I think it's high time that someone corrected the misconceptions about roosters and their crowing that seem to have proliferated. And who better than a person who has only had one rooster for a whole year? Yes, I am a rooster expert, and I will now share my vast knowledge with you.
1) Roosters do not only crow at dawn. Roosters crow whenever they damn well please. Daybreak, midday, middle of the night, anytime you pass their coop, whatever.
2) Roosters do not make a sound anything like "cockle-doodle-doo." At least, my rooster doesn't. I can't really transcribe the sound he makes, but just trust me when I tell you that it sounds nothing like the roosters in cartoons.
3) Roosters do not only crow once a day. Roosters crow many, many times. Over and over and over. Our rooster, for instance, crowed every nine seconds from at least 5 this morning until the chickens were released from their coop. I know, because I was lying awake in bed counting the seconds between crows. Crowing every nine seconds seems a wee bit excessive to me. Probably to our neighbors, too.
And I think that concludes our rooster lesson for the day. Class dismissed.
I've always thought it cute that people think roosters only crow once or twice at dawn.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I've always found it very odd that people insist that hens crow just like roosters and just as often. One of the reasons that urban chicken farming gets a bad rap for no reason.
I was one of those people who thought that roosters dutifully crowed their textbook cock-a-doodle-doo at dawn and were silent the rest of the time...until I spent the night at a friend's farm and heard that bastard and his weird little "AAAAAWWWWW!" all night long. I was all "YOUR ROOSTER IS BROKEN," and they were all, "No, he's not." DISAPPOINTING.
ReplyDeleteGet tom turkeys or guinea hens if you want something even more annoying than a rooster. Butchered mine off because I couldn't take the noise anymore. My one half grown Rhode Island Red rooster may be meeting the same fate in a few weeks once he starts crowing. The hatchery sold him as a female. I guess they let this once slip through their sorting process. So far he is a good guy, but he can only stay if he doesn't annoy me or the neighbors too much.
ReplyDeleteI am guessing the neighbors are ready for chicken and dumplin's...maybe later today. :)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the 60 Minutes segment on the guy who had hundreds of roosters on his property? The neighbors were ready to go postal and had filed all kinds of law suits. It was really crazy!
ReplyDeleteI'm positive your rooster wouldn't make it out here in our neck of the woods. Since your dad eats chicken, there wouldn't be any need for legal action either. Uninterrupted sleep is a God given right to be actively protected and preserved.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have neighbors that had a rooster (and we lived in a city). It didn't last too long, perhaps someone had him for dinner.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember FogHorn LegHorn? Lance
ReplyDeleteYou've now summed up why I'm not allowed to have chickens. Bubba HATES roosters. Because of their extreme and random noisiness.
ReplyDeleteNow, I've been told that you don't have to have a rooster to have chickens, but that will not dissuade him. He believes Where There Are Chickens, Eventually There Are Roosters and so therefore those annoying fucks have ruined my chance of keeping chickens.
I'm sorry that yours is a prime example of an Annoying Noisy Rooster.
We never had roosters. Just chickens, and they were annoying enough. Oh, I just wanted to kick those things.
ReplyDeleteIn Spanish they supposedly say, "Qui-qui-ri-qui!" I've never met a Spanish or Mexican rooster, so I can't vouch for it personally.
ReplyDeleteWow - thanks for the lesson. I feel edamacated!
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