Have you ever had a nice rooster?

[Ponyfeather]

I had a bantam cross roo that was my pet until he had seizures, sadly we had to put him down. He was wonderful took naps on my bed, got along with our dogs. Protected one dog when he got hurt. Watched TV with you, etc. We were very sad when we lost him. But the roosters we have out where I board my horses have all been polite but one, who just wanted to kill you. I hated babysitting the chickens when he was around because you could have drop kicked him and he would have come back to challenge you again.

The last two have been great guys, I was going to keep the father of the current one but my dad had a fit and he was so polite he was chased by my small dog. Had to carry him around and he loved it. His son is a huge sweetie and at one point was hurt and while we were handling him he just hung out in my arms no fussing at all. He could have got away but he didn't and just let me hold him and he is a big boy I think now he is almost 10 pounds. He was at least 7 or 8 when we doctored him because I got tired holding him.

 

[HenHouse4Life]

Dezi is our friendly boy. He eats from our hand, rather insists on it actually. I can go into the coop or run without any difficulty, he just walks away.

 

[Trish1974]

I lucked out and got a great rooster. My idea of a good roo may be different than yours though. I grew up getting flogged by my mom's white leghorn and RIR roos so I was leery about adding a rooster to my flock, but I wanted to keep my blue egg layers going by hatching my own chicks. My Araucana Cholo does not eat out of my hand, or let me pick him up, or show any affection towards me, and I like it that way. I ignore him and he ignores me. I can still love on my hens and hand feed them and he just stands in the background and watches. I like that I don't have to watch my back or carry a weapon with me just to go into the chicken run. To me, THAT is a good rooster!

 

[BarredRockMom]

View attachment 1309996Dezi is our friendly boy. He eats from our hand, rather insists on it actually. I can go into the coop or run without any difficulty, he just walks away.

Oh he is just so handsome!!! And he sounds like a lovely fellow!

 

[BarredRockMom]

To everyone who's taken time to post pics of their good roos & tell their stories, thank you. They are so varied in breed as to provide a beautiful feathered collage, like a patchwork quilt.

I've had 2 roos in my flock & they were both fantastic, but not to one another. I had the lead roo, a super handsome Plymouth Barred Rock (Rocket Man), whom we hand raised thinking that he was a pullet (surprise!!) & a majestic White Leghorn (Mr Peanut) who was given to us by a friend who'd gotten a roo in his batch of chicks & wasn't allowed to have a roo in his area.

While Rocket Man preferred to be a hands off, arms length kind of fellow, he was super gentle with and attentive to his ladies. It was clear that they loved him, too (with the exception of the 2 oldest girls who wanted nothing to do with him). If it got to be lights out & he'd tucked in the ladies but not gotten up to the roost before lights out, he'd trill softly & brush against my legs, as if asking me to help him get up to bed. I was always able to tell him that I was going to put my hands under his feet, then slowly lift my handsome rooster statue onto the roost next to his favorite hen. At that point, I was able to pet him, tell him nice things & tuck him in, too.

My little White Leghorn was billed as a loud, aggressive bully. Imagine my surprise to find that he was a complete Mama's Boy! He rode quietly in a box on my lap the whole way to his new home. He was so quiet in fact, that I was afraid that the shock of catching & popping him into a dark box had killed him, despite us both talking calmly & softly to him. When I cracked the flap lid just a wee bit to check, there he was, lying on the towel, just looking up at me. I could tell that the poor creature was scared (who wouldn't be?) so I told him that I was going to reach in to touch him & be sure that he was alright. Man, he was tense like a taught wire! And then he just relaxed as I started petting him. Here began the love story of Chicken Mom & my feathered Mama's Boy Mr Peanut. When we got home, we prepared his box in the basement & his daytime run adjacent to the main run. He was young enough to not have fully feathered & I knew that he couldn't just be popped into the population without some serious work (& some quarantine). He went from the box on my lap to the grass (& had some water) and when it was time to round him up, he jumped onto my shoulder. We walked to the porch & he had his water, dinner & our chicken cuddle time, which became our nightly ritual. He didn't care that he'd gotten older & bigger in the pic I've attached. He just loved perching on me for a nightly cuddle. If I was turning over chicken yard dirt, he'd jump on my back, walk up to my shoulder & plop himself down, thereby announcing that I was done doing whatever else I thought I was doing at that moment, lol. Even after he was introduced into the coop, he would still walk from the perch onto my lap. And if I bent over in the coop, he'd fly across to land in my back, walk up to my shoulder & snuggle.

So while I agree with the hands off arms length method, sometimes someone else has other ideas. He had some hormone induced glazed eyes where he'wanna fight, for just a moment, but by not engaging him (and not running...cause Mama's Boy or not, that's never gonna happen) he snapped back to his sweet self & we worked thru his teenage angst together. He was truly a marvelous creature, they both were.

I swear, if we ever win the lottery, we are going to have a chicken sanctuary with a b'zillion roos, hens & tons of acres to live on. And the eggs will be free to anyone. We'll predator proof it (as best one can) & have KIND flock supervisors help with them & watch over them. And we will live on the property, because really, when you define your idea of paradise, aren't there tons of happy, healthy chickens there?

 

[Crow-ded house]

We had two roosters. Rudy was very handsome, flashy and smart but was truly an a- hole. He attacked me all the time. He and I had some memorable fights. Mr Spot was a late bloomer as a rooster and he is HUGE and not too bright and kind of plain looking but then he is a sweetie. It got to where I did not have to watch my back as he would protect me from Rudy. Every time I went outside, Mr Spot would gaurd me so I could do my chores. He eats out of my hand. Rudy passed on and our new rooster Mr Toughie is a little fighter also. He tries to attack but is so small you hardly notice.

 

[featherhead007]

My bantam Cochin rooster is a gentleman.
View attachment 1292532

does he look fat?

 

[centrarchid]

Most of mine are what you would consider nice. Some of that is due to genetics although most is due to how I behave around the birds.

 

[A.M. Eggs]

My BR rooster, featured in my profile pic, is super sweet and loves to play and cuddle with people.

 

[Kruchti]

When in MN I only kept the nice roosters.