Keeping roosters quiet

[valkyree]

CA is driving all poultry ranchers out of business and all our eggs will soon be from out of state due to Prop 2 passing

I am going to get chickens for my backyard and someone posted here a while back about keeping roosters quiet by cutting their vocal chords

Unpleasant idea but necessary where I am - does anyone know how to do it?

[Micah68]

If you just want eggs, you do not need a rooster. The hens will lay eggs all on their own, they just won't be fertile for hatching.

However....I don't know how you would keep hens quiet, either. Mine like to brag when they lay an egg and you can hear them quite far away.

If you are looking for affordable meat, go with rabbits. If you want eggs, I don't know what to tell you but my farm country chickens are loud.

[valkyree]

I'm not supposed to have chickens and I don't want the neighbors to hear them

[sandyd]

Someone here posted about Quail instead of chickens. Not sure where but they might work better for you.

Good Luck

[Summerthyme]

For sure, if I lived in California, I wouldn't ever risk trying to "decrow" a rooster! If anyone found out, you'd almost certainly be up on felony cruelty charges...

As Micah said... you don't need a rooster if you want eggs, but even hens aren't precisely "quiet". But assuming you'd be keeping them inside a building (because otherwise they won't exactly be secret, right?), you could probably play a radio 24/7 (or at least during daylight hours) which would mask most of their "talking", which is generally when they've laid an egg and want to brag.

I wonder how much noise ducks make... some breeds lay a lot of eggs, and most people find them not much different than chicken eggs, especially if the ducks are fed grain, rather than allowed to forage in a pond.

Summerthyme

[Almost Ready]

That "quack quack quack" really carries. I happen to enjoy the sound, but don't work the night shift, trying to get a day's sleep next door to a flock of them.

Quail are cute, their eggs are good and fetch a high price when they are in the local farmer's market, which isn't often. They can be purchased mail order. I wouldn't want to bother with the tiny eggs, but they're better than no eggs.

Knew a guy once with a pigeon house, gorgeous pairs of birds. He ate the eggs. Way too expensive to buy for eggs, but they'd probably pass as pets in a no-chicken zone.

Here's a thread on quiet chickens, which you might check. "Quiet" is a relative term with chickens! Just because a chicken doesn't cluck all day won't guarantee any quiet if she's upset.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=81127

Stromberg's has a list of characteristics we found really helpful in choosing our birds:

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:ZK1PxzNJqhoJ:www.strombergschickens .com/stock/Chicken-Information-sheet.pdf+which+poultry+are+quiet&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=opera

We wanted scrappy birds who were quick and could survive the many predators around during their time out to pasture. We use Auracanas, although it's not a true breed. They are charming, easy to live with, and easy to identify, because they all look different. Nice backyard egg-layers, but not as prolific as some. They are hardy, too.

[momof23goats]

a vet can de crow your rooster. now for just eggs, just get hens. but if you want to also use them for meat, and have chicks, you will need to have a rooster.

[Limner]

My hens are every bit as noisy as my rooster, and there's 12 of them! They cackle and holler and carry on several times a day. I'm glad we're living in the country, LOL!

[Common Tator]

We keep our hens locked in the garage until the city nighttime noise ordinances relax in the morning. They they are loose in the fenced back yard. No rooster yet. We won't get one till we move to our ranch. Then we won't care how much noise they make.

[just living]

I agree my hens are very loud when they lay. They must inform the whole county about the egg they just laid.

[Homesteader1]

When we lived in the city limits and weren't supposed to have chickens either. Here is how we delt with it; I went around and talked to our closest neighbors, explaining that we were thinking of getting chickens and wanted to make sure it wouldn't bother any of them before doing so. Then I explained we'd most likely have fresh eggs to sell if they were interested. Nobody had a problem with it and eventually we did add a rooster too. Every so often I'd gift the neighbors a dozen eggs or a plate of baked goods, just because. When we were packing to move here, the one older single man( who we thought would have a problem with our chickens) said he was mad, because without our rooster to wake him, he'd surely be late for work! He said he'd miss us, the kids but most of all McClintock's alarm clock crowing at 5am and he truly ment it!

Not sure what people are like in CA, we're in MT so maybe people are more excepting of having a small flock of backyard chickens here. It's maybe worth a shot.

[valkyree]

I was thinking about doing that but I haven't decided yet

I don't think anyone would care except for the noise - don't know my neighbors really well, we have only been here for 2 years and some of them I have only said Hi to

If I speak up and they are against it - then what?

We have CCandR's and one neighbor whom I'll call the neighborhood nazi came over the day we moved in and started telling me all about the CCand Rs, one of those -you can't do this- and -you can't do that- type

I finally shut her up by putting out my hand and introducing myself and asking if she was one of my neighbors. That's why I would prefer to keep them quiet - maybe I should just forget about the rooster and if TSHTF then it won't matter and I can find a rooster somewhere

[LittleRedHen]

Keeping pigeons is great in livestock unfriendly areas for meat, itty bitty eggs and more. Squab grows fast and is great on the BBQ. We used to keep white racer pigeons. You can hire them out to release at weddings. Pigeons can also carry messages to a friend or vice versa. Dove-mail, the original wireless communication system! www.speedpigeon.com (http://www.speedpigeon.com)

[bbwx]

I agree my hens are very loud when they lay. They must inform the whole county about the egg they just laid.

Are they bragging or are the hens going "Man..did that hurt!! Look at the size of this one Edna," :mrgreen:

[momof23goats]

CA is driving all poultry ranchers out of business and all our eggs will soon be from out of state due to Prop 2 passing

I am going to get chickens for my backyard and someone posted here a while back about keeping roosters quiet by cutting their vocal chords

Unpleasant idea but necessary where I am - does anyone know how to do it?

take them to a vet, takes about 2 seconds, and the roosters are fine, and can't crow.
money well spent, so you can hatch out babies in the spring.

[hereiam]

If you want a quiet bird, what ever you do, DO NOT get a rhode Island Red! Also, the barred rock is quite the noise bucket when she's laying. The quietest birds we have are Americana, Light Brahma, and Buff Orpington. As for the roos....even a 'quiet' roo will make a racket. The smaller the roo, the higher their pitch and therefore seemingly 'louder.' Just my opinion in the matter if it helps any.

[WarHall]

I found out at least 2 'new' things in here, and I guess 3 if you count cutting the roosters vocal cords, I have RIR's and White Barred Rocks, didn't know they were (going) to be louder than other breeds. I also have 2 Americaunas, and they look nothing alike, one looks like its supposed to and the other is just kind of 'orangy' colored..I also have a Polish Banty rooster, I might have to check with the vet on how to keep him quiet!

[Summerthyme]

I found out at least 2 'new' things in here, and I guess 3 if you count cutting the roosters vocal cords, I have RIR's and White Barred Rocks, didn't know they were (going) to be louder than other breeds. I also have 2 Americaunas, and they look nothing alike, one looks like its supposed to and the other is just kind of 'orangy' colored..I also have a Polish Banty rooster, I might have to check with the vet on how to keep him quiet!

Depending on where you live, don't even mention "de-crowing" a rooster to a vet! Some places consider that "animal cruelty" (and I admit, I think they have a point).

On the Americaunas... they come in ALL or any colors...that's one of the neat things about the breed IMHO. I've had roosters of a pure pale gold, blue ones, and more than one which was "red, white and blue"- red body, pale hackles and blue tail feathers!! Hens have had coloring ranging from a silver barred, to "partridge" to plain blue.

Some of the "differences" in breeds are more percieved than actual, and some depend a great deal on the strain you get. Most hens will cackle when laying an egg, most roosters will crow at sunrise and other times. But having more than one rooster seems to more than double the noise... they seem to have crowing contests some days!

The bantams may not be "noisier" (ie: crow more often) but they surely have a penetrating, sometimes piercing crow. Our neighbors (1/4 mile away) were very happy when I stopped raising bantams!

Summerthyme

[morelcabin]

If you want to keep a rooster to fertalize eggs, but want to reduce the noise, you keep him in his own pen and make it quite short in height so he can't get his head into the "crow" position. They need a certain height to crow. You'd have to adjust it to the height of the breed, but you can keep him in there a good part of the night and morning and give him a couple crowing hours in the afternoon by letting him run with the hens

[Rumpelstump]

We have a 11/12 year old white silke heans rooster, I´ll dig up the english word.

He stopped after his mrs died of a heart attac last year.
And the cat died before that, so he was left alone.

3 of them would keep all but dogs away.


No he´s blind on one eye, (wildcat) and very afarid of everything.
Then the local crows found out he was halfblind,nervous so I have to follow him out in the open.

He´ll die this winter, but had a great life.
Not like fighting-roosters in Thailand ;)

Hated his endless 4 O,clock calls in midsummernight, but I miss them now.

If they are happy/strong this is the call of nature, use earplugs.