When to Expect Crowing

[Celizwalsh]

Let me just start by saying that the chicken gods have been VERY good to us in our venture of chicken keeping. When ordering our first flock of chickens we ordered 12 expecting to loose some chicks and end up with several roosters (half of the chicks we ordered were straight run). After lots of waiting and speculation we lost none of them as chicks and ended up with NO roosters. We now have our second flock of 11 chickens, half of which are also straight run (again we ordered more expecting to loose some chicks and get acouple roosters). They are now almost 11 weeks. We have not lost any and after lots of advice we believe only one is a rooster. So all that being said I have no experience with roosters and am really unsure when to expect crowing. I cannot keep him if he is a rooster and since I have gotten attached I don't want to give up until I hear a crow. It has been bumming me out as I also wanted some dark brown eggs but then I have to remind myself that we have been very lucky with only 1 out of 23 being a rooster. Just for reference the rooster is a cuckoo maran.

Here is a picture of him (pic taken at 9 weeks old)

 

[Y N dottes]

roosters could start any age. I got an order of 18 chicks and though they were supposed to all be pullets 1 turned out to be a roo which didn't surprise me. he started crowing at about 11 weeks old. the thing is, it barely sounded like crow at all. not until about 12 weeks old was it a distinct crow. it got louder and louder during the next week until I got rid of him (unfortunately I couldn't keep him). some roos will start trying to crow by 8 weeks and earlier, and some may not crow 'til after 15 weeks

 

[ShockValue]

Mine is just shy of 17 weeks and still no crow. In fact, out of my 6 chickens (5 girls and 1 boy) he's the quietest one!

I expect this to change soon.. Which bums me out. We legally can have a rooster, but I also really want to keep a friendly relationship with my (close) neighbors.

 

[vehve]

You could also talk to the neighbors and tell them that you'll get rid of him the second someone feels that he's annoying. Our neighbors (who live quite close) have all commented on how nice it is with an occasional crow, gives a feeling of idyllic farm life. If your roo only crows a couple times a day, I don't think people will find it that big of an annoyance. And if at some point it's time for him to go, you have an opportunity to see first hand where food comes from, it's pretty interesting to process a chicken.

 

[Celizwalsh]

I guess I just have to wait a while longer before I hear any crowing. I thought about asking my neighbors but I think the response would be mixed. Most would probably say ok (they can't really say no because we do live in the country) but not be happy about it. So as much as I love my chickens I also don't want angry neighbors. However the neighbor closest to the coop is a veterinarian and I think curiousity finally got the best of him the other day. I was caring for the chickens while he was doing some yard work and he asked to see them ... He said they looked very healthy and the coop was extremely clean (its nice to hear a compliment coming from a vet). Then the day after he brought over some friut scraps for them LOL. Maybe I just need to introduce my neighbors to them ... no one can resist their chickie charm LOL. And if that doesn't work giving them eggs might do the trick.

If all else fails and it does end up being a roo my Aunt will probably take him. She lives upsate and has TONS of property for him to free range on.

 

[vehve]

I guess I just have to wait a while longer before I hear any crowing. I thought about asking my neighbors but I think the response would be mixed. Most would probably say ok (they can't really say no because we do live in the country) but not be happy about it. So as much as I love my chickens I also don't want angry neighbors. However the neighbor closest to the coop is a veterinarian and I think curiousity finally got the best of him the other day. I was caring for the chickens while he was doing some yard work and he asked to see them ... He said they looked very healthy and the coop was extremely clean (its nice to hear a compliment coming from a vet). Then the day after he brought over some friut scraps for them LOL. Maybe I just need to introduce my neighbors to them ... no one can resist their chickie charm LOL. And if that doesn't work giving them eggs might do the trick.

If all else fails and it does end up being a roo my Aunt will probably take him. She lives upsate and has TONS of property for him to free range on.

We've had the whole neighborhood over to look at our chickens. Most of them seemed a bit shocked when we said we had processed one of the roos. No complaints so far, other than that the roo who now lives in our freezer had attacked the neighbors while they were caring for them. It attacked my better half too, so we decided to rehome him in our freezer.

 

[Celizwalsh]

so we decided to rehome him in our freezer.

 

[vehve]

Quote: He seems quite content. Hasn't made any attempts at attacking us after the move.

 

[Celizwalsh]

He seems quite content. Hasn't made any attempts at attacking us after the move.

thats good I would be a little worried and confused if he did

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Out of the two Roo's we had one started around 10 weeks. The second did not start until 10 months. The first was an evil bugger and ended up joining us for a cookout and the second has used the last several months to really exercise those vocal cords