Why Have a Rooster?

[Ascholten]

Im sorry you lost your feathered friend there. How old was he?

 

[utefan47]

I got an Ameraucauna rooster as a gift from some friends two months ago. They had three and were happy to get rid of him. His name is Pablo, though I rarely address him by name.

Pablo was attractive to me because he had apparently fought off a fox and I'd already lost several to one. Since his arrival, he must have fought something off because he is now missing his tail feathers, Though by my count, I have lost two more birds since his arrival. The protection aspect is a strong argument for a rooster.

Additionally, I have long wanted to incubate my own eggs, both as a curiosity and as a kind of lab for my young daughter - and to save money. I am really tired of buying chicks when I can "make my own. "

I have to be honest, I have yet to get used to the mating. It's a brutal act. I have seen a hen become seemingly paralyzed afterward. In fact, I had to go check on her and see if she was still alive. So the mating part is something I may never be comfortable with. Yes, I am the sensitive type, albeit someone who has culled his flock when necessary and killed raccoons. It is odd to find oneself viewing this violent act through the prism of the MeToo Movement but that is, nevertheless, what is happening, bizarrely, for me. I wish it were not so because this is an absurd way to view a flock of birds.

I don't really understand how people can list as a reason for keeping a rooster, their own entertainment, but please don't take this as a judgement. They ARE comic and ridiculous-acting at times, which causes me to chuckle, I won't deny it. However, as soon as they're out of the coop, I don't really enjoy watching the violence Pablo visits on the backsides of the hens. I do love the sound of a rooster crowing in the morning. It is a primitive sound and touches something primitive in me.

As a comic footnote, for the first time, one of the 12 supposedly-sexed chicks I purchased in June turned out to be male. I should have known by the well-developed comb and body shape but I started to hear some strangled-sounding crowing in the wee hours and realized it wasn't Pablo and a sore throat, but another rooster altogether. So now I'm contending with what to do with a cockerel, when it becomes time to cull some of the older birds and move the pullets into the main coop. As it's a smaller space and Pablo wouldn't like it much - and I don't want any more violence, I'm inclined to make chicken stock of him.

Great writing and great story. I too find the mating act very brutal in the chickens. My sister said the same thing about the me too movement prism you saw in this.

I ended up with 8 roosters not by choice and decided to take the opportunity to learn more indepth about their interactions with each other and my 20 hens. Almost everything I read and also most people that care to talk about roosters say, you need them for protection. I have found that is absolutely not true for most of us who have "runs and coops". I protect them. If they are put in the WILD that may be true about needing a rooster but that's not what we are talking about.

So, I found it all depends on what your goals are. Right? My theory from observation is if I wanted to hatch and deal with all that entails, I'm inclined to just have hens that would be for laying to hatch only and in a separate run and coop from laying hens only. These hens that go through this trauma end up creating chaos in an otherwise quiet consistent flock of egg layers. I found eggs laid all over the coop/broken/half eaten, two to three less eggs per day which meant they may have been too stressed to even create an egg AND also too many started being dropped from the roost as my theory is they are too afraid to move. I attribute this to the chaos of an imbedded rooster because without him she (they) wouldn't have the trauma/stress. I only had two roosters at a time with the hens. The others where in a separate run and coop.

Chickens, are if anything, consistent. Rise at Sun up/lay an egg/perch at Sun down/sleep. Then start it all again. That all got blown out the window when the rooster arrived. I separated all the roosters at 2 months because I identified at the time this group of chicks seem to be holy terrors. (I posted about that at the time trying to understand what was happening). So my goal is egg laying hens with little trauma as possible end of story...you don't need a rooster for that.

That said, because I raised 8 roosters and learned some valuable lessons, I can say with confidence, that I can no longer be taken in by some hopeful view that if you just "do it right" they will all magically get along. It's not reality. Isn't it a micrrocrasm of the male/female relationship?

I'm keeping two and because hatching is not my goal, they can "strut their stuff" separate from the hens. Period. I too love the primal sound of a crowing rooster, I love their confidence. I want to be reminded that the saying "cock of the walk" and "don't get so cocky" is not just chicken lore.

i plan to keep one or two of the best behaved roosters and yes, the rest will be yummy stew!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Great writing and great story. I too find the mating act very brutal in the chickens. My sister said the same thing about the me too movement prism you saw in this.

I ended up with 8 roosters not by choice and decided to take the opportunity to learn more indepth about their interactions with each other and my 20 hens. Almost everything I read and also most people that care to talk about roosters say, you need them for protection. I have found that is absolutely not true for most of us who have "runs and coops". I protect them. If they are put in the WILD that may be true about needing a rooster but that's not what we are talking about.

So, I found it all depends on what your goals are. Right? My theory from observation is if I wanted to hatch and deal with all that entails, I'm inclined to just have hens that would be for laying to hatch only and in a separate run and coop from laying hens only. These hens that go through this trauma end up creating chaos in an otherwise quiet consistent flock of egg layers. I found eggs laid all over the coop/broken/half eaten, two to three less eggs per day which meant they may have been too stressed to even create an egg AND also too many started being dropped from the roost as my theory is they are too afraid to move. I attribute this to the chaos of an imbedded rooster because without him she (they) wouldn't have the trauma/stress. I only had two roosters at a time with the hens. The others where in a separate run and coop.

Chickens, are if anything, consistent. Rise at Sun up/lay an egg/perch at Sun down/sleep. Then start it all again. That all got blown out the window when the rooster arrived. I separated all the roosters at 2 months because I identified at the time this group of chicks seem to be holy terrors. (I posted about that at the time trying to understand what was happening). So my goal is egg laying hens with little trauma as possible end of story...you don't need a rooster for that.

That said, because I raised 8 roosters and learned some valuable lessons, I can say with confidence, that I can no longer be taken in by some hopeful view that if you just "do it right" they will all magically get along. It's not reality. Isn't it a micrrocrasm of the male/female relationship?

I'm keeping two and because hatching is not my goal, they can "strut their stuff" separate from the hens. Period. I too love the primal sound of a crowing rooster, I love their confidence. I want to be reminded that the saying "cock of the walk" and "don't get so cocky" is not just chicken lore.

i plan to keep one or two of the best behaved roosters and yes, the rest will be yummy stew!

8:20 is a very chaotic ratio too. That could quite easily be where most of the chaos is coming from

 

[3KillerBs]

8:20 is a very chaotic ratio too. That could quite easily be where most of the chaos is coming from

Indeed.

I had a rooster and a senior cockerel with 21 hens and all was well.

Then 5 cockerels hit puberty, my senior boys were run ragged trying to keep order, and chaos reigned until I finished Camp Cockerel and got them separated.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

8:20 is 2.5 girls for every boy. I wouldn't dare try to keep them with less than 4 each for longer than absolutely necessary, and would far prefer at least 6 each

 

[utefan47]

8:20 is a very chaotic ratio too. That could quite easily be where most of the chaos is coming from

Yes...it would. However I only allowed two roosters in with the hens at one time and still got chaos. I never put them all together. The excess roosters where kept in a separate coop and run.

 

[gadus]

Based on forum comments, I'm going to make stock of my cockerel. There are plenty of hens, if recommended ratios are anything to go by, but space is limited. I can't see two roosters in a small space together, no matter how many hens there are. I just see a bloodbath.

When are people butchering their cockerels? I was thinking, when the pullets turn into layers and are moved into the main coop. Otherwise he will be by himself and this seems inhumane for either critter or human.

 

[Geena]

Based on forum comments, I'm going to make stock of my cockerel. There are plenty of hens, if recommended ratios are anything to go by, but space is limited. I can't see two roosters in a small space together, no matter how many hens there are. I just see a bloodbath.

When are people butchering their cockerels? I was thinking, when the pullets turn into layers and are moved into the main coop. Otherwise he will be by himself and this seems inhumane for either critter or human.

For the average layer or dual purpose breed cockerel I would process them before the pullets start laying, somewhere around 16 weeks is usually best if you plan to eat them.

 

[gadus]

For the average layer or dual purpose breed cockerel I would process them before the pullets start laying, somewhere around 16 weeks is usually best if you plan to eat them.

I take it, that's regardless of whether I plan to broil it or stew it? It's an Ameraucana.

 

[TwoShepherds]

I keep roosters because I want to hatch my own chicks and I like knowing that I can get fertilized eggs at short notice if I ever need any.

At this time, I don’t free range my chickens because of my dogs, so I don’t need roosters to protect the flock. I’m skeptical that a rooster could do much actual protecting besides alerting hens to danger or luring a predator away from his hens (not to discount those things).

I like having a rooster or two. I actually enjoy the crowing, they’re pretty, and it’s fun to see them call their ladies over for treats.

I’ve had really good luck with my males temperament-wise, and most even interacted well with my young children.

I think it helps to raise cockerels with older hens and to pick docile breeds if you’re a beginner. My first rooster was a salmon favorelles—big, calm, and never a hint of aggression.

CONS: I’ve had to put hen saddles on a couple hens because of bare backs.

I always seem to have too many cockerels, and it takes a while to rehome them. I would process if necessary—or if one was too mean to pass along to someone else, but so far I haven’t had to. I’m not squeamish—just lazy lol.

if you’re going to hatch your own chicks, you have to have a plan for what to do with extra cockerels—50:50 ratio of M/F probably isn’t going to work out. If someone tends to consider their flock more as pets, and tends to get very attached, perhaps it would be best to buy sexed pullets (even then you can end up with a surprise cockerel). It’s a lot easier to find a home for one rooster at a time than 12.

As much as I like my roosters, I wouldn’t bother with them if I didn’t want to hatch my own eggs. And of course if I lived in a housing development with close neighbors, I’d skip the rooster so as not to annoy people.