Curious about roosters and predators

[Meandmyhens3]

When you have a rooster in your flock do they help protect against predators? I’m curious if a rooster will actually try to fight maybe a small predator or just warn the hens, a roosters roll in a flock has many different parts to it!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They give alarm calls, and may fight against mice or rats or /maybe/ a cat or small dog if it's not in complete hunt mode.

They're really just cannon fodder though when considering them for predator protection, and even then won't always be successful

 

[OzarkChooks]

I'm also curious about this. One of my roosters has twice charged my dog, both times I had to pull my dog off him. The rooster is apparently pretty fearless, so I would assume he would do the same to other much smaller threats. Don't think he would survive though.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

My rooster looks after the flock or girls by doing things like.... finding little bits of bread or bugs or... leafs and bobbing his head up and down making noises for the hens to come investigate and eat. He also dances for them very weirdly, and if he sees a big bird he watches it sometimes and makes calls to the girls and they run off under cover.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Mine will do an alarm call to get his hens under cover if he spots a hawk, and I think he would attack the hawk if necessary. I have seen roosters go after predators before. My best rooster, Curly, died fighting off a bobcat. I saw him run straight at the bobcat, who grabbed him and dragged him up a tree before dropping him and running off. Curly died of his injuries, but I lost zero hens that day.

Of course you won't know if your rooster will do this until you see him in action, but if he's attentive to the hens, showing them treats and stuff, then chances are he'll be a good protector too.

 

[ChickensComeHome2Roost]

Strangely enough I've read that Roosters will not defend the lowest hens in the pecking order so they aren't protecting the whole flock-only his favorites! I've also read the pecking order will change if the rooster dies and the highest hen in the pecking order will sound alerts until they get another rooster and he's accepted in the flock. No rooster is a match against a dog or any other predator except maybe a small predator or inexperienced one.

 

[Perris]

I have lost fewer flock members to predators since having roosters. They keep look out, sound alarms, and if not actually attacking a fox were more conspicuous targets when we had an attack last year, which resulted in one hen killed and two roos injured (both recovered, thankfully) before I realized what was going on and intervened.

But this year I've seen a Welsumer hen fly 8' high in pursuit of a goshawk that made an (unsuccessful) attempt on her chicks, and my smallest hen, an Araucana, had a kestrel flat on its back trying to defend itself when it tried (unsuccessfully) to snatch one of hers! So broodies are the best defenders - but only of their own chicks

 

[Butchers Wife]

When you have a rooster in your flock do they help protect against predators? I’m curious if a rooster will actually try to fight maybe a small predator or just warn the hens, a roosters roll in a flock has many different parts to it!

I bought a dozen chicks last spring. The sign on them at the store said all hens so I didn't even bother to check. One turned out to be a rooster. Before the end of the year all the hens had been taken by predators and the rooster was the only one left. Not a scratch on him. I used chickens for bug and rodent control as we've renovated an abandoned crack house that had been almost reclaimed by the forest. We gutted it to the studs, it's basically a brand new house, but the contents of the original house had been strewn throughout the property. Water heaters, refrigerators, junk cars, broken furniture, the contents of a kitchen, about 40 old bald tires. I swore they must have brought more junk to the site. Finally a neighbor told us the previous owners had bulldozed a fully furnished burned out mobile home in the backyard about 20 years ago. That junk fest prevented us from running a lawn mower for a whole year! We considered goats but were afraid goats would die from eating broken televisions, silverware, beer cans, carpets, and broken glass. All hidden under 7 foot tall weeds. We chose chickens to clear away the weeds and snakes so we could get to the debris. Well, long story short, we've cleaned up the trash enough to go barefoot, but we've actually given up free ranging hens. Now we've only got roosters. They've moved on from cleaning the yard to cleaning up pasture. Fenced because they are MEAN! Pity the little hawk that tries to mess with one of these monsters. We can only free range hens with a net over their heads.

 

[cmom]

Some males will and some won't. I had a GHO (owl) get into one of my coops. It killed some birds. My male must have fought with it because he and the hens that were left were quite bloody and freaked out. I moved them to another coop but it took some time for them to calm down. I covered my pens after that with some good heavy duty netting. At that time I had fishing lines over the pen but the owl managed to get through. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

I bought a dozen chicks last spring. The sign on them at the store said all hens so I didn't even bother to check. One turned out to be a rooster. Before the end of the year all the hens had been taken by predators and the rooster was the only one left. Not a scratch on him. I used chickens for bug and rodent control as we've renovated an abandoned crack house that had been almost reclaimed by the forest. We gutted it to the studs, it's basically a brand new house, but the contents of the original house had been strewn throughout the property. Water heaters, refrigerators, junk cars, broken furniture, the contents of a kitchen, about 40 old bald tires. I swore they must have brought more junk to the site. Finally a neighbor told us the previous owners had bulldozed a fully furnished burned out mobile home in the backyard about 20 years ago. That junk fest prevented us from running a lawn mower for a whole year! We considered goats but were afraid goats would die from eating broken televisions, silverware, beer cans, carpets, and broken glass. All hidden under 7 foot tall weeds. We chose chickens to clear away the weeds and snakes so we could get to the debris. Well, long story short, we've cleaned up the trash enough to go barefoot, but we've actually given up free ranging hens. Now we've only got roosters. They've moved on from cleaning the yard to cleaning up pasture. Fenced because they are MEAN! Pity the little hawk that tries to mess with one of these monsters. We can only free range hens with a net over their heads.

My brother went through a similar ordeal. He had a farm and divided the property unto two parcels. One had a barn on it with a mobile home. He built a house on the other part and they lived in the house for a couple of years then sold it and bought another house and remodeled it and lived in it for a couple of years. They have horses so they boarded the horses but also decided to look for another place so they could have the horses back on their property. They bought another farm in the winter so there was plenty of snow. In the spring when the snow melted there was trash and junk everywhere. They did eventually clean up everything. They didn't want to bring the horses over until they had cleaned the stuff up. Good luck...