Roosters crow every day, and the sound is iconic. It’s used throughout pop culture to symbolize the start of the morning. We’ve all heard “cock-a-doodle-doo” a million times, whether from an actual rooster, or from a TV show or movie.
Most people assume that roosters crow to announce the start of the day. That’s certainly the stereotypical image of a rooster. But that’s not actually why they crow. In reality, roosters crowing is a lot more complex than that.
Here’s everything you need to know about crowing roosters.
When Do Roosters Crow?
We all associate a cock-a-doodle-doo with the sun starting to come up. But in reality, roosters crow all throughout the day, not just first thing in the morning. It’s more noticeable when it happens early in the morning, because it might wake us up (or, let’s be honest, annoy us!). But even after those early morning crows, roosters will keep crowing … you’re just less likely to notice it once you’re fully awake, and other noises from the day are filling the air.
With that said, roosters do reliably crow early in the morning. Their internal clock is 23.8 hours long, which results in them feeling the need to crow right before the sun comes up.
Why Do Roosters Crow?
There are tons of different reasons that roosters crow … and that’s just counting the ones we know of! There are probably a lot of reasons that we don’t know about, too. Here are the main reasons why your roosters might be crowing.
Assert Dominance and Mark Their Territory
Chickens might not be the most intimidating animals, but like most creatures they can be territorial, and that’s especially true of the roosters. Roosters will often crow to mark their territory, and make sure that other roosters know it’s their land. If you have multiple roosters, one might crow to assert its dominance over the others.
On a similar note…
Establish a Hierarchy
When multiple roosters share the same space, they’ll naturally develop a hierarchy. Once this happens, they’ll usually crow in order of importance. The rooster at the top of the hierarchy will crow for whatever reason, and then the rooster second from the top will crow, and so on and so forth until all of the roosters have made noise. Once the rooster at the bottom of the totem pole has crowed, the first rooster will usually crow again, as if to remind the other roosters that he’s the top dog.
The rooster hierarchy is why you’ll often hear a lot of cock-a-doodle-doos in a row.
Warn Others
Chickens are an animal that is preyed on, so they’re often on full alert, and keeping an eye out for danger. If a rooster senses some danger, they’ll usually crow to warn the rest of their flock. Sometimes the danger is legitimate, but a person or car approaching a flock of chickens can scare a rooster enough to make him crow.
Mating Ritual
Like so many other species, chickens have some notable mating rituals. Namely, the roosters will often crow to try and attract hens. So if you hear a rooster crowing it might mean that it’s morning, or that there’s danger … or it might just be some good old fashioned flirting!
Roosters also have a little bit of kiss-and-tell in them, because often they’ll crow after mating, too! And sometimes roosters crow after a hen lays an egg, though it’s not entirely clear why they do that.
Fun Facts About Roosters Crowing
Now that we’ve covered the why of roosters crowing, let’s talk about some interesting facts about those cock-a-doodle-doos!
- Different roosters have different crows. I have three different breeds of rooster, and their crows all sound quite different. The size of the rooster is a big factor. My rooster Foghorn is a Blue Maran, and nearly 3-feet tall! His crow is deeper, louder, and longer lasting than the crows of my other roosters.
- They crow at about 90 decibels. The average rooster crow is about 90 decibels, which is about the same noise level as a lawnmower, hair dryer, or blender. However, that’s just the average! Rooster crows can exceed that by quite a lot.
- They close a set of eyelids when crowing. One super interesting fact about roosters is that they have three different sets of eyelids! As you can see in the pictures of Foghorn below, roosters will close one of their sets of eyelids when crowing.
How to Limit Roosters Crowing
If you have roosters and you’re annoyed by the crowing, unfortunately there’s not much that you can do about it. Limiting the number of roosters you have will limit the number of crows you have to listen to, and limiting the number of hens helps, too. But there’s no humane way to keep a rooster from crowing, so I recommend embracing the daily music of cock-a-doodle-doos!
My very large Light Brahma rooster: KIng Nero, will crow anytime he wants too. Now, he crows in response to the barking of our neighbors dogs. It is amusing indeed!
Will a rooster kill a hen?
I can’t imagine why a rooster would try to kill a hen. But with animals you never know why they do the things they do.
Thanks for basic info on these grt little creatures. My grandmas had coops but was never allowed to bother the chickens. My first real close experience was at a condo in Hawaii. Entertained me all week. They were fascinating. Have a farm across my creek with chickens. Love the sound. They are free range so see them on our side of creek once in awhile.
How do you tell the difference between a rooster and a chicken when they are baby chicks??
Someone needs to come up with an inexpensive way to remove the crowing capacity of roosters. Because right now, they are impossible to keep within city limits, and they are impossible to find homes for.
In my neighborhood, it is known that I have backyard hens, and across the last eight months, I have had 6 roosters dumped over my fence—probably because the owners don’t know what to do with them, either. If they were purebreds, the feed stores would take them, but because they are not, I seem to be stuck with them. I have them in cages in my garage to muffle their noise, and a couple of loud individuals are in my utility room which is surrounded by multiple walls to muffle the sound. Caring for them is unneeded work and expense for me.
We need better options!!!
You doooo have pretty roosters, and that IS of course why we put up with them, hah?
Why don’t the people simply have them processed. Chickens are good eating. I live in the country and have 43 hens and a revolving group of roosters that you inevitably get when allowing hensto brood their eggs to hatching. We just have the group processed any time we get a couple dozen
Your roosters and hens are beautiful! Thanks for the info, I learned a lot in your post. I am patiently waiting for the day when we can get chickens (it might be a while) as I think they are fabulous to have! Lovely photos, too. So glad I stopped by!
Thanks, I like to think they are beauties, but I’m partial. I hope you don’t have to wait too long to get them. They are great to have, very entertaining.
Oh my gosh your birds are beautiful!!!!!!! I want chickens SOOOO bad!
Get them!!!
What fantastic shots! My man-friend is obsessed with the jungle fowl roosters – he showed me a picture and proclaimed to me last night, “THESE ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COCKS IN THE WORLD.” And 12-year-old me giggled a lot.
I want to see your rooters images.
It’s very true. My boys crow at all hours. I find they do it more when there is a lot going on. My favourite crowers are definitely my silkies 🙂
Awesome pictures, and great post!
Thanks you! Yep, my guys crow more when they are free ranging or if I am out there gardening. Those silkies are so sweet!
We had a few banty roosters last year (actually one banty and two silkie) and we had to re-home them because they were too noisy for our neighborhood. They really do crow all day. Your roosters are beautiful!!
Thank you ma’m! How in the world did you find homes for roosters? Every time I look I get the same response. I’ll take yours if you take mine! 🙂