Just how useful is a rooster anyway?

[Eggscaping]

...but you didn't actually shoot the hawk, did you?

I do believe that would fall under the classification of Noneya[/QUOTE]
Ok, fair enough. But some people may not be aware that all hawks are federally protected. If I shot a hawk and didn't know that, I'd want to know. That's all.

 

[aart]

I do believe that would fall under the classification of Noneya
Ok, fair enough. But some people may not be aware that all hawks are federally protected. If I shot a hawk and didn't know that, I'd want to know. That's all.

Well, then, you could have said... 'killing BOP is against National Law'

 

[Shorty22366]

[QUOTE="S I heard him and ran out with a gun and I yelled at him to move and he and chick run and needless to say hawk is gone and won't be coming back. .

...but you didn't actually shoot the hawk, did you?[/QUOTE]
Never that is illegal

 

[Madie'sOddFlock]

I didn't read through to see what everyone else has said, but in my opinion:
A good rooster should protect his hens, and is almost always the last one to eat. The hens should come before him, and in that he's useful as a cliche type of "mother hen". If your rooster doesn't do that then he isn't useful at all, but that's not to say that no rooster is useful.

 

[Mimi13]

I am late to this discussion, but I think that the OP put the part about "you weak, useless creature" to illustrate their immediate, first thought. Inner dialogue. Knee-jerk response. you know. I know I certainly do that - like when someone does something stupid in traffic. The words I mutter as I clench the wheel are certainly not fit for anyone's grandmother to hear! I think they took a risk by posting inner thoughts out to the group of us...and showed trust. Like you do when you talk to a friend!
I did think, as I read the continuing posts, "Geez, some of the replies are a little testy." I was a bit bemused. OP shook a fist at the rooster, not any of the folks who replied. No humans were insulted!
I hope everyone can be gentle with everyone else. Kind and gentle! I promise that I will be - no matter if I'm given criticism or correction. But please do be gentle. I think the world could do with a whole lot more gentleness!

Excellent post, beyond measure. I completely understood the OP’s intent.

 

[nancyrat]

My little rooster, we call him Drumstick, pictured here, takes good care of his girls. He stays with them as they free range, watches while they nap under the tree, sounds the alarm when they need to pay attention and helps them hunt food. He isn't mean to them or us. We had a young rooster that didn't work out as he was mean to the girls. Poor Drumstick kept busy most of the day chasing off the juvenile rooster from his screaming girls...the young rooster was too rough and the girls didn't like him...so we got rid of him. The girls all cuddle up with Drumstick at night. I don't expect him to fight any predators, but I do expect him to warn the girls so they have a chance to escape. I've also noticed he seems to be the cheerleader while the girls are laying....he gets quite noisy but he isn't crowing....LOL....My rooster, if you can't tell, ended up being my favorite.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I'm compelled to weigh in on this.
My Avatar's (may he R.I.P.) name was Morpheus. He is/was the only kept fowl I ever named in 25 years of keeping a flock. He was named mainly after one of the main characters in The Matrix because of his commanding presence (at full maturity he stood over 2 feet tall, weighed about 10 pounds, and sported 3 1/2" spurs), and appropriately also for Ovid's winged God of Sleep. When evening fell, he would make sure all the hens were herded into the coop to roost for the night.
Besides providing us with a line of laying hens, he maintained order in the flock. The hens have their own 'pecking order', but Morpheus was the final authority. I have a "pole shed" out in my run for shade in the summer and shelter from the rain/snow the rest of the year. On more than a few occasions I saw Morpheus gathering the hens under the shelter when a Redtail or Swainson's hawk circled the yard. If I heard him crow at midnight, I knew a skunk, or feral cat was on the prowl.
One day I was working in the yard and heard a ruckus in the chicken yard. I came on the scene to find a Cooper's hawk on the back of one of my laying hens. In less time than it takes to type, Morpheus was on the attack! He hit the hawk from behind, riding it into the ground with his spurs, beak and flailing wings. He out weighed the hawk 2:1 and the poor raptor thought the sky had fallen! The hawk escaped and flew off to presumably find a mouse or some other creature who had no protector.
The only down side to Morpheus's presence was that he was a very aggressive breeder, and my hens always looked like they'd been half-plucked. Morpheus died of exhaustion at age 8 yrs. He'll be missed, but not forgotten.

As for the comments about roosters at the head of the flock, running from danger, my assumption would be that he was leading the flock to safety. Hens will scatter and run in circles without a recognized leader to follow. An average sized rooster that will not stand against a fox (or even a skunk) is not a coward...he's smart! As the saying goes, "discretion is the better part of valor."

 

[JohnInNJ]

If you don't want fertile eggs, and he's not doing anything else for your flock, get rid of him. Some roosters aren't worth their feed, so why bother feeding them?

Why bother feeding them? Because they're living, breathing, intelligent, social creatures.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Why bother feeding them? Because they're living, breathing, intelligent, social creatures.

They're livestock, in my case. I eat that which does not provide me money or joy.

EDT: I feel mildly guilty about eating storebought chicken (eight weeks old and in a cage its whole life.) But I don't feel at all guilty about eating a bird that's had a good life, thus far, and is currently inconvenient to me. Different philosophies, I suppose.

 

[lilpenny]

Hi all,

I've posted a few times about my back and forth thinking regarding keeping a rooster that showed up in our first order of sexed chicks. We ended up with four hens and a RIR rooster. There were a lot of up and down moments, but in the end our observation seemed to be that our little flock was well enough balanced and we figured the rooster provided some extra protection for our free ranging birds.

Thing is, I've been of the mind lately that our rooster actually doesn't do much protecting. We got a dog about two months ago, and while she is always leashed, she loves to make hopeless runs at the curious hens who always show up around us when we go outside. I couldn't help but notice that the rooster seemed unperturbed and also would turn and scoot when the dog showed anything resembling aggression.

Then this morning, as I sat at the breakfast table shortly after letting the flock out of the coop, I heard an almighty commotion. I turned around just in time to see perhaps the most beautiful fox I've ever seen in the wild gleefully chasing my flock through the yard. Everything happened pretty quickly - the dog was thrown into its pen, I ran barefoot into the yard yelling, and chickens were flying everywhere - but a lasting impression was the rooster, far ahead of his flailing hens, hightailing it behind the house. Luckily, no damage was done besides a few ruffled feathers.

When things had calmed down and I went to reassure the hens that all was well again, I found the rooster, as always, mounting his girls. And I just thought, you useless, cowardly creature. You haven't earned that right.

So does this sound like an inordinately ineffective bird? Or is this just par for the course? We put up with the rooster's noise, the girls put up with his insatiable sex drive, and for what? (For what it's worth, to balance the flock more we are adding an additional 4-5 laying hens in June).