Roosters and New pullets

[donrae]

Thank you sooo much for the input . But you are correct I have one RIR and two leghorns. One of the leghorns is very calm never even crows. Our main focus is egg production. At this point raising chicks is a possibility but not on the agenda. Getting the flock in order before winter is a main priority right now. The RIR rooster did try and bite the one pullet ( 2 RIR and 3 barred rocks pullets for total amount of pullets) we just put one of them in the run to see what would happen. If we kept him(RIR rooster) I really hope that's not an indication of his demeanor when we intro the whole flock together.

in regards to your comment about holding the rooster delaying the pecking order. We started to do this about a week ago when the fighting was getting a little too much for us ie blood and scabs on the comb. This suggestion was brought to us by another forum member. The 2 or 3 times we has done this has really calmed them down, just the one RIR and leghorn, as before they would chase my wife but are now in line with the fact that we are head boss. I really have no complaints with the calm leghorn who just follows us around and always comes for treats. While all the Rooster are roaming the property the one leghorn just hangs with me and chills. I'd like to keep him but fear he's just not a strong to handle the flock but that might be because we have two other dominate birds.

Thoughts?

Human aggression is much, much different than squabbling amongst themselves. I would not keep a rooster that had ever shown aggression toward humans.

Get rid of the alpha and the beta, and the Omega will step up fairly soon and become the flock leader. I've never had a rooster that didn't sound alerts for predators or other concerns, call hens for treats and mate the hens. Some folks will tell you a rooster needs to be aggressive to "handle" a flock of hens...I specifically breed for non-aggressive birds, have for 20 years, and still have roosters that are good flock leaders.

 

[pfields]

Human aggression is much, much different than squabbling amongst themselves. I would not keep a rooster that had ever shown aggression toward humans.

Get rid of the alpha and the beta, and the Omega will step up fairly soon and become the flock leader. I've never had a rooster that didn't sound alerts for predators or other concerns, call hens for treats and mate the hens. Some folks will tell you a rooster needs to be aggressive to "handle" a flock of hens...I specifically breed for non-aggressive birds, have for 20 years, and still have roosters that are good flock leaders.

How true, my BA rooster was the aggressive one and the GSL wasn't. After I sold the BA rooster the GSL rooster changed completely. He had never come at me, he was the timid one and so late to crow we thought he wouldn't. I bought a BO rooster due to reading that they aren't as aggressive. He's 8 months old and hasn't come at me once. He alerts for hawks, calls hens for treats and stays busy mating all the hens.

 

[Sconsalv]

All great feedback. I'll tell you what they will be one hell of a conversation around the dinner table tonight.

 

[pfields]

lol

 

[Sconsalv]

Fingers crossed the neighbor might take two roosters

https://www.backyardchickens.com/conte

nt/type/61/id/7073137/width/200/height/400

 

[Sconsalv]

Thats rocky and his hen .

 

[Sconsalv]

Thats my quiet one

 

[Sconsalv]

Thanks again for all help and feedback this forum has really helped us out

 

[sophiaw00]

I would keep the more docile leghorn. Here's my rooster story, who is very similar to your nice leghorn.

He was originally a friend of mine's rooster. She has a lot of chickens, probably over 50, that just free range and reproduce on their own. It's amazing at her house for a chicken-obsessed person like myself, lol. She had 3 roosters. Daryl was the docile one. He was quiet, nice to the girls, and somewhat protective of the flock. He was also bullied by the other two roosters so she gave him to me because I didn't have a rooster for my 9 hens and was looking for one.

He now crows 8 times in the morning. 8 times at 2 PM and 8 times at 7 PM. He is still really nice to the girls (doesn't overmate them or pin them down) and is very protective over his flock now that he's the alpha. Just yesterday he alerted to the girls that a predator was around. I heard his call inside and ran out to see what it was. A hawk flew over my head. I got scared and ran to the coop. All 9 of my girls were sitting in the coop, safe and sound. I love my rooster so much.

 

[donrae]

Just to say, your roosters aren't Leghorns. They look to be white Rocks. They're too heavy and broad to be Leghorns (roosters top out around 6lb, I think), and they're missing the classic white earlobe. Here's a pic of a Leghorn rooster from Feathersite.



Okay, in my post the picture shows up, when I hit submit it vanishes

. But you can search Feathersite for your self.