Cockerel crowing issue

[FridayYet]

Rooster question. I've had a small laying hen flock for a few years now and since we moved to an area with some space, I plan on breeding a few Russian Orloffs next year. Having roosters around is really new to me.

My RO cockerels are about 5 months now, and the Alpha one crows all.the.time. Seriously - I was trying to work this morning and he was crowing about every 30 seconds to a minute for 2 1/2 hours straight. He just loves to crow since he found his voice a few weeks ago. It's all day, every day now.

Will he outgrow it and tone it down to more reasonable amount, or should I cull him? If I do cull him, will the other cockerel just pick up the tempo and do the same thing? Cockerel #2 only crows once in a while.

My goal is to have a breeding quad of Orloff and I am planning on only keeping one adult male at a time I also have another cockerel around 3 months old growing out, and my plan was to pick the best of the 3 in a couple of months but I may need to do something before that.

I'm on a waiting list for some import chicks, so I could cull them all and wait if I have to. Any advice?

 

[Skylercarr]

You can get a no crow collar for your roosters we are getting some soon I can't stand the roosters crowing anymore.

 

[donrae]

There's no way to predict how he's going to be, or if he'll change at all.

Most roosters slow down the crowing as they age, but in my experience this isn't necessarily until over a year or so. That's a long time!

Some cockerels aren't too noisy from the start.

My place is pretty noisy until noon or so, then they quiet down (all over a year old). But, I've got a mess of young guys who haven't started crowing yet....any day now. Of course, turning the porch light on at night starts everyone up. I'm sure the neighbors love that

 

[cpsmith02]

My boy loves to hear himself just not quite as much. I would buy the no crow collar and just keep it just in case you want to use it later on. He most likely will stop crowing as much as he gets older.

 

[FridayYet]

You can get a no crow collar for your roosters we are getting some soon I can't stand the roosters crowing anymore.

My boy loves to hear himself just not quite as much. I would buy the no crow collar and just keep it just in case you want to use it later on. He most likely will stop crowing as much as he gets older.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good and bad things about the collars. Maybe I'll get one or make one to try out. With no experience, I can't tell if he is excessively noisy for a rooster or if he is "normal". Guess they are all different.

There's no way to predict how he's going to be, or if he'll change at all.

Most roosters slow down the crowing as they age, but in my experience this isn't necessarily until over a year or so. That's a long time!

Some cockerels aren't too noisy from the start.

My place is pretty noisy until noon or so, then they quiet down (all over a year old). But, I've got a mess of young guys who haven't started crowing yet....any day now. Of course, turning the porch light on at night starts everyone up. I'm sure the neighbors love that

Our closest neighbors in the back are on vacation for 5 weeks. He wasn't crowing when they left so I probably will hear something about it when they return.

Eventually I will have to decide which one I'll keep. I told DH we would only keep a dozen or so total chickens, so one Roo would be fine and 2 is pushing it. At this point I think have 5 boys total!

 

[Maryscoop]

Geez I thought I had it bad with my roo starting to crow at the crack of light
but wow your 5 month old rooster is starting to crow all the time you say?
Good luck with the issue

 

[FridayYet]

Thanks Maryscoop. It's always the favorites that are the problem children.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They do tone it down as they get older, he's probably just excited and wants to advertise he's available. I have gone out at three in the morning and heard one of my rooster crow, apparently he does it most mornings.

 

[aart]

Something you might try is putting the beta somewhere the alpha cannot see, and if possible hear, the alpha.
Multiple cocks, especially young ones, can set each other off and compete.