Is my rooster man enough?

[lomine]

Personally I think you get better behaving roosters that have had a few thumps, and had to work his way up.

I agree 100%. The cockerels raised among mature birds seem to be much more balanced.

 

[wild chick]

An amateur I am, but my observation: with my first hand raised chicks, the rooster I kept was mean to both humans and hens. Since they were all the same age, the pecking order just worked it's way in and as the cockerel got mature he started bossing really hard. The next spring I kept one of his sons, who had to put up with all those older hens pecking him into place after he got weaned from his mother. When he was about 5 months old I put his mean father in the freezer & watched this guy become the most polite kind bird ever. AND good looking.

 

[Mrs. K]

I find this too. There are often people that post on here that they have had chickens for year, and never had a real problem with roosters. But genearally, they have at least a midsize flock, almost alway a multigenerational flock and a great deal of space.

Roosters raised just with flock mates, do become the bully and get away with it because there is no other bird bigger than him. Often times as the chick, they are fearless, and approach humans, which make the inexperienced think that they like them. When in reality, they have no respect.

In a flock, there is a very real society. In a multi-generational flock, the young learn to mind their p's and q's. If they don't, they get educated.

In my experience, close to 15 years of chickens, the best roosters are raised up in a flock. There are lots of roosters, if yours is mean, find some one that has one so nice, they just haven't got around to culling them.

Mrs K