Are There any non-crowing rooster breeds?

[OlyChickenGuy]

Quote:
Most people don't want roosters because they're "mean" and "noisy", right? So I train them and rehabilitate them until their demeanour is pet quality and then adopt them out to good homes.

Besides, my roosters ride my bike with me. One on my backpack, one on the handlebars. They, too, know "sit", "stay", I'm working on "come", and they don't touch food, water, or move after being told to stay until given a release command. AND they defecate on command. :3

If I was going to go onto a talk show, it wouldn't matter which chickens I had adopted out, I'd still have my two boys that are my wonderful little companions, and Eddie, the Softest Chicken in the World!


EDIT: PS - If they've bred non-barking dogs, and other "voiceless" animals... that's a good question - why isn't there a breed of non-crowing rooster?? XD

 

[@FendiChick]

My banty crows loudly, all day starting very very early in the a.m. and sounds like Woody Woodpecker!

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
Most people don't want roosters because they're "mean" and "noisy", right? So I train them and rehabilitate them until their demeanour is pet quality and then adopt them out to good homes.

Besides, my roosters ride my bike with me. One on my backpack, one on the handlebars. They, too, know "sit", "stay", I'm working on "come", and they don't touch food, water, or move after being told to stay until given a release command. AND they defecate on command. :3

If I was going to go onto a talk show, it wouldn't matter which chickens I had adopted out, I'd still have my two boys that are my wonderful little companions, and Eddie, the Softest Chicken in the World!


EDIT: PS - If they've bred non-barking dogs, and other "voiceless" animals... that's a good question - why isn't there a breed of non-crowing rooster?? XD

Do you clicker train? What method do you use for training?

 

[gmendoza]

If you feed them "Alum" like in the cartoons..but that will just shrink their heads..and they will be more irritating...Nevermind

 

[Tracydr]

@FendiChick :

My banty crows loudly, all day starting very very early in the a.m. and sounds like Woody Woodpecker!

Funny! My two OEGBs are pretty quiet crowers. I can barely hear them on the other side of our six foot concrete block fence. They mainly crow for a short while in the morning and right before "bed time". Or, if something scary happens.
I just lost an Egyptian rooster. He wasn't real big but his crow was much louder.​

 

[OlyChickenGuy]

Quote:
Nah, I just use their natural psychology. I associate physical contact with praise ( start by feeding them out of my hand, then petting them while they eat, and pretty soon they associate petting and scritches with positive reinforcement ), and "pecks" ( really just gentle poking ) with discipline, the way they would praise and discipline one another. I've thought about clicker training and using treats, but I really dislike using tools. I want to be able to have my chickens listen to me no matter the circumstance. I don't want them to wander off into traffic if I bring them to a fair just because I don't have a bag of treats on me, you know? So I build a relationship with them in which they feel safe and happy to be around me, and enjoy staying near.

Also, and Egyptian Fayoumi? They're pretty closely related to Campines, which were the two roosters that I mentioned earlier. VERY smart, VERY eager to please. I found their mentalities to be comparable to border collies - high energy and ALWAYS needing something to do. But boy are they loud, and they learn to crow pretty early on!

 

[Atrayu]

Hey Olychickenguy,
do you teach any online courses on this? Any written articles or books you have done? videos?
I find what you are posting fascinating.
thanks

 

[OlyChickenGuy]

I have a handful of articles on my blog, which is linked to in my signature. I've had another post in the works for awhile, but I've been having trouble writing it. Had a LOT of heavy things hit me all at once recently. I have time for Email more often than not, though, and I've talked to several people one-on-one through their individual issues and inquiries. If you have any specific questions, you may feel free to Email me or just ask.

I try to keep an eye out for "problem" chickens - especially roosters - and help people work with them. One big thing about domestication that people seem to have forgotten in the modern day is that to be domestic means to be dependant upon humans, and most people interpret that as meaning food, water, shelter. However, there's a psychological aspect as well. Way back when animals first started being domesticated, humans knew the primal language - body language - and they were able to communicate with animals in that way, becoming pack, herd, clowder, flock, whatever leaders. We led them, and we were very clear on our dominance and gave them structure and safety, thus allowing the animal to relax and be most productive under our care. When you take away that structure, when you take away that human contact, the actual physical and psychological involvement in an animal's life, they become unbalanced and upset, resulting in all of the negative behaviour we see. Dogs that bark non-stop ( did you know that barking is more often than not a distress sound and not natural? ), cats that claw and hiss, purse-dogs that shake, roosters that charge and spur people, hens that eat eggs or feathers... it's ALL because of an imbalance in their environment, which includes the human companionship they gain through interaction with us.

I don't have anything against eating chickens. We are human, we are omnivores, we require meat in our diets, and animals like cattle and chickens are quite ideal for our nutritional needs. However, when "stew pot" becomes the default answer for ANYTHING undesirable, or to end a life simply because a person does not want to take responsibility, because they don't want to accept the vast involvement it takes to have healthy livestock... THAT'S what gets me. THAT'S why I do what I do. To help break the myths and bring people as a whole back to their roots with our animal companions. I have slaughtered chickens before - I ate the brother of the rooster that's my registered service animal. I spent the whole day with him prior, and did my homework on the most humane way to end his life in a manner that would preserve the meat and be able to be done in one's backyard. I hugged him, I told him I loved him, and I thanked him for everything he had given me and what he would become. More often than not, the roosters I rescue are bantams, and the story is always the same, "He needs to find a home or we're going to cull him." And they never want to go through the laborious process of preparing something so small for its meat. People get bantams because they think they'll have better temperaments or be less likely to crow or crow "quietly"... and then they're surprised when none of that is true, and the first line of action is to just kill it. Throw it away.

Did you know that chickens and fowl in general don't have slaughter rights? "Slaughter Rights" are what make it so that slaughter houses for cattle, pigs, goats, just about anything we eat that isn't a bird, have to be held to certain standards of "humane treatment". Slaughter houses are far from humane, we all know this, but there's not actually much holding slaughter houses for fowl to nearly the same standards. Why is this? Because when the slaughter right laws were being written, fowl were considered some of the dumbest animals on the planet. It was widely and popularly believed that birds were too dumb to feel pain, and therefore excluded from slaughter right laws. Well, we now know today that fowl - and especially chickens - are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet. They have self-identity, they grieve the loss of flock mates, day-old chicks are capable of basic math AND understanding that even though an object is hidden, it still exists. Chickens are capable of understanding cause-and-effect and they're also capable of reasoning to the point of experimentation - that means chickens are capable of pursuing trial-and-error thought experiments to learn about their environment. Crazy, huh??

The other inconvenient truth is that about 50% of all chickens hatched are male. At a big hatchery like Murray MacMurray they hatch out some 80,000 chicks per week, and disposed of about 40,000 of them the moment they're sexed. Why? Because they're male. I believe this video describes the process and gives the exact numbers, but what they don't say is how the chicks are disposed of. Male chicks are often simply thrown into garbage cans to be smothered by all the other chicks, they can be gassed, or stomped on by employees, but more often than not these days they're thrown into a grinder - while alive - to be processed into low-grade food such as what goes into dog food and sometimes back into chicken feed itself.

My mission is to build a world where people understand the basic needs of animals and that they need for us to be a part of their lives, for roosters not to fear death simply because they're not egg machines by helping people to build better relationships with them, and for all meat and animal products that we consume to have been farmed in locations where the animal isn't suffering day in and day out. Minimise suffering and you maximise the tenderness of the product, the flavour, and the health value - not to mention the costs of so many dying so early and not even making it to the butcher. Right now, what I'm most capable of doing out of those three goals is integrating roosters into family lives by helping people turn their roosters into pets. A pet rooster is NOT a useless rooster, either, because when they see YOU as their leader, they will try even harder to uphold the law in your absence. My two boys are the sweetest, kindest little things, but if a predator shows its face and I'm not there to protect them, the boys will scream their heads off, flap around, puff up, and attack if threatened. This has only happened twice, though - the attacking part, that is.

I'm happy to help anyone who wants to build a better relationship with their chickens. I'm happy to provide alternative views and techniques when dealing with them. I'm struggling to stay afloat right now, though - almost ended up homeless a couple months ago - but I have my blog, and I have Email. Unfortunately, I can't do much more than that, but I plan on opening a full-fledged rescue someday. Did you know there's only two chicken rescues in the nation? Both in the eastern states somewhere, I think. That being said, feel free to Email me with any inquiries, and I will try to get back to you in a timely manner.

 

[da_and_ed]

you will quickly get use to them crowing - i have one rooster that crows at 4:00am every morning and continuously in 30 minute intervals until about 6:00am - the neighbours love it and as i said you get use to it and sleep through it (after about a week). It is a fantastic sound first thing in the morning

 

[Meara]

Yes indeed, there are folks working on a breed of rooster that doesn't crow or crows so softly that one can barely hear it. There is a detailed discussion on the breeding program within the genetics section of the forum at The Coop (google it).

I wanted to add that I've have some success using a spray bottle with water in it to discourage my roos from excessive crowing. I dot the idea from dog training techniques.