Best rooster for my flock?

skookumchuck said:

Lamas are great pred control they will put the run on Racoons and yotes. they use them alot to protect sheep, so I guess they would be good for Chickens too.

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But the OP only has 1/3 acre.

I would buy some flight top bird netting before getting them and put it on top of there run (the free range area) for hawks and birds of prey.. And you should cage the areas that there free ranging cause if you want to free range them. With no protection yell see a bird disappear almost everyday. You can find flight top bird netting cheap on ebay, there's a guy selling 50'x50' 2" mesh for $59.95 free shipping you can buy a few of those. As for a rooster I would say Naked Neck rooster there good, Barred Rocks are good. Really it depends on the rooster some care more then others. I find mutts are good rooster to warn hens.

If you have a garden and an orchard, you will need to be able to regulate your chicken's access to them, they can rototill a garden pretty darn quick and they do tear up any and nearly all decorative plantings. I let my chickens free range most of the summer, but keep the garden tightly fenced or there would not be a garden, just a nice dust bath place for my girls, they get in there, late fall, early spring.

I am on my third roo, each a different breed, thing is, you have to let them grow up, I really noticed a huge reduction in predator loss once my second, an EE roo got to be about a year old. This fall he was attacked so badly, that he lost all of his tail feathers, and then 5 or 6 weeks later, I lost him and a hen. My point is, this is tough country, and he made a big difference in predator loss during the daytime. I went from losing a hen about once a month, to not losing a hen for a full year. After I lost him, I could not let them free range at all, without losing something. I have something that has found an easy lunch, and my flock is in lock down.

I have a new roo, but he is young, hatched in June. We will see. It is the dead of winter up here, no bugs or other interesting things for chickens to get into, so with the predators and the lack of a mature roo, we will just stay in the coop/run. They are happy there for now.

MrsK