When do roos start crowing?

Melty

In the Brooder
10 Years
Sep 26, 2009
27
0
22
Hamilton, New Zealand
on average. I think i have one or two roos in my bunch but im not sure, so figured Id just wait for some crowing, they are around 10 weeks at the moment.
(sussex x orph-leghorn)

Also roos do they eat first or let the girls eat first? The one Im sure is a roo always gets to the food first then the girls barge him out of the way
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unless its bugs and then he inhales them before the girls catch up
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Mine start usually around 3:30 to 4:00 every morning. No seriously I've had them start as early as 6 wks. to whenever. This all depends on their maturity rate. 2nd? Usually from what I've seen the yonger males usually are more likely to eat first and a lot more also.
 
In my experience it depends on the breed and the specific rooster, but 12 to 16 weeks is probably a reasonable time frame for starting to crow.

My previous juvenile roosters were very pushy, and always did everything first, but as my current and only rooster matured, he has deferred to the mature hens (those laying). The ladies always go first now. OTOH, hens that have not yet begun to lay get pushed to the back of the line, even those that were previously high in the pecking order.

Curiously, my rooster seems to know which hens are laying and which are not. He shows no sexual interest in the non-laying hens, but he keeps the layers well satisfied. For the record, my hens range in age from 20 weeks to 26 weeks.
 
When we bought 6 chicks from the local TSC, I realized which one was the rooster when he started "trying" to crow at only 3 weeks old. He kept sticking his neck out and opening his mouth. I thought - "OMG, he's choking!" Then I remembered, birds can't choke - stupid! I then realized he was trying to crow, although no noice was actually coming out of his mouth. He didn't start getting any sound out until about 3 months old. By then, I realized that 3 of the 5 hens in the young flock were also roosters. These other 3 had always been pretty agressive, but I just thought they would be tough hens, but once they starte crowing, I figured out they too were roosters. (That's right, nothin' gets past me!)
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I think it varies greatly... I had several PW Leghorns crowing at 6 weeks, and a Blk Giant that didn't sound off till he was 22 weeks, and a SS Hamburg that was 20 weeks old before he crowed! I have 1 RIR Roo that still hasn't crowed and he's 27 weeks this week. He's goin' into the freezer soon anyway... if he doesn't lay an egg!
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My rooster started crowing at 6 weeks old. I thot it was my dog whining at first!! He's 3 and a half months old now and so beautiful, half barred rock and half ameracauna. We are hoping he doesn't get mean like his daddy..
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