quiet roosters

Here's a question for Victoria: Is there such a thing as a mute rooster? Or, at least a quiet one? My neighbors have made it very plain that they'd rather not live near a raucous roo. I had a roo for a little while. One of those things where the pullet had a sex-change...anyway, he was a nice young gentleman, keeping the hens happy and safe. But then he started getting up really early...so he ended up on the dinner table. I miss him, though, and so do the hens. Can I have happy hens and happy neighbors?

I live in an urban environment and currently have two roosters. The way I make it work is after dark I go grab them from the coops and put them in the mud room in dog crates. They crow inside starting early and I put them back in their coops in the later morning. This is a little more work than just having the hens, but it's worth it because the hens are happier, they hatch babies and raise them on their own, and my primary rooster is such a nice young gentleman I will work a little more to keep him around.
The meaner, younger rooster will most likely be put into a soup pot when he is full grown.

I have thought about breeding a quiet rooster, with half vocal chords or something, maybe someone has done that.

One more thought, it's funny how if I let my dogs go out at six am and they bark, nothing happens, but if the rooster is out at six am and is crowing the cops get called. It is legal to own roosters here in the city, so I think of mine as having business hours. They can crow 8-5 and if anyone has a problem, then it is not my problem to remedy, it's my right to have them.

The only way to shut up a determined rooster is to turn him into a delicious roaster.

Has anyone ever tried to breed quiet roosters? It seems to me that the demand would be huge for such a bird. I personally would love to have one.

I'm not a chicken expert, but from what I've read there is a fair amount of variation in crowing behaviors... I wish I was in a position to try. It seems like it would be more feasible than trying to change the laws...

Ah, see if there is variation that is breed specific, that tells me that there is probably a genetic component to crowing that can be bred on further.

I am fairly familiar with roosters' crowing behaviors, having lived with/around them before... Just saying "roosters will be roosters" isn't particularly interesting without further knowledge or investigation. I would really like to know if someone has tried/failed though.

I'm not a chicken expert, let alone breeder: I'm clueless on that stuff.
But I've had a bit of contact with buff orpington roosters.
In my experience they've been quiet, pretty and friendly.
Unfortunately that's gone with lazy, greedy and really, really thick!

My rooster never bothers me in the morning because he's stuck in the coop until I get up and let them out. He's crowing in there but I can't hear it!

During the day he does crow some but with only one roo it's not much.

I live in a rural place with farmy neighbours and plenty of space, so this wouldn't work for everyone.

In other words, I've never heard of a rooster that didn't crow but I have hope for a soundproof coop...

I've read somewhere about roosters bred for extremely loud or long crowing. If it is possible to breed it up, it should, in theory, be possible to breed it down. It may never disappear, though.

Sally Chang wrote:Here's a question for Victoria: Is there such a thing as a mute rooster? Or, at least a quiet one? My neighbors have made it very plain that they'd rather not live near a raucous roo. I had a roo for a little while. One of those things where the pullet had a sex-change...anyway, he was a nice young gentleman, keeping the hens happy and safe. But then he started getting up really early...so he ended up on the dinner table. I miss him, though, and so do the hens. Can I have happy hens and happy neighbors?

I have some neighbors that complain about roosters but their dog can bark all night long and they do nothing.

Ralph Morgan wrote:
I have some neighbors that complain about roosters but their dog can bark all night long and they do nothing.

And me! Not just the roosters either, my neighbour complains every time I make the slightest sound (apparently I am the noisy neighbour from hell)- yet her dog can yap for hours at 11pm at night and that isn't a problem (because 'he's a dog and he doesn't know any better'). She even complained about the noise when an emergency ambulance came to pick my Partner up and admit him to hospital due to spinal injury!

Quiet roosters:  we discovered the no-crow collar this year.  Putting collars on our three young roosters really made a difference in their level of noise.  They still crowed, but not really any louder than a normal chicken alarm call, sometimes even quieter.  I read all the reviews on amazon before using one, and most reviews were glowing, but there was a certain number of:  "this killed my rooster!"  and we had an unexplained rooster death too.  We don't know if it was the collar, an accident, or something else entirely;  we found him dead in the coop one morning.  

Another rooster was made into dinner, and we are left with just one, our Tiny bantam English Game rooster.  He's too small to eat (and too cute:  he's adorable), but small as he is, he also needs the collar.  Like others mentioned, we don't let him/them out of the coop until a bit later in the morning, usually around 8am.  Luckily Tiny doesn't crow a lot anyway, and as long as he's only crowing during the day, it's not a problem.

Our neighbor who complained (to us, not the authorities) about last year's batch of roosters unknowingly approached us just as we were plucking them on our back patio.  The look on his face made me think he didn't realize the ramifications of his complaint!

Galadriel Freden said [quote=Another rooster was made into dinner, and we are left with just one, our Tiny bantam English Game rooster.  He's too small to eat (and too cute:  he's adorable), but small as he is, he also needs the collar.  Like others mentioned, we don't let him/them out of the coop until a bit later in the morning, usually around 8am.  Luckily Tiny doesn't crow a lot anyway, and as long as he's only crowing during the day, it's not a problem.

Our neighbor who complained (to us, not the authorities) about last year's batch of roosters unknowingly approached us just as we were plucking them on our back patio.  The look on his face made me think he didn't realize the ramifications of his complaint!



Texas001 replied
I had a bantam Ole English Game Cock named Kramer.  He didn't crow much at all.  We went out of town one weekend and came home to find all my bantams (Kramer and 11 hens)  were stolen.  Can you imagine chicken thieves in Rockport, Texas.

I think it is possible to breed a quiet rooster.  Here's a quick video with my quiet rooster Black Leg in it:
He has a black spot on his leg.  I think niceness goes along with quietness.  He is incredibly nice to the hens, baby chicks, and to me.  His dad was loud and mean.  He had 4 brothers that were all loud and mean.  His brothers had to die.  Since then, two of his baby roosters have turned out nice and quiet and we kept them.  They are more quiet than he is.

I have a Naked Neck that literally never crows.  He is the submissive rooster of the two I have right now.  I have a cross-bred Easter Egger (I know, I know, many chicken people hate that term) - Dominique that is nice as can be and crows his heart out.

Ralph Morgan wrote:

Texas001 replied
I had a bantam Ole English Game Cock named Kramer.  He didn't crow much at all.  We went out of town one weekend and came home to find all my bantams (Kramer and 11 hens)  were stolen.  Can you imagine chicken thieves in Rockport, Texas.

I can totally believe it because they are the cutest chickens ever

Charli Wilson wrote:

Ralph Morgan wrote:
I have some neighbors that complain about roosters but their dog can bark all night long and they do nothing.

And me! Not just the roosters either, my neighbour complains every time I make the slightest sound (apparently I am the noisy neighbour from hell)- yet her dog can yap for hours at 11pm at night and that isn't a problem (because 'he's a dog and he doesn't know any better'). She even complained about the noise when an emergency ambulance came to pick my Partner up and admit him to hospital due to spinal injury!

Yes I have 2 neighbours like that...
1 that complained about my rooster so much to the council (I had him a week) that I had to rehome him....
And
1 that has 2 dogs that bark and yap ALL NIGHT LONG....AND.....the neighbour that complained about rooster HAS NEVER complained about the dogs.... tell me how that works?....

I do have a theory though.... they are just cocks themselves and therefore having another “cock” in the neighbourhood just wasn’t accepted.... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣