Unsure if I need a rooster or not?

Date sort Score sort
OP, I think you made the right choice in getting rid of the rooster. Did you ever find him a home, or did you process him? Really the only reason a person would NEED a rooster is if they wanted to hatch their own chicks. (And then you'd have even more roosters to try to figure out what to do with.) I am currently roosterless, and my hens manage to find their own food, notice and hide from aerial predators and find their way back into the coop for the night. I don't believe roosters were intended to be human aggressive, or rough on their hens. Some are just like that and it's OK to kill them and eat them if that's the case. Shoot, I have 10 little cockerels here - nine of which will be killed and eaten even if they don't have bad behaviors, because that's what they were intended to be - food.
 
hentown said:
Well all, I'm going to speak up for the poor Roos. I have 5 Roos and 25 Hens, some on their second season, some New. I have a mix of RIR, Delaware, Cuckoo Bluebar, Buff Orpington. California White, and black and blue copper Marans. With few exceptions, they all get along great. Each rooster has his own "Harem" and they really believe in "birds of a feather flock together". The roosters are very protective - they find food & show the hens by bobbing their heads, they scream when predator birds fly past, they shuttle hens into their respective coops at night, etc. I have one, who is also the biggest, like a small turkey (black copper Maran) and he is toughest on the hens (they do the shuck and jive to avoid him if they can!). I would never again have a flock without a rooster - on multiple occasions I have seen them save hens with their vocalizations. One small Bantam rooster fought with a hawk until it killed him as he distracted the hawk from his girls.

All I all, to each his own, but I say unless you have a mean rooster, remember - they are doing what nature intended and don't kill them or EAT THEM for goodness sake for being what they were intended to be!

Happy Spring to all of you flock masters
smile.png
Click to expand...


I guess this is the difference between people's definitions of "need" and "want." You don't need a rooster unless you plan to hatch your own eggs. You may want a rooster for all those other reasons you mentioned, but that's a personal choice and not a requirement. For a sustainable flock, they are intended to be eaten...the extras are anyway. Any flock can accommodate only so many roosters and people that hatch cockerels or acquire them through straight runs with no plan as to what they'll do with them just aren't thinking ahead. I am going to eat my extra roosters. I have no plans to hold hands and sing Kumbaya while letting roosters run free to be the best roosters they can be.
 
5 roos with 25 hens?How did you get it to work?I can hardly get "Two" roosters to get along.I'm not sure if it's the hen limit (about had 20 or so hens back when I had my other two roosters),or if it's place,but Joe my oldest rooster I "Use" to have,will kill or try any rooster to enter his Domain,he killed his son,and pretty for sure would have killed my two cockerals thsi year,( but he and one of my old cockerals are gone,).
 
I haverbalized a zoo to you place near by. People donate the roosters to them for food for their zoo animals. It's humane, animals have to eat, can't have a flock with 12 roosters and 12 hens. They treat them right till they use them for food too.

Personally, I would love to have one ct but I can't in city limits. I had a buff orpington rooster that hatched and he was adorable and so sweet. Too bad I couldn't keep him. He was gentle and not aggressive.
 
I have 8 roos. 2 Buff orp,2 barred rock, 2 silver laced wyandotte, speckled sussex, and Rhode Island red. All in with 40 hens.

After initial pecking order was established no major squabbles.

But it seems like each roo seems to have his own little sect of hens he stays with the most.

But I like the roos. Like hatching eggs.

Like the ability to raise pure or mutt chickens. To sustain my flock and my freezer.

I don't let a roo have any agressiveness tendencies. If He does he gets a trip to freezer camp.
 
I guess I'm just lucky. The rooster here finds food and chuckles to the hens to "come get it". He doesn't seem to eat much but every so often he will eat the next worm, forgoing for the hens to eat as much as available of the succulent bugs and such. At the bowl where the wild bird food and chick starter and scraps are he will eat his fill but scratching in the garden he goes first to find and lets the hens eat their fill. He is very protective but not as much so as the mother hen with the baby chicks. That is a force to be reckoned with for sure. Well best wishes and if he is mauling your hens and you don't need baby chicks, perhaps it is best to let him go where he has more than enough hens to breed with. Some roosters are more aggressive in Spring than others and so why a "trio" is preferred as balance in numbers. Best wishes and happy trails.
 

Similar threads

goats-n-oats
    • Haha
Rooster attacking new owner
Replies
3
Views
366
Folly's place
Folly's place
mossyoakpro
Roosterless flock
2
Replies
19
Views
678
SwampPrincessChick
SwampPrincessChick
booksandcranies
    • Love
To bantam rooster, or to not bantam rooster? That is the question
Replies
9
Views
599
NagemTX
NagemTX
linkchips
    • Like
Bachelor Rooster
Replies
6
Views
581
linkchips
linkchips
Papaye
BRAHMA : How many hens per rooster
2
Replies
12
Views
1K
Papaye
Papaye

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom