six_chooks_for_now
Songster
Hello!
Sorry this might be long winded --
I need some suggestions and help with deciding how to choose a flock rooster for our hens. We got 17 heritage male chicks in April so we could choose one to keep. After we got our boys, I read that roosters raised with flock mates (rather than raised generationally) may not make the best flock rooster because they often don't develop the best behaviors. After raising these boys, I can see why. Kind of Lord of the Flies in our bachelor pad sometimes. Anyway, we chose the mixed heavy lot from McMurray so we could see what breeds we liked best. Our hens are all different breeds and we would only be raising for personal use, so we don't mind mixed breeding. We ended up with: Speckled Sussex, Delaware, Light Brahma, New Hampshire, and Barred Rocks.
My husband and I both liked the Brahmas for their size and temperament, so last week we grabbed one of the largest of the three and stuck him in with our hens at night. Turns out, he is terrified of the hens and a couple of them go out of their way to terrorize him, and he tries to avoid them as much as possible. He is as big or bigger than all the hens, but he is younger by about a year. He has also decided now that he is alone and not with his rooster flock mates that he should come up to me and try and peck/bite my legs or feet. He never did this in the pen with the others. I try to ignore him, walk around, etc. and if he does peck me, when I go to grab him and push him to the ground he runs off screaming right away. So at this point I'm thinking, maybe we chose wrong? Why is he such a wussy? I know Brahmas take longer to mature so maybe he just hasn't figured out he's a real rooster? But I also don't know how long/how much of the coming up to peck me I should tolerate.
We also ended up with a small Speckled Sussex cockerel in the same hen area. He was getting picked on pretty bad so we had to separate him from the other roosters until we could dispatch him. However, the girls are much more tolerant of him, and he seems more savvy about avoiding them when they are pissy, but still kind of hangs out near them. He also avoids me when I come around, which I prefer. He's so small though, and not really ideal body size at his age to keep as our breeding rooster.
Our girls free range during the day but we sectioned everyone off in a smaller area when we first added the Brahma, with today being the first day all the hens, Brahma, and tiny Sussex got to be out together.
So I guess my questions are this - if you had to choose a rooster from a bunch of flock mates, what qualities do you look for? Biggest? Top of pecking order? Best personality? We have a few aggressive ones that I would outright not choose (one New Hampshire seems legitimately to have a screw loose). We also have some that ended up pretty small which don't seem like winners either. But it seems really hard to judge their personality when they are all in the bachelor pad which is why I am hoping someone will have some advice! Should we just try a rooster for a couple weeks at a time with the hens and see which one works out best? We're kind of at a loss here.
Thank you all in advance
Sorry this might be long winded --
I need some suggestions and help with deciding how to choose a flock rooster for our hens. We got 17 heritage male chicks in April so we could choose one to keep. After we got our boys, I read that roosters raised with flock mates (rather than raised generationally) may not make the best flock rooster because they often don't develop the best behaviors. After raising these boys, I can see why. Kind of Lord of the Flies in our bachelor pad sometimes. Anyway, we chose the mixed heavy lot from McMurray so we could see what breeds we liked best. Our hens are all different breeds and we would only be raising for personal use, so we don't mind mixed breeding. We ended up with: Speckled Sussex, Delaware, Light Brahma, New Hampshire, and Barred Rocks.
My husband and I both liked the Brahmas for their size and temperament, so last week we grabbed one of the largest of the three and stuck him in with our hens at night. Turns out, he is terrified of the hens and a couple of them go out of their way to terrorize him, and he tries to avoid them as much as possible. He is as big or bigger than all the hens, but he is younger by about a year. He has also decided now that he is alone and not with his rooster flock mates that he should come up to me and try and peck/bite my legs or feet. He never did this in the pen with the others. I try to ignore him, walk around, etc. and if he does peck me, when I go to grab him and push him to the ground he runs off screaming right away. So at this point I'm thinking, maybe we chose wrong? Why is he such a wussy? I know Brahmas take longer to mature so maybe he just hasn't figured out he's a real rooster? But I also don't know how long/how much of the coming up to peck me I should tolerate.
We also ended up with a small Speckled Sussex cockerel in the same hen area. He was getting picked on pretty bad so we had to separate him from the other roosters until we could dispatch him. However, the girls are much more tolerant of him, and he seems more savvy about avoiding them when they are pissy, but still kind of hangs out near them. He also avoids me when I come around, which I prefer. He's so small though, and not really ideal body size at his age to keep as our breeding rooster.
Our girls free range during the day but we sectioned everyone off in a smaller area when we first added the Brahma, with today being the first day all the hens, Brahma, and tiny Sussex got to be out together.
So I guess my questions are this - if you had to choose a rooster from a bunch of flock mates, what qualities do you look for? Biggest? Top of pecking order? Best personality? We have a few aggressive ones that I would outright not choose (one New Hampshire seems legitimately to have a screw loose). We also have some that ended up pretty small which don't seem like winners either. But it seems really hard to judge their personality when they are all in the bachelor pad which is why I am hoping someone will have some advice! Should we just try a rooster for a couple weeks at a time with the hens and see which one works out best? We're kind of at a loss here.
Thank you all in advance
