The early morning crowing of roosters might make for the bucolic opening scene of a movie but it is not very popular among neighbors in an urban environment.
That's what prompted an email this week asking if Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine teaches our students how to de-crow cockerels and if not do we know any veterinarians in the state who do the procedure. The answer was a polite "no and no."
More people are thinking it is a good idea to keep chickens in their backyard because they like eggs and chicken on their plates. Some people mistakenly think they need a rooster in order to get eggs. In other cases, the unknowing chicken buyer may have gotten a mistakenly sexed cockerel chick by accident. Roosters make for unhappy neighbors.
Cockerels, shortened to cocks, are the proper name for male chickens under one year of age. Pullets are what one calls females of the same age. Determining which is which is important because egg layers only want females. Meat bird growers usually want an off ratio mix of both to perpetuate a lineage. None of them want unwanted birds of the wrong sex for economic reasons so the unwanted chicks are usually killed instantly in a high speed grinder.
The art of sexing newly hatched chicks and determining which are male and which are female is a remarkable skill. The best chicken sexers are paid well by the industry for their services because they need to be both fast and accurate. The best make upward of $65,000 annually.
Most times, sexing is done with a quick squeeze of the tiny birds to take a look at their temporarily prolapsed cloaca. The cloaca is the terminus of the digestive, reproductive and urinary tracts (if they have one). That's all in one little opening for reptiles, birds and amphibians, as well as a couple of weird mammals.
Cockerels have a tiny bump on their cloaca and females don't, or if they do their bumps are much smaller.
Most folks know roosters crow. Most, however, have never thought there may be a need to de-crow one. There are procedures for such but it is important to know more of the unusual anatomy of birds to pull it off.
First off, chickens don't have a larynx or voice box per se. And if they did, it would not be in their neck like ours.
Instead, roosters have a specific narrowing of their trachea in their chest called the syrinx. Their syrinx is within one of a series of nine air sacs they possess that both lighten their weight and provide additional respiratory capability. They can actually pump air through the lungs from the sacs. The air sacs also play a role in regulating body temperature in a species that doesn't sweat. And, they provide the ability for high-altitude flight in some species.
Essentially, a veterinarian needs to place the bird under injectable (not gas, obviously) anesthesia, pluck the feathers at the intersection of the neck and chest and then make an incision. Dissecting down, the syrinx is located and a slit is made. Then the surgeon, without doing much more, sutures the chest wound closed with absorbable sutures and the bird is recovered.
Prices for the procedure that I could find online run up to about $300. The complication rate is about 10 percent and the most common result is a semi-silenced bird who otherwise behaves normally.
Not something I would choose to do but now you know.
Charlie Powell is the public information officer for the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which provides this column as a community service. For questions or concerns about animals you'd like to read about, email cpowell@vetmed.wsu.edu.
