Will a rooster protect the flock?

fromThe Mid-
Ohio Valley !
My rooster is a great guardian over "his" group of hens! He's constantly keeping my hubby & I alerted to any unusual activity or predators sniffing nearby. We sit in the shade, Ben- Roo is our eyes & ears. He sounds a warning GURGLE- GROWL if he has any worries.
My two Jack Russell Terriers are happy to investigate each time Ben sounds his alarm. Ben once lost his tail feathers to a fox one cold Fall morning. We learned that ce was a lesson we don't need repeating. One of us usually monitors the chickens while they are free to roam for the day.

We use a combined system to help our rooster defend the ladies at night.

1. There's a small LED nightlight in the coop which is sensor activated, it goes on when its dark. Its not enough to keep the chickens awake, but it does help them when the days get shorter, so we have eggs all year round.

2. There's also two interior doors inside the coop, each hung with wind chimes to alert if they are disturbed.

3. A security light is aimed right into the coop's skylight. Should anything trigger the sensor, the light pops on and the coop is flooded with light.

4. The light is installed right above my master bedroom window, so when it goes on it it makes a hell of a thunking noise which wakes me and the dogs up. We can be out there in a jiffy to chase whatever it is away. Two loud Basset Hounds are very effective at scaring away predators.

5. Our barn cat often tucks in with the chickens at night in the warm coop. I've opened the coop a few mornings and found a few dead varmints in the doorway and a very satisfied kitty curled up on the feed bins!

Lots of false alarms, but I really don't mind those much.

Thanks again for all the advice. We reinforced the run and put in new vents in the coop so we can lock it down every night. We also installed a motion sensor light out back. Our new rooster, Big Nasty, has taken ownership of all his girls, but he especially loves the two who are laying. He makes sure they all get the bits of fruit, oats and other treats we bring out from time to time before he has any. Quite impressive, really. He gets everybody in the coop before dusk and he's quite vocal when he feels any of his girls are stressed, such as when we're trying to catch the littlest ones to put them on a high roost at night. They're not quite able to get up high on their own yet, although they're getting better. We removed any low roosts as part of our protection strategy.

So far so good. None of the little traps we set up (just piles of junk that would be moved if anything tried to get to the coop, not real traps) have been tripped, so I'm thinking the light out back has been the biggest deterrent. Either way, everybody seems safe and content. The girls aren't fighting and we're getting eggs every day from the two mature birds.

If only I could teach my big cat Mister Handsome to be a fighter instead of a lover we'd have all bases covered.......

A good rooster will die and risk his life for his flock and any rooster will fight off things for his hens maybe you should invest in 2 roosters all together as long as there is enough room and free ranging time.

I value roosters in free-range almost exclusively against hawks and then only part of year. When confined or on roost when challenged by a predator, the rooster provides no benefit I can see other than possibly to his juvenile offspring and that I am not so certain of. When dealing with nocturnal threats against confined birds, make so roosting site not accessible to animals with limited jumping ability. Have roosting pole more than 4 feet above ground and mounted to surface / support that a good climber can not climb. I keep games so have good feel for upper limits on what a good rooster can provide protection wise. They will not willingly loose life to predator to protect even offspring. They will risk life but normally do not allow contact with significant predator unless rooster miss-calculates and predator gets him. Occasionally a naive rooster will tangle with fox or dog but that is exception rather than rule. Rooster usually looses such encounters bigtime.

Roosters are so cute

A rooster needs to have at least 10 hens And is also unable to see at night so he will Not be able to protect the flock at night but I have noticed he will protect from predators and dangers I had a hen and that got her head stuck in the fence and the rooster actually Helped her out before I got in to help.

misterhandsome said:

Since losing three birds last night I want to do everything I can to protect the remaining three and the new birds we get to replace the others. We've done what we think will secure the coop at night and any predator would need the teeth of a rodent and hours of determination to get in.

However, if something happens to get in, would a big rooster be any use in terms of protecting the flock?

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We had 4 hens and we decided to get a rooster to protect our flock. He did a great Job and we had no predator problems until one night... It was about 10pm when something got into our coop, most likely a fox or raccoon. Our rooster ( Peggy ) protected all of our hens to the point that he lost his life. That was about a year ago and still those four hens are doing great along with another 14 hens that we hatched out from Peggy ( And five roosters.. We are looking for a new home for one because we have too many...). I definitely think having a rooster helps out tremendously.