Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (11 page)

One morning I heard a strange crow coming from a pen of replacement pullets. It didn’t sound like our cock Brewster, and sure enough, on investigation I spotted a golden cockerel that had mistakenly been put in with the pullets. Little Goldie didn’t crow often, so I was surprised some days later to hear him crowing nonstop. He had wandered into the goat stall and was making quite a spectacle of himself for some of Brewster’s hens that were scratching in the bedding. Suddenly, Brewster appeared in the doorway. Goldie immediately stopped bragging and pretended he was just one of the girls.

How often a rooster crows depends, in part, on how secure he feels. Contests to see whose rooster can crow the most within a certain period of time rely a good deal on making a cock feel secure enough to boast. Since the 1950s, rooster-crowing contests have been popular at rural county fairs and other festivals. The allotted time ranges from 10 or 15 minutes to 30 minutes, and the cocks are encouraged to crow by participants clapping their hands, flapping their arms, and otherwise making themselves look foolish.

Certain breeds are prized for the duration of the cocks’ crow. They are relatively unknown in the United States but are common in other countries. These breeds generally have an upright stance, long legs, and long necks. They likely
evolved from Japanese longcrowers, which in turn have their origins in the Shamo breed.

The call of a Japanese longcrower lasts 15 seconds or more. It starts out sounding like the kind of crow we’re all familiar with, but the final note is sustained (like a drawn-out train whistle) before petering out as the cock appears to run out of breath. The three distinct parts of the crow are called
dashi
(the beginning),
hari
(the stretch), and
hiki
(the finish).

Japan recognizes three major longcrower breeds. The Tomaru (black crower) is noted for its rich two-tone call that deepens toward the end. In pitch it is intermediate between the calls of the other two breeds. The Koeyoshi (good crower), supposedly developed by crossing the Tomaru with the Plymouth Rock, has a deeper voice. Koeyoshi cocks take 12 to 18 months to mature and usually don’t start crowing until they are about 8 months old. The Totenko (red crower) is noted for its long tail, as well as for the duration of its high-pitched crow. You can find audio examples of all three by doing a keyword search on the Internet.

Germany has its Bergische Kraeher, supposedly the oldest German breed, imported during the Middle Ages from the Balkans, where its nearest relative is the Bosnian crower. In Kosovo the Drenica breed was fairly common in the Drenica province before the recent war and subsequent displacement of rural people into cities; folks who remained in the country opted for breeds that lay better. The best cocks of this breed reportedly crow for up to 60 seconds.

The typical longcrower has an upright stance, long legs, and a long neck.

In Russia the Yurlov crower was developed during the second half of the nineteenth century. Although its crow stretches out like that of other longcrowers, the call typically lasts a mere 7 to 9 seconds. Similarly, the crow of Turkey’s Denizli breed averages 10 to 15 seconds, although some individuals may crow as long as 35 seconds. To ensure the survival and purity of this breed, the Turkish government maintains a breeding station where cocks are selected based on voice.

The duration of crowing is preserved through generations by constant selection for the longest-crowing males. Unfortunately, the better the crowing ability of the breeding stock, the lower the fertility of the eggs and the more readily the delicate chicks succumb to various diseases. So, although longcrower breeds appear in many countries, they remain relatively rare.

If you keep chickens in a populated area, you might be tempted to believe that the sole function of crowing is to annoy the neighbors. The question often comes up: How do you keep a rooster from crowing?

Sorry, but no 100 percent foolproof way has been found to prevent roosters from crowing. Decrowing surgery is not a ready answer. Assuming you could find a vet to do it, the operation is expensive, risky, and not always successful. Caponizing (severing or removing the cock’s gonads) minimizes crowing, but a capon is useless for breeding. At any rate, most people, including veterinarians, find the surgical procedures of decrowing and caponizing to be distasteful if not downright inhumane.

To minimize crowing, let the chickens out only during reasonable hours. Overnight, either close shutters on coop windows to keep out passing lights, or leave a light on in the coop to reduce the disturbance caused by passing lights. Softly playing a radio helps keep roosters from crowing in response to sounds coming from outside the coop, and insulating the coop walls and surrounding the coop with shrubbery will muffle any crowing that does go on.

Since a cock stretches his neck to crow, putting him overnight in a ventilated box or cage small enough to prevent a good stretch will discourage crowing. Covering the container to keep out light also helps. I once visited a Cornish bantam breeder who brought his roosters into the house at night, putting them into cages stacked in an unused shower stall (a basement works well, too). The cocks still occasionally crowed, but his neighbors couldn’t hear it.

Of course, you have to let the roosters out during the day, and they’re going to crow no matter what. If neighbors still complain, you have only two remaining, but drastic, options. You could get rid of the rooster — thereby losing his functions of maintaining social cohesion and fertilizing eggs. Or you could move to a neighborhood where chickens are welcome.

By about 6 weeks of age, chicks spar to establish their place in the pecking order, which governs a flock’s social organization and thus reduces tension and stress. In a flock containing both sexes, the peck order involves a complex hierarchy on three levels: among all the males, among all the females, and between the males and the females.

In general the cocks are at the top of the peck order, then hens, then cockerels, and finally pullets, although cockerels will work their way through the hens as they mature, and similarly, maturing pullets will work their way up the ladder. A new bird added to the flock must also work its way up but won’t necessarily start at the bottom.

Once the peck order is established, a bird of lower rank infringing on the space of one of higher rank will earn a glare from the higher-ranking bird — as if to say, “I can’t believe your impudence” — causing the lower-ranking bird to move on. Fighting is thus kept to a minimum and mainly involves challenges to the top cock. The older he is, the more often he’ll be challenged by younger upstarts.

Some of the interesting things you’ll learn by observing peck-order activities are that dominant cocks mate more often than lower-ranking cocks, but submissive hens mate more often than dominant hens because they are more easily intimidated and therefore crouch more readily. And among birds with various comb styles, single-comb birds are higher in rank than birds with other comb styles.

You can reduce stress among your chickens by helping them maintain a stable peck order in the following ways:

Most fights to determine peck-order status end as soon as one cock backs down.

Give your chickens plenty of room to roam so the lowest-ranking birds have space to get away from those of higher rank.

Design your facilities with enough variety so your timid birds can find places to hide.

Provide enough feeders and drinkers for the number of chickens you keep; otherwise, higher-ranking birds will chase away lower-ranking birds.

If you have more than one cock, furnish one feeding station per cock and position feeders and waterers so no bird has to travel more than 10 feet (3 m) to eat or drink. Well-placed troughs allow each cock to set up his own territory and gather a group of hens around him; fighting is further minimized if no bird has to pass through another’s territory to reach feed and water.