In pursuit of Mr. Right

[Martha444]

What is your program or method of operation for sifting out the "bad" ones? Do you keep them in a mixed flock and see how they act around one another? Do you go in there and see how they react to you doing things? All the chicks I'm raising right now will either be kept for egg production or go in the freezer. I got some new breeds and am hoping for one or two roosters that will work out for us. I just wish I knew of an exact equation for figuring out which rooster is nice and which ones aren't.

This is our process. We raise our home hatched cockerels and pullets together. We take quite a bit of time observing them together and when the guys start getting their testosterone you can tell pretty quickly which ones are dancers and which ones are rapists. The hens eventually will start wanting to be around some boys more than other boys, thats a consideration.

Things we look for:

• Are interested in us immediately when they see us & calmly walk up to us
• Tolerate and even like being touched, handled, sit on our knees, taking treats from our hands (we teach them to "knock" gently on the knuckles of a fisted hand which opens and gives them treats)
• Will turn his back to us and leave us alone in the yard to do our work
• Dances for the pullets and stops trying to mount them if they protest
• Healthy color, wide head and hips (we have barred rocks), everything seems balanced on his body

Warning signs from young cockerels:

• Don't want to be around you
• Won't leave you alone, but doesn't want to be touched or take treats. Sometimes they might put themselves between you and the flock.
• Overly aggressive with the other roosters (ideally we like to have a couple in the yard at a time and cant have them killing each other)
• Display outright human aggression like very deep regular bites (its normal for them to bite a bit, its chicken language.)
• Sneak up behind you to bite you hard. (some personal judgement here. sometimes they're just pecking at freckles or my hair band, or something on my pants. Some guys are just trying to get my attention because there is too much competition at the front of me.)

I've never had any of the culling or younger age Barred rock cockerels be as obviously human aggressive as a flay. They would with each other but not us. (the rhode island red cockerels were human and chicken aggressive very early) I've never bought a rooster off someone else so I'm not sure how that would turn out. You would have to go a lot by what the owner says about his personality and how he acts around you when you meet him in his yard.

Even being as choosy as you can be their personalities can change, new environment, new flock, new people, just their natural aging, exposure to predators and threats, season... and you just have to deal with what you get.

Someone in an earlier post said they don't try to adjust rooster behavior anymore. I would have to second that. I don't try very hard anymore. Roosters are pretty stubborn. And if they're still being turds even after being hand raised...

 

[Double Yolked]

I was going to put a wall of text here detailing my whole rooster experience, but I won't torture you all.

What do you look for when you pick out a rooster for your flock? Should I just give up on finding Mr. Right and keep an all-girl flock?

I've had 1 exceptional rooster, 1 reasonably good rooster (the one in my avatar photo) and a whole lot of bleh roosters and one psychopath roo. I didn't raise the exceptional one, he was gifted to me by a good friend who knew I was trying rather desperately to find a decent one because I had a whole flock of new, dumb pullets who needed a protector/teacher. Chuckles was amazing.
A lot of people will say it's how you raise them, some will swear its dumb luck, some will give you one "perfect way" or another. Which may or may not work for you.
And then some will tell you "just raise a female flock".
All I know is genetics didn't seem to be my friend (Chuckle's lone male offspring was my psycho!)
Different methods of raising them were unsuccessful. Mostly my all female flocks worked well, until it didn't. Thus my quest for a good rooster. Just don't get too attached to any rooster because good ones can be hard to find and bad ones can break your flock.