First Time Raising a Roo-How Many Chances Does He Get?

[MesMama]

Oh and the other reason besides protection is I am not sure how old my head roo is? The gal was rehoming and said 1-2 years, that was last spring. So I wanted him to train up another roo to take his place when that time comes, he's amazing <3

 

[MesMama]

And I appreciate all the advice I'm still new to this so that's why all the questions Didn't want anyone to think I'm being argumentative, just curious!

 

[bobbi-j]

And I appreciate all the advice I'm still new to this so that's why all the questions Didn't want anyone to think I'm being argumentative, just curious!

Asking questions is good - how else are you going to learn? One rooster is plenty, even for the amount of space you have. When your younger ones get older, there could be challenges and fights among them. They may not amount to much, but could get bloody and result in the death of one of them.

A rooster can only "protect" to a certain extent. They are no match for a coyote, fox or dog and will often just be a speed bump before one of those wipes out the rest of the flock. There have been threads of a rooster fending off a hawk, but again, he may also give up his life to protect his flock. They are, however, good alarm systems.

 

[Blooie]

Don't think of your space in relation to the roo/hen ratio. Think about the girls. Even if they have an entire 10 acres to roam, the girls will still suffer if there are too many roosters. They won't get a minute's peace between all three of them trying to breed, and competitive rooster fights can get ugly real quick. One could get the job done, two could be fine depending on their temperament and what you want from the boys. At least that's how I look at it.

 

[lazy gardener]

Kids come first. Eat him while he is still tender. He won't be a good boy, and he'll be tasty. You won't ever be able to trust him. And he's not going to get much bigger. He needs a date with the crock pot. If you're worried about not getting enough meat off him, cook till the meat falls off the bone, and then use that meat for something like chicken tacos or bar-b-que sandwiches. He'd be a cull here. There's no excuse for attack to a child. It will only get worse when he gets spurs. Truth is, if he'll go after your daughter he'll go after anyone. Yes, you can train him. But, you have to ask yourself....with one rooster already and only that many hens, why do you even want to keep these two extra? One is enough and they'll have the feathers worn off the backs of your hens if you keep them.

Sorry, I found so many wise statements here, mixed in with just a but of rooster for dinner humor that I had to compile it all into one paragraph. I agree with all of the above posters. While I advocate dominance training for cockrels, I am an even stronger advocate for putting trouble makers in the crock pot. I will dominance train, but only when they are young. If a roo puts claws to me past the cute little chick stage, he will be the very first of the spring cockrels to be invited to dinner. Doesn't matter how much free range space you have. The bottom line is, only keep enough roo around to get the job done: produce the next crop of youngsters. If you don't intend to hatch eggs, don't keep a roo. No roo will keep a hen from being snagged by a determined predator.

 

[MesMama]

Don't think of your space in relation to the roo/hen ratio. Think about the girls. Even if they have an entire 10 acres to roam, the girls will still suffer if there are too many roosters. They won't get a minute's peace between all three of them trying to breed, and competitive rooster fights can get ugly real quick. One could get the job done, two could be fine depending on their temperament and what you want from the boys. At least that's how I look at it.

Oh wow, okay so I'm looking at it totally wrong and I just thought they would separate off and each rooster would have his girls...maybe that's possible but not the norm. I definitely don't want my girls stressed out, that's not at all what I want. So thank you for pointing out these things that I hadn't thought of or just plain didn't know

 

[MesMama]

Kids come first. Eat him while he is still tender. He won't be a good boy, and he'll be tasty. You won't ever be able to trust him. And he's not going to get much bigger. He needs a date with the crock pot. If you're worried about not getting enough meat off him, cook till the meat falls off the bone, and then use that meat for something like chicken tacos or bar-b-que sandwiches. He'd be a cull here. There's no excuse for attack to a child. It will only get worse when he gets spurs. Truth is, if he'll go after your daughter he'll go after anyone. Yes, you can train him. But, you have to ask yourself....with one rooster already and only that many hens, why do you even want to keep these two extra? One is enough and they'll have the feathers worn off the backs of your hens if you keep them.

Sorry, I found so many wise statements here, mixed in with just a but of rooster for dinner humor that I had to compile it all into one paragraph. I agree with all of the above posters. While I advocate dominance training for cockrels, I am an even stronger advocate for putting trouble makers in the crock pot. I will dominance train, but only when they are young. If a roo puts claws to me past the cute little chick stage, he will be the very first of the spring cockrels to be invited to dinner. Doesn't matter how much free range space you have. The bottom line is, only keep enough roo around to get the job done: produce the next crop of youngsters. If you don't intend to hatch eggs, don't keep a roo. No roo will keep a hen from being snagged by a determined predator.

Excellent points! Thank you

 

[lazy gardener]

I have a huge problem with that: not much left for the crock pot.

 

[MesMama]

Yeah that feels like a waste to me, but thanks for the suggestion

 

[Beekissed]

I guess I thought it was a good number of hens to roosters?

Also they are in a one acre pasture and I thought it might be too large an area for one rooster to be able to protect all the hens and still watch over the coop?

Even for the size of the area that they are in?

It only takes one male to breed and monitor 10-15 hens....add more roosters to it and he will be distracted by keeping those roosters off his females and not doing such a good job looking for aerial predators. Unfortunately, they don't fully separate off into little breeding clutches, though sometimes a few hens will hang around with a defeated, older rooster who has lost his flock to a younger male if the flock is sufficiently large enough to do so....but yours isn't.

As was said, it doesn't matter if you have 1 acre or 10 acres, even one male can be too many for only 7 hens and you'll soon find a few hens that are getting more attention than the others~usually your best layers~and they'll start to show feather breakage along the back, right above the tail.

I'd pen the extra roosters until they are big enough for eating and then marinate them in a great sauce and throw them on the BBQ.

Cockerel goes over incredibly well at a BBQ and you'll be lucky to even snag a piece for yourself.