Help me convince DH to keep a roo

[Chickin Out]

Well, in that case, I think this is your decision to make.
To be brutally honest, it was not the soundest of judgment to hatch chicks from a rooster with a temperament that you did not like. However, sweet gentlemanly roosters are sometimes not the greatest flock protectors and aggressive roosters can be more useful as defense. Juvenile roosters are far too young to judge what their temperament will be as adults. I am not suggesting you do anymore hatching, at least until you see what this rooster turns out like. But I do think that you should put your foot down and keep the rooster.

I want to keep a roo for hatching eggs and DH is on the fence about it. He seems to not want ANY roo and to just buy pullets every year. His concerns are overbreeding and their feathers growing back by winter. Our only experience with a roo was the father of this batch and he was a bad apple. I just think hes jumping to conclusions and since I'm the one who has to end the bird I really dont want to.

 

[cmelend]

Last year was very rough on us. We decided to roll the dice and buy straight runs. Bought 12 expecting half would be roos...11 were roos. We had to pick only one and we chose poorly. He ended up being a huge jerk that pver bred our flock and attacked us on a daily basis. We decided to do a hatch and if there were any roos to replace him. On completion of the hatch we ended up with 3 hens and 2 roos. Now aggressive roo is gone and we are down to one roo but DH doesnt want to keep him. Im ADDICTED to hatching now and I want him but DH is worried about the girls regrowing their feathers since he has already started mounting. Help me convince him to keep this roo

The purely anecdotal..but my experience has this been: when I hand raise a straight run that turns out to be a rooster, they are are COMPLETE JERKS but the ones the hen raised are perfect, shy with us but gentle with the girls..so maybe yours will be fine

 

[NatJ]

I want to keep a roo for hatching eggs and DH is on the fence about it. He seems to not want ANY roo and to just buy pullets every year.

If you butcher this rooster, you could still buy a male chick when you buy pullets in a future year.

For a chicken that gets butchered, this is a permanent decision. But for the people, and the flock as a whole, this decision does not have to be permanent. "No rooster now" is not the same as "no rooster ever."

Or you might be able to reach a temporary compromise: keep this one for now, and re-evaluate in a month. I know this is similar to what you've already said you want (keep him unless a problem arises), but it might help to state a particular length of trial and then discuss it again. (At which point, the decision might be "try for another month" or it might be something more final. But at least for some people I know, setting a particular amount of time lets them feel that something has been done or a sensible plan has been made. Of course there are other people for whom it doesn't help at all.)

 

[Killyhawker]

How many weeks or months is that?

It’s 4 months…she said, right after the teenager comment, that he was hatched in April.

 

[mhami]

Last year was very rough on us. We decided to roll the dice and buy straight runs. Bought 12 expecting half would be roos...11 were roos. We had to pick only one and we chose poorly. He ended up being a huge jerk that pver bred our flock and attacked us on a daily basis. We decided to do a hatch and if there were any roos to replace him. On completion of the hatch we ended up with 3 hens and 2 roos. Now aggressive roo is gone and we are down to one roo but DH doesnt want to keep him. Im ADDICTED to hatching now and I want him but DH is worried about the girls regrowing their feathers since he has already started mounting. Help me convince him to keep this roo

I've never had a rooster, but you can buy hen protectors from chewy.com. They're like little saddle, very nicely made, that protects the back of the chickens from rowdy roosters. Good luck!

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

Well, in that case, I think this is your decision to make.
To be brutally honest, it was not the soundest of judgment to hatch chicks from a rooster with a temperament that you did not like. However, sweet gentlemanly roosters are sometimes not the greatest flock protectors and aggressive roosters can be more useful as defense. Juvenile roosters are far too young to judge what their temperament will be as adults. I am not suggesting you do anymore hatching, at least until you see what this rooster turns out like. But I do think that you should put your foot down and keep the rooster.

His father, while highly aggressive, was a poor flock protector. One of our hens was taken by a fox and he went and hid under our porch. Fortunately the fox has left the area but we had to lock the birds up for weeks to get him to move on.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

The purely anecdotal..but my experience has this been: when I hand raise a straight run that turns out to be a rooster, they are are COMPLETE JERKS but the ones the hen raised are perfect, shy with us but gentle with the girls..so maybe yours will be fine

Ive seen my confirmed hens actually displaying rooster fighting tendencies with him: puffing up the neck and jumping at him with their feet. He's not having a very easy time. He's afraid to go in the coop at night because they pick on him. Its kinda funny to see such a "big man" put in his place by a hen! DH saw him peck out tail feathers from a hen yesterday and he was like "see hes too aggressive" and I said "yea but they were just introduced. This is pecking order"

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

I've never had a rooster, but you can buy hen protectors from chewy.com. They're like little saddle, very nicely made, that protects the back of the chickens from rowdy roosters. Good luck!

Id rather make them myself if you have a pattern. I know my way around a sewing machine

 

[Vicker]

I've had several roosters and always end up getting rid of them. Each time, the hens seemed more content after they were gone. You need a lot of hens per rooster to prevent overbreeding. Even with a large flock, the rooster will have his favorite mating partners, though. I've made saddles to protect the girls' poor bare backs but didn't like leaving them on all the time. If I wanted to have fertilized eggs, I would keep the rooster in its own pen. For me, that's adding too much more work to keep up with.

 

[Vicker]

Id rather make them myself if you have a pattern. I know my way around a sewing machine

https://weallsew.com/wp-content/upl...n_or_Hen_Saddle_Pattern_-_WeAllSew_121314.pdf