i need information about rooster raising!! please

[6chickens in St. Charles]

We met a Rhode Island Red rooster in a flock once, my DH still talks about that beautiful roo. He had a great barritone crow, too. He was a gorgeous bird. Deep auburn with darker longer tail feathers arc-ing over....

Has he considered choosing a roo for looks? If I had known I could have chickens, I would have picked out a bunch of pretty ones!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2010/01/pet_talk_as_backyard_chickens.html

above may be a resource for taking in a beautiful rooster!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy is giving you pretty good advice. With seven hens, one rooster will probably keep all of them fertile. Many people at fertile eggs. It is no big deal.. They don't taste any different. There is nothing wrong with hybrid chickens. They are no crazier than any other chickens. Genetically you cannot tell a purebreed from a hybrid anyway. All breeds were developed by mixing other breeds so you might say all purebreeds are hybrids. Don't think about that too hard, but it is no big deal.

The problem with introducing a rooster to an established flock of grown hens is that if the rooster is too immature, they might attack him unmercifully, worse than they would attack a new pullet, or they might not. If he is matue enough to dominate them by the sheer strength of his personality, he will come in, mate with them to show his dominance, and all will be fairly well. There may be some excitement if the former lead hen does not want to give up her priviledged position, but that is usually sorted pretty quickly. If you get a rooster that is about a year old or older, it will probably go pretty smoothly. After quarantine, I would not worry about a slow integration. He should be able to dominate the hens without a lot of trouble. You can get a six weekold and put him with the six week old pullets with no more problems than introducing a new pullet. The older hens might or might not pick on him when you introduce the younger group to the older. I can't tell you what will happen for sure. It depends on the personality of the hens and the rooster. I'm going to be introducing a young rooster to some older hens in the near future. I don't know if I will have problems or not.

There are several different genes that effect the egg color. If you get an EE rooster, some of his daughters will probably lay green eggs and some will probably lay brown. It jut depends on how the genetics work out. If you want a lot of green eggs, you probably should get an EE rooster. If you get a Buff Orp or any rooster other than an EE, some of your EE hen's daughters will lay green eggs, but none of the other hens daughter's will, and some of the EE's daughters will lay brown eggs.