Keeping Chickens Newsletter

Toni Cusumano : Hello. I received my chicks 6/1. I ordered only hens. Well, 1 is a rooster. It happens to be a Silver Polish. It is the kids favorite one. Now, I am allowed roosters in my suburban area as long as no one complains about the noise. He is cock-a-dooladooing very loudly from 6am-10am. I am concerned that we will have to get rid of him. Is there any way I can make him not make any noise? I put him in the garage tonight, but my husband wants him outside in his coop tomorrow. I am sure that the neighbors won't complain if he makes a bit of noise after 10am. (Even I don't want to hear him in the morning.) I appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you.

My Reply : Technically, it may be possible to de-crow a rooster but it is an operation under anaesthetic by the vet (if you can find one who can/will do it) and so it is probably quite expensive and also not 100% successful. Caponizing (which is basically neutering) is another possibility and often has the effect of reducing roosterish behaviour such as crowing but is also not 100% certain to do so. The least intrusive possiblity (that I can think of) is to try keeping the rooster in a cage with a cover over at night. That may stop him crowing at the earliest hours and hopefully solve the problem of social acceptability. Then maybe he could be let out at something more reasonable to neighbours such as 9am or 10am.

Barry : Here we are in sunny Mesa Az USA. The daytime temps are finally dipping below 100 and we have had some cool nites in the low 60's. We have 4 chickens in the back yard. We bought them about 2 years ago when they were funny gangly adolescents with unknown backgrounds. But I suspect that they were raised indoors with people. It took months for them to understand that things like corn and scratch were food. Wet dog food, cat food, and especially people food like pizza were all they knew hot to eat. Now here is the question...........how the heck can I get them to eat layer mash, pellets, crumble.....any of it! We have tried mixing it other things and letting them go hungry for day. And just giving them a mix of scratch, wild bird seed mixed with the layer food, but they will not eat it. They are at the back glass door pecking and begging till I feed them something! They are very personable and funny but I don't want to have to take them to McDonald's for lunch!

My Reply : If you haven't done so already, try adding a little hot water to the feed (should work with any of the formats) mixed together and allowed to cool a little so that it is like a warm mash. A dollop of plain yoghurt on top can help make it even more enticing. Another thing to try is different bowls - how it makes a difference I don't know, but apparently some