Is a Rooster a "must have"?

[Mrs. K]

We live on a ranch, a real cattle ranch a long ways from civilization. And we have predators, daytime ones, and nighttime ones. I let mine out to free range, and I have had chickens for years, and never had a rooster. I would occasionally lose one during the day. I often lost one during the night, until we got fort knox built.

I had a neighbor 30 miles away, who also had chickens, but also always had roos, she lived on a crick, and seldom lost a hen, so I decided to try one. I have an EE rooster called Captain. He really did nothing until he got to be about 14 months old, and since then, I have not lost a hen in over a year. It has to be him. I have never seen him do anything against a predator, but he does make a lot of noise.

Now, I am starting to worry, he is just past two years old. What if something happens to him? I am kind of hoping one of the chicks just hatched is a rooster. Cause now, I think I need a spare! Good grief, chicken math.

MrsK

 

[speckledhen]

My friendjust came home from a trip early this morning (her DH and daughter were in charge of the birds so they were put in at night) to find a dead possum under her coop with large puncture wounds and her big alpha rooster's spur covered in blood up to the base of it. He's the same one I posted the link about earlier in this thread. He really hates those toothy things.


I agree about having a spare. That's why I just put my Delaware rooster's 12 week old son in the coop with him, hoping he'll accept the youngster (he's pea combed, from his EE mother), so I have a back-up for Isaac.

 

[sumi]

Can you ask her if I can borrow her roo?

Mine chase predators and would sometimes attack them, but this is a first for me!

 

[speckledhen]

That rooster is quite exceptional, for sure. We both know that that is the way he will meet his end, eventually, but that is his job and he does it with relish. He's a blue Orpington, maybe around 12-13 lb.