he will start crowing randomly, go outside and chase him while flapping your arms, if you happen to catch him, grab him and put him in a timeout spot for 15 minutes (the upper room of the coop works for me).

If you are consistent with step 2 you can greatly reduce crowing behavior, the working theory behind this is that the rooster is trained that the "hawk" comes out to prey on him every time he crows. The more consistent you are with this the better. This is of course negative reinforcement, and I am not BF Skinner, but when I get my rooster doing backflips when he hears a clicker I'll let you know how positive reinforcement works on roosters. For now a 95% reduction in crowing is appreciated. Most of the time if I hear a single crow I can just stand outside and flap my arms a few times and he quits, I only have to chase him around the yard a couple of times a day.

Lol! This cracked me up!

 

[jonaeselaye]

I'm in a similar situation, we're allowed to have roosters in our suburb but if neighbours lodge complaints (including a 14 day log of when the crowing is happening), the council will investigate and possible seize.

From what I've learnt so far about controlling rooster crowing, it can be a hit and miss. Some owners use every trick in the book and still end up having to rehome their roosters while others have had great success.

Blackout method-
My cockerel started "half crowing" about a week ago. The next day we started trying the ''leaving him in the dark'' method. At sunset, we would take him in our room with the lights on and either let him wander in the room or watch TV with him to keep him up. Then between 11pm -9am we put him to bed in a basket in our wardrobe with some corn and water and he's super quiet throughout the night. When I take him out the next morning he usually starts crowing any time between 9-12pm around 2-10 times and then stops. Asides from his pellet feed, he has lot of hanging lettuce, watermelon and corn in his run so I think it keeps him occupied.
I don't know how feasible this is long term though, the only reason why I am always around to maintain his routine is because I'm on a leave of absence from my studies and I only work 1-2 days a week. If I decide to return to my honours degree there will rarely be anyone home in the morning to maintain his routine. At the moment though, I am likely withdrawing from my course and looking for an afternoon/evening part-time job so maybe this can work long term.

The box can get pretty stuffy though and we are a couple of weeks way from Ausralian summers. I ordered him a medium sized rabbit hutch as his future night time home. The plan is to put the hutch and the run in the garage, instead of keeping him in a box in our wardrobe so that he can walk around at night if he wants to and we can keep more food and water in there with him. I've spoken to my band friend who referred him to his sound tech, they've ordered me some sound proofing material for the garage as an extra precaution.

I've attached some peer read sources of studies that investigate rooster crowing and circadian rhythm. It's had some promising results and may explain why people have had success with blackout boxes. However as far as I know, only 1 study has been done. It would be better if the study was repeated a few more times and looked at more factors (i.e. ages of roosters).


No crow collar-
My boyfriend and I had long discussions with a pet warehouse staff member (who has spent many years rescuing hens and some roosters) and a bantam breeder. Both of whom have used no crow collar and discussed with us how to safely and responsibly use them. Because my rooster is a young Australorp x, they recommended starting with the medium size and then moving to a large when he gets older and possibly bigger. Their suggestion was to put the collar on him while he's in his blackout box between around sunset to 9am, to prevent disturbances at night. That way, if he does start crowing at odd hours of the night, the sound is muffled (plus he will be in our semi sound proof garage) and then he can resume his normal crowing within regular hours. As a precaution, when he's wearing the collar we;ll be "blending" his corn and giving him softer food so that he doesn't choke.

Contraceptive implant-
This is another method that the pet store staff and breeder recommended. The breeder does this regular with her roos and has had a lot of success. The pet store staff member got it done for her 2 year old roo (who started crowing when he was over 1). It didn't seem to be working but then after a year of getting the implant he completely shut up (unfortunately noise complaints had already been lodged by neighbours and he was seized by the council anyway).

I got it done for my rooster yesterday. He is around 4-5months old. On the first day he crowed around 2-3 times at 12pm when we got home and then completely stopped. Interestingly, he wasn't aggressive to my silkies at all anymore and they weren't scared of him anymore. This morning he seemed very moody (I was told this may be a side effect because it's a form of hormone therapy) but not aggressive. He was just very restless and agitated but he was allowing me to put him up and pet him and didn't bother the silkies. He also crowed a record 14 times this morning at 10am and then completely stopped.

A few things to keep in mind, this will pretty much make the roo sterile and start acting like a hen. This may not be a good solution for you if you are keeping roos for breeding. Also, it doesn't always work. The younger the roo the more likely it will work, especially if they haven't started crowing yet. There are no guarantees though and there are few credible studies that investigate long term effects on roosters.