Hello from Illinois!

Let me start off with a story.
My bf's 12 year old daughter came home from her visit to Tennessee with 5 eggs and an incubator that she made herself. Her dad and I thought there was no way that these eggs were gonna hatch... I mean really? a 12 year old built this incubator, and it just wasn't gonna happen right? WRONG!!! 4 of the 5 eggs hatched... and 3 of the 4 chickens lived... (Opal, Sweet Pea, and Hurricane) I was dumbfounded. I didn't know ANYTHING about chickens, but how cool would it be to have some fresh eggs right? And it couldn't really be that hard right? So BF and his kids built a coop... and put the chickens in the coop. I bought a "proper" feeder and waterer... except there was one problem that I didn't think of (or even notice at first)... two of the chickens are roosters . Now before you judge, I know NOTHING about chickens, and really, the one rooster looks like a hen... For the most part they get along ok. The hen doesn't lay for squat, which is kind of aggravating for me, but whatever... So I know that I need to get some more hens. I'm planning on ordering some Silver and Golden Seabrights in the spring when they are available. I would also like to get a couple of standard hens for eggs.
Anyways, the real reason I am here is to make sure that we are doing the best that we can for these chickens. I'm going to be making some modifications to our coop to provide more floor space and roosting options. I'm also going to be adding some mods for a feeder that we can get to outside of the coop. The roosters are VERY territorial and hate me with every ounce of their being and attack me every chance they get. I'm hoping that with the addition of more hens and additional space, that will at least subside a bit.
I'm hoping to eventually let them free range in our back yard, but the last time we let the kids out, we chased roosters through 4 fenced in back yards before we finally caught them... I'm not sure just yet what to do about that part... But thats why I'm here. To learn all I can and provide these little guys.

Outside of the chickens, we have a small zoo. We have 2 dogs, Arrow the pitty, and Frankie, the pug. We also have 2 turtles, a toad, 2 sugar gliders (Glimmer & Twilight), and 6 ball pythons. You could say that the kids and I are animal lovers, my bf just tolerates us. lol!
I am a server administrator. DD rides horses competitively. SD plays basketball, runs track and cross country, and SS plays baseball and football. I'm kept on my toes at all times. So to keep the household and all of the animals care running as efficiently as possible is essential.

Anyways, now that all of that is out, I look forward to snooping around and asking lots of questions!

welcome! I am new as well. There seems to be a lot of information - however, nothing has made my 9 month old chickens lay an egg. I am getting very discouraged!!! LOL - maybe some new chickens in the near future.

Hi, welcome to BYC!!!

There are plenty of threads about how to tame angry roosters. I highly suggest checking some of those out. Good luck!!

Welcome to the BYC flock! We are glad you joined us!



Thanks for sharing your story!

There is never a good reason to keep a bad rooster. Hens will happily lay eggs without a rooster - the only difference is their eggs will not be fertile. There is a glut of roosters on the market - desperately seeking good homes. It's a true buyers market. I'm told aggressive roos make the best chicken soup. Getting more hens will not sweeten them- they will just be fiercely protective of them and very likely escalate attacks against you and others.

Please don't keep these roos. Either have none or if you truly want to raise chicks from fertile eggs - get a non-aggressive rooster who will be a joy to own. Your BF's young daughter seems to have a real flair for chickens - you don't want her getting flogged and spurred by mean roos.

Once you have 20 posts you can participate in the BYC Buy, sell, trade forum - and see some of the quality roosters/cockerels that are available. You may also want to join the Illinois state thread and find out what is going on around you. Just put "Illinois thread." in the searchbox and it will come up.

I completely agree with you on not keeping the roosters, but unfortunately, that part is out of my hands. I'm going to try what I can before crossing that line. They aren't totally vicious, and honestly have tiny blunt spurs (not enough to hurt anyone). I'm going to try a few things that I found on the forum yesterday before I give up on them. And they only do it to me. The (human) girls can do anything they want to them and they are fine.

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

Welcome! I hope you've joined us on the Illinois thread as well, it's good to know others in the area.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/37/illinois

What I did for my angry rooster is attacked him back and chased him around until he gave up (which was really quick) after that I was able to pick him up and he didn't attack me. Yes it's seemes evil to kick a rooster but it worked, plus I didn't hurt him!