The rooster doesn't crow

Our family acquired some chickens last spring so that we could have fresh eggs.  When we got the chickens they told us we had about a 10% chance of getting a rooster They try and choose the female ones to give you, but you know how it is with baby animals......sometimes you just don't know what you got until they are a little older.

The chickens are now old enough to be laying eggs.  AND out of the seven chickens we have, two are roosters. Roosters like to crow in the morning and the first morning that happened, my husband and I lay in bed realizing that the rooster going off at 6:15 belonged to us. It was a weekend and we could only imagine what our neighbors were thinking with a rooster going off that early in the morning.  He didn't just go off once to tell everyone it was morning either. He went off over and over again.

My husband and I were quite stressed about the effect our crowing rooster was having on our neighbors. The next morning, he went off again naturally, because that is what roosters do. I was talking with my daughter about how we were probably going to have to get rid of the roosters when Ammon got a little panicky.
"WHY?"  He wanted to know.  It should be noted that that the kids all chose a chicken to call their own when we got them and the crowing rooster is Ammon's.

I tried to be sensitive to his feelings and explain that roosters are loud and that we hadn't planned for roosters.  At this point, Ammon told me matter of factly, " He doesn't crow!"

My daughter and I looked at each other and then back at him.  Of course Ammon doesn't hear the rooster crow. He sleeps quite well through the ruckus and has no worries about how the neighbors may be feeling about a rooster going off at 6:15 in the morning.

We had to really work to convince Ammon that the rooster does indeed crow in the morning.  I think he is still skeptical since he isn't hearing any of the noise. He did come sit by me as I was weeding the yard and said in a tender voice; "There has to be another way to stop the rooster. We can't get rid of him."

I gently explained that roosters are made to crow, that is what they do.

Ammon is an animal lover and he has a tender heart when it comes to animals.  We haven't totally decided what we are going to do with rooster yet.  We have talked to the neighbors that are closest to us and most affected and they all said they don't hear him or they aren't bothered by the crowing. We have also been putting him in the little chicken barn at night and then letting him out later in the morning when it is a more decent hour to crow. You don't hear him as well when he is in the little barn.

Ammon petting a sheep at the state fair