When do roosters start to crow?

[pcerney1]

So when they start crowing it probably won't be a full blown crow? My guy is about 3 months old and haven't heard anything from him. I am just hoping for some time to get him to the farm without having to drop everything and go. We live in a suburb where chickens are allowed but no roosters. We need a permit for them and that is being processed. My neighbor is a stickler for the rules and is not a nice person. The last thing I need is for her to get wind of my new hobby before I am "legal".

 

[Crisses]

I'm on my 3rd brood of chickens. The former 2 were Rhode Island Red + Bantam mix and the boys started crowing* at 8 weeks.

This one is a backyard mix of banty eggs I got from a guy who had a ridiculous amount of chickens and other fowl (there were a pair of peacocks in the chicken pen....)

All the eggs were the same size, and I think most had the same mom because 6 of 7 are black. At 8 weeks, only 1 shows signs of being a boy. The "Black sheep" of the family looked like a chipmunk when she was born, and looks like she may have been sired by a normal sized silkie roo because she's a chunk bigger than her nestmates and I can't tell at all whether she might be a roo.

Of the 6 black chicks, one developed a comb and wattles already, and has brown saddle feathers that all started coming in at about 2 weeks -- so I've been swearing he'd start crowing at 8 weeks. Here we are -- 8 weeks and not a peep. Actually, a lot of peep, but not much hint of any other noises from him, though I do occasionally hear some "more mature noises" from the brood like their vocal chords are starting to develop (do chickens have vocal chords? they must have SOMETHING to make the range of noises they do....).

I have no roosters right now to model crowing to this bunch, just this one lone cockerel and whatever mysteries have yet to unfold from the other 7 babies. If the silkie mutt is a roo, I don't even know how to tell. She does have thick legs, and the extra thumb, but I can't tell silkie roos from silkie hens in the first place...

I also raised my first 2 broods indoors and this batch is being raised by one of my first RIR-banty hens, free ranging, and she's completely the doting mom. Maybe he doesn't feel any need to exert authority yet. But I saw him looking at one of the other hens today like "Hrm, you're really interesting..." before running off to chase after mom & siblings....

* "Crowing" meaning "sounding like a broken trumpet" or occasionally like an old rope-and -pulley laundry line in bad need of grease.

 

[lookyhereboy]

Hi It has been such a long time since I have owned chickens. I was just a kid then. I finally got some chicks. I was hoping to just have pullets, but I did get some straight run. So there is definitely possibility that I got some roos. I am on a 2 acre lot and we can keep chickens as long as our neighbors are okay. I don't want to have to deal with that if I don't need to. So my question is, at what age will roos start crowing? It always seemed like it was right before they were full grown. But I keep seeing here and there posts of as early as 3 weeks. Is that really possible?

My rooster just started crowing at 24 weeks. I had one at 8 weeks working on crowing but it got eaten by a dog. So they are all different. This one is crowing and going after the girls now. I am hoping to get a brood before winter. Oh and the neighbor thing I understand. I had a neighbor try to use a defunct HOA agreement to stop me from getting chickens that by law I had every right to have. When that didn't work he put up a seven foot wall fence between our yards. We have a farm now so I don't have to worry about what any neighbors say. True freedom. Good luck with the roo and the neighbor.

 

[Ann1986]

16 weeks and 4 days

 

[CandaceNoel]

When do roos start trying to fertilize?

 

[lookyhereboy]

When do roos start trying to fertilize?

Mine started right before he started crowing. Now he is a non stop machine. Hoping I will have a buff go broody before winter.

 

[philipchickymad]

my rooster is 24wks old and he still hasn't crowed once nor mated or even attempted to mate with anything, what is wrong with him ????

 

[lookyhereboy]

my rooster is 24wks old and he still hasn't crowed once nor mated or even attempted to mate with anything, what is wrong with him ????

Just be patient. Mine won't shut up now so enjoy the peace and quiet while you can. LOL

 

[FL Crowing Hen]

This is Hawkeye. He's a 24 week old EE cockerel. I had him with 6 other roosters, all the same age as him, RIR, Black Sexlink, Red Sexlink, Barred Rock, and a couple of mixes. All the others were fighting, chasing the hens, and crowing. Not Hawkeye. It was never my intention to have 7 roosters, so I got rid of 6 of them and kept Hawkeye. My question is, is he just a little slower to develop or is it possible that maybe he will never crow? I'm fine with it either way. Just curious if I can expect him to start crowing at some point.

 

[Kadu]

I have about 5 or six roosters and some crow a lot, at odd hours..it's 1:30am and I can hear one of them now. And I have one that I have yet to see or hear crow. Do some roos just not crow? I know this guy is a roo..but he's not crowing even though most of the others are. He appears to be higher up on the pecking order than one of the crowing roos. Maybe he's just a guy with little or nothing to say??

They crow when they hear stuff at night. So might be something creeping them out?