How To Raise A Rooster

[The Momma]

No Roosters will be Roosters. I have two with four hens and all they do is eat and mate. Coming from the city to the country and raising chickens I never have eaten a fertilized eggs until now. WOW they are delicious. Don't fear the fertilized egg. In fact, you can sell them for more than regular eggs if you ever care to.

 

[azoh10]

Hi

Can any one tell me when chicken start laying. When do I leave them to be hatch by them and when do I pick them up so they don't rot or be eaten by them?

Thanks

 

[LadyCluck77]

Hi

Can any one tell me when chicken start laying. When do I leave them to be hatch by them and when do I pick them up so they don't rot or be eaten by them?

Thanks

Usually they will lay eggs sometime around 20 weeks old, though production bred types, ie, sex links and white leghorns can start laying sometimes at 15 weeks. Some heritage breeds can take much longer, I've waited 30 weeks on some.

I collect eggs once every day, after I get back from work. They stay good and fresh.
If you want chicks, and if you have a rooster covering the hens well, you can let the hens sit. But only they choose to sit when they feel like it. If you notice a hen sitting puffed up on eggs and not going up to roost at night, she might be broody. That means she's decided to try hatching out chicks.

Feel free to read up on the various threads on here about Broodies, this place is a wealth of information.

 

[Chickie Baby]

I've read in several places not to let the Roos mount the girls in front of me since I'm the "leader". So, this is the approach I've taken with my roosters. When one of them starts, I push him off and chase him away from the girls. I'm a lady, but I use a very firm tone with them..... And I will chase until we are both exhausted. This may come back to haunt me, but I haven't had any kind of aggressiveness from any of the three Roos I have. I have one hen that knows that they're not supposed to while I'm out there and she will fight the Roos if they go for any girl. Like she and I have formed an alliance

I guess my question would be, am I causing future aggressiveness by doing this? So far so good, but I do feel a rooster is unpredictable.

 

[LindaB220]

I've read in several places not to let the Roos mount the girls in front of me since I'm the "leader". So, this is the approach I've taken with my roosters. When one of them starts, I push him off and chase him away from the girls. I'm a lady, but I use a very firm tone with them..... And I will chase until we are both exhausted. This may come back to haunt me, but I haven't had any kind of aggressiveness from any of the three Roos I have. I have one hen that knows that they're not supposed to while I'm out there and she will fight the Roos if they go for any girl. Like she and I have formed an alliance

I guess my question would be, am I causing future aggressiveness by doing this? So far so good, but I do feel a rooster is unpredictable.

Hey Chickie, it sounds to me like you are doing a great job. This is exactly how to remain the alpha in the pack. I think that this is a good approach to keeping them docile. You are the boss. Good luck

 

[azoh10]

Thank you so much for the information.

 

[krose2001]

Quick question- I was having the same issue with a particularly aggressive roo, and initially I tried the "separation" technique, where I let the girls and the other roo out, but kept the aggressive rooster in the run. The first 5 minutes were terrible! He was squawking and growling, and then he began flinging himself against the hardware cloth, but eventually (30 minutes) he calmed down, and when I let him out he SEEMED a bit less aggressive.

The other day though he was aggressive towards me, so I picked him up, held him, but when I put him down, he ran over and began pecking all of the hens and the other rooster!

Has anyone ever had this happen?

I might just go back to the separation method, definitely don't want a repeat of that behavior!

 

[Aphrael]

Just thought I'd pitch in with my experiences so far. I first decided to have roosters in addition to my hens a few years ago, so that I could hatch my own eggs. My first group were a set of "packing peanuts" sent for warmth with some chicks I ordered from a hatchery. Pretty sure they were hatchery quality RIRs. They were very pretty boys, but of the 9 of them most were absolutely HORRID. No cuddling or babying, but they were mean sons of guns. So, I chose the 2 calmest and nicest looking ones and processed the rest. Of those two - Peanut and Peck - Peanut became the alpha and was really good with the hens, Peck was horrible to them, would rip out feathers and hurt them any chance he got. Needless to say he soon joined his earlier brethren in a stewpot. (Though I have since come to wonder if his meanness may have stemmed from frustration since I had only 6 hens at the time and Peanut wasn't big on sharing.

) But I digress... When Peanut reached close to a year old, he suddenly decided that maybe he was top dog rather than me. Nothing drastic or violent, he just stretched his neck out and ruffled his feathers and glared at me rather than scooting quicklike out of my way. I immediately grabbed a stick and chased him around the yard until he stopped turning to looked at me and practically picked up his pettiskirts to run flat out away from me. I did the same thing every single time I went into the yard whether he bowed up at me or not for a few days after and I never again had a single problem from him. Even if I had to do something with a hen and she raised a fuss, he would come running, but as soon as he saw me he would stop and have this look like "Oops, sorry boss, didn't know it was you. Carry on." I no longer have Peanut, but I now have 2 Lavender Orp and 1 SFH roos. I had very much the same sort of experience with them. Very docile until nearly a year old and then decided to test their limits. The chasing until they utterly back down for a few days has worked a charm for them as well. However, in the interim I have also had a Mille Fleur D'uccle roo and he was sweet until around a year old and then he became a vicious little cuss, and nothing I could ever do would deter him. I worked with him for a while because he was so beautiful, but after I forgot to watch out for him and he left my legs bleeding, he got to go into a pot for dogfood and that ended that.

So I guess what this whole long-winded thing boils down to is that I agree with the poster who said it is a combination of nurture AND nature. I think if handled correctly and put in their place many roos can work out very well. However, there are some that are just plain mean and won't be deterred no matter how much you put them in their place. For those that can be "cured", I'm of the opinion that HOW you assert your dominance is of less importance than that you DO assert it. For those that suggest scooping them up and holding them until they settle, or holding them down until they do, I think those ways would probably work just as well as my chasing method. I'm just too broken to catch the fast buggers, so chasing it is for me.

 

[Aphrael]

Quick question- I was having the same issue with a particularly aggressive roo, and initially I tried the "separation" technique, where I let the girls and the other roo out, but kept the aggressive rooster in the run. The first 5 minutes were terrible! He was squawking and growling, and then he began flinging himself against the hardware cloth, but eventually (30 minutes) he calmed down, and when I let him out he SEEMED a bit less aggressive.

The other day though he was aggressive towards me, so I picked him up, held him, but when I put him down, he ran over and began pecking all of the hens and the other rooster!

Has anyone ever had this happen?

I might just go back to the separation method, definitely don't want a repeat of that behavior!

I have seen that in some of my younger roos and some of my more dominant hens. It seems to me like they are angry that they got put in their place and since they can't boss you they are looking for anyone else they CAN boss. Almost like a toddler throwing a tantrum when they don't get their way. This is just what it seems like to me. I am far from an expert.

 

[backyardflock1]

My current roo was handled occasionally. He comes inside sometimes and he falls asleep in my arms or near me. I am lucky he isn't really aggressive because I did cuddle him sometimes, and he still turned out to be a good roo