Regretting giving away our rooster

We were sold several chickens, all guaranteed hens and 2 ended up being roosters. That made 3 because we already had 1 rooster I had purchased and that’s all we intended to have was the one. We had some trouble with the 3 roosters being hard on the hens.

Two of our best hens had bare backs, and our only green egg-laying hen had such a deep gash in her head. We re-homed 1 of the 'accidental' roosters back to the folks who sold him to us. They were glad to get him because he looked good, we had made a cuddle bunny out of him & he was good with their kids.

The other 'accidental' rooster, Buttercup, is a midget bantam with a crossed beak that has to dive upside down in his feed can in order to shovel grain into his beak. He wasn’t much competition to the alpha rooster I had bought, although he tried, and the larger hens sometimes chase him around.

We thought with just the midget rooster, Alpha would be OK. Unfortunately in competing with Buttercup, they opened up the Ameraucana’s head wound again the minute I put her back in the pen. I caged her in the run so she could be near the others, but Alpha would go crazy near her cage trying to get at her. That finally settled down and I was able to let her out again.

Someone was interested in Alpha for breeding. He was well taken care of and showed well and they grabbed him, but I’ve had misgivings about giving him away ever since. Couldn’t sleep all night and my heart aches about it. I think it took a while for our birds to establish their relationship as a family and it was a good one, I think. Relationships always take time to build.

Maybe all the roosters are like this. I just don't know. We need the girls for their egg production. Have you experienced a kinder, gentler rooster?

We planned to get a Black Copper Marans rooster from our breeder because those are the birds we want to breed. And Alpha didn’t have those genes.

Can anyone tell me about the Black Copper Marans rooster’s disposition in general?

I felt so badly when Alpha left, I remember nights this winter when it was so cold and I opened the coop door to check on the hens and he had his wings over 2 of his hens to keep them warm. They all clung to him when they free ranged the yard and they were a family. I feel in my heart I may have made a mistake.

Any thoughts?
Thanks for writing with any advice,

To me, a good rooster just happens. There is really no way to tell how a rooster is going to be until you have him in your flock. Some are good, some are not. Some rise to the top of the pecking order others do not.

I do not think breed makes as big a difference as personality does.

I regret having sold a rooster too, I had too many for my flock.

I had 4 roosters for 30 hens. I got rid of a non-descript RIR. He was an ok bird and I thought just a rooster on the pecking order not the top. He had no qualities I wanted to breed for. Besides I had some nice looking birds, a Aruacana (spelling) a Black Australorp and a Partridge Chanticler. All nice looking birds with genes I wanted.


When I sold the RIR, it upset the pecking order, I now realize he was the top rooster. The Chanticler has emerged as the head now. He is a bully and mean to the other roosters. The Aruacana is chasing hens for sex all day long, never giving them a choice, I call him a serial rapist. The BA is mellow and good to the hens protective and has what I like in a rooster, but refuses to take on the Chanticler.

I actually miss my RIR now, so try to not beat yourself up too badly, we all make this mistake I think.

Goronson Chicks said:

We were sold several chickens, all guaranteed hens and 2 ended up being roosters. That made 3 because we already had 1 rooster I had purchased and that’s all we intended to have was the one. We had some trouble with the 3 roosters being hard on the hens.

Two of our best hens had bare backs, and our only green egg-laying hen had such a deep gash in her head. We re-homed 1 of the 'accidental' roosters back to the folks who sold him to us. They were glad to get him because he looked good, we had made a cuddle bunny out of him & he was good with their kids.

The other 'accidental' rooster, Buttercup, is a midget bantam with a crossed beak that has to dive upside down in his feed can in order to shovel grain into his beak. He wasn’t much competition to the alpha rooster I had bought, although he tried, and the larger hens sometimes chase him around.

We thought with just the midget rooster, Alpha would be OK. Unfortunately in competing with Buttercup, they opened up the Ameraucana’s head wound again the minute I put her back in the pen. I caged her in the run so she could be near the others, but Alpha would go crazy near her cage trying to get at her. That finally settled down and I was able to let her out again.

Someone was interested in Alpha for breeding. He was well taken care of and showed well and they grabbed him, but I’ve had misgivings about giving him away ever since. Couldn’t sleep all night and my heart aches about it. I think it took a while for our birds to establish their relationship as a family and it was a good one, I think. Relationships always take time to build.

Maybe all the roosters are like this. I just don't know. We need the girls for their egg production. Have you experienced a kinder, gentler rooster?

We planned to get a Black Copper Marans rooster from our breeder because those are the birds we want to breed. And Alpha didn’t have those genes.

Can anyone tell me about the Black Copper Marans rooster’s disposition in general?

I felt so badly when Alpha left, I remember nights this winter when it was so cold and I opened the coop door to check on the hens and he had his wings over 2 of his hens to keep them warm. They all clung to him when they free ranged the yard and they were a family. I feel in my heart I may have made a mistake.

Any thoughts?
Thanks for writing with any advice,

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear your having misgivings, but eventually you'll find a sweet boy to take his place.

Every BCM male we have had has been a sweet, docile, and occasionally a cuddly LF bird. We've tried 8 lines, and although each line has had its own breeding issues, temperament has not been an issue for us (as of yet). I should add we have many, many roosters. (When breeding BCM you have many roosters because they have to be older to see the biggest faults.)

Our main breeding rooster came to us as an unsocialized, wild male, and within days he was balanced, friendly, calm and tame. He is my favorite bird of all our birds- of any variety. He smiles, hangs around with me if I'm out, and falls asleep when I hold him. He is the father to much of our main flock, however, he's sometimes too much of a gentleman. He's one of those choosy roosters who prefers only a few favorite hens, but... he is exceedingly good to those girls. He's also great with young birds and cockerels as he is patient and mature.

We have bachelor pens for the young males and often add dad for a few weeks to help teach the younger males how to act, and also have a large freerange area. The older males will then often run with our freerange flock. They get along well with a few small scuffles but seem to work things out quickly. The males will often freerange out in groups of 4-5 males (also in with adult production reds, a patridge cochin rooster and banty rooster) with the freerange pullets or hens. We only put in roosters of a balanced nature in together, and we are out with them daily to monitor behavior. This seems to work for us.

Not everyone has this experience. And some lines have been said to be more aggressive. Or, some lines can be more "standoffish" and the hens are less cuddly too, but usually are calm natured and docile. Have occasionally heard of a mean BCM male, but, the cases seem isolated- usually in flocks with one or two males in small, or confined spaces who are seldom socialized. I hear much more overall about what nice, sweet birds they are. Since some people show their birds, so have to be socialized from a young to do this.

You'll find a great male- he's out there.

We can only deal with birds with good calm dispositions around here (refuse to have mean birds, or unbalanced birds, or have to catch to pick up) so, we socialize everyone a small amount daily calmly. Some asked to be picked up. Again, everyone's experience, or environment is different. We have never had a balanced rooster "go bad" later, and one rooster is at least 7 years old.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. All good information for me.

Can you tell me, does a good rooster make his favorites' backs bald? Is that considered mean?

My husband thought he was rough because he would grab the hens by the feathers on the top of their heads and also stomp on the Banty when he'd see him trying to mate.

I'm trying to figure out what is rough and mean and what may be OK for a hen. I know the head wound was not OK. Alpha rooster also had his 5-6 favorite hens, we could tell by the bald spots.

Our birds have a 20 X 40 ft enclosed run with 2 houses. They are allowed to free range on weekends. Organic pasture.

Before I gave Alpha away, there were 2 roosters (counting the Banty), 2 Guinea hens, and 13 hens of various breeds - all about a year old or just under now. I raised most of them from chicks or purchased very young.

Thank you,
Maureen

Goronson Chicks said:

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. All good information for me.

Can you tell me, does a good rooster make his favorites' backs bald? Is that considered mean?

My husband thought he was rough because he would grab the hens by the feathers on the top of their heads and also stomp on the Banty when he'd see him trying to mate.

I'm trying to figure out what is rough and mean and what may be OK for a hen. I know the head wound was not OK. Alpha rooster also had his 5-6 favorite hens, we could tell by the bald spots.

Our birds have a 20 X 40 ft enclosed run with 2 houses. They are allowed to free range on weekends. Organic pasture.

Before I gave Alpha away, there were 2 roosters (counting the Banty), 2 Guinea hens, and 13 hens of various breeds - all about a year old or just under now. I raised most of them from chicks or purchased very young.

Thank you,
Maureen

Click to expand...

No, a bald back hen does not equal mean... Just means that hen is a favorite of the rooster(s) so, she is a popular hen or pullet. Often, because she is easy going, lower in pecking order status and pretty submissive. Sometimes the younger males or some older males can sometimes seem mean, by head stomping, pulling on combs, etc. as they are not very experienced in mating, and are still clumsy... sometimes pullets or hens get hurt in the process. The cockerels get frustrated, and take their frustration out on the females sometimes when they don't quickly cooperate. Other males learn quickly and efficiently- the hens usually seem to gravitate toward these males. Some younger males can get dominated by older hens, and the hens won't allow them to mate until they feel the male is competent or mature enough- so, some males aren't "aggressive" enough to dominate some hens, too.

My favorite rooster I told you about in my post above, at first had a huge, dominant hen in a pen with him. They only had 5 chicks over a year (with our assistance), when another hen in the same pen had about 100 with him. At one point, we finally caught the dominant hen in action, knocking him off her back during mating. She never let him mate. Pretty sure he became trained not to try. lol Turned out, she threw yellow shanked chicks (even though she looked correct, and was supposedly previously Wheaten tested), so, it turned out to be a good thing.

So our fello was probably not so bad after all he just didn't have the genetics we want to breed for. It was the middle rooster who made the head wound initially not the alpha. But Alpha grabbing her head there opened it up again. I think I introduced her back in a little too quickly. It straightened out after a while but my husband was afraid he would kill a hen. I didn't sense that.
We will go with a BCM rooster and hope for the best with both the genetics and temperament.
Which breed lays your darkest brown egg?
Thanks again.

Goronson Chicks said:

So our fello was probably not so bad after all he just didn't have the genetics we want to breed for. It was the middle rooster who made the head wound initially not the alpha. But Alpha grabbing her head there opened it up again. I think I introduced her back in a little too quickly. It straightened out after a while but my husband was afraid he would kill a hen. I didn't sense that.
We will go with a BCM rooster and hope for the best with both the genetics and temperament.
Which breed lays your darkest brown egg?
Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Sounds like Alpha got a bit frustrated and tore her comb as she tried to get away, and it reopened. Even a few of our friendly guys have done things like this on a seldom occasion. Not usually seeming to try to hurt a hen. Mean or aggressive roosters can be brutal to a flock on many occasions.

However, I highly suggest the BCM. I have found personal favorites to be in every line. lol I strongly recommend Brian Parks from Frazier Creek in Oregon. He is a breeder with integrity. He carries Bev Davis line (directly from Bev.) and gorgeously dark eggs. This line needs a bit of refining to SOP, but they don't have a lot of the serious genetic issues and recessives that many other lines are struggling with.

It was actually a deep gash in the back of her head not a torn Comb and it was the other rooster not Alpha who did it. Alpha just reopened it by grabbing her back there when trying to mate her.
I will contact the fellow u mentioned. Thank you so much for the advice.

Any advice about Cream Legbars? We are getting 3 of those this spring.
Thank you!
Maureen