Is my rooster worthless?

[BGcoop]

He may not be top dog of the flock, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is not protecting his hen. They are all flock mates so he probably doesn’t see the other Roos as a threat per se. He may do a better job of protecting her if it were a true threat to her livelihood- an attack from another species.

 

[LuciferRoo]

He may not be top dog of the flock, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is not protecting his hen. They are all flock mates so he probably doesn’t see the other Roos as a threat per se. He may do a better job of protecting her if it were a true threat to her livelihood- an attack from another species.

Thanks.
The issue will be mostly resolved tomorrow.
By a luck of the egg gods, I ended up with a bunch of roosters.
The long story:
Peter shared the original coop with 4 hens of his generation. One if the hens died last summer during a brutal heat wave (115F for 2 weeks straight last June).
Karen (very busy hen) went broody and hatched 8 chicks, 6 being male.
Dog attacked killed one of the pullets, leaving 6 cockerels and 1 pullet.
So that one coop had Peter, 3 hens and 6 cockerels living in it.
Then I had to remove one hen as Peter was injuring her during mating.
Then the cockerels reached sexual age and started to chase the hens.
The other older hen was getting very best up. I removed her And the young pullet to keep her company. They are in a small enclosure right outside the coop.
So now that Cooper has Peter And Karen And the cockerels that are Peter's offspring.
There are two more coops in the yard, one of which is fenced in as it was used for injured chickens.
The other one had(until tonight) two young hens and maybe 10 young roosters.
Some of these would also chase Peter's hens sometimes.

I have collected all these cockerels and roosters tonight and someone is coming to get them tomorrow morning.
I am just wondering if Peter is the correct rooster to keep.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I have several Roosters & they are congenial with eachother, & even don't mind 1 wild rabbit that likes visiting the chickens. They know who is part of the family & who is worthy of attack & defense mode, such as hawks, foxes, stray dogs, etc. I'd say you're fortunate the Roosters all get along. It's much better to have a congenial brotherhood attitude.

The 3 amigos

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

I expect him to attack the rooster that is trying to mate his hen.
Is that not correct behaviour ?

it depends. if your other roosters are aggressive, perhaps you should keep the friendly ones.

 

[BackroadGirl57]

He doesn't see the other roosters as a threat, so he has no need to attack another trying to mate with his hens. Only thing he'd see as a threat is an attack from another species or a truly aggressive rooster who meant harm. Why do you want him to attack anyway? It's not their nature.

 

[igorsMistress]

Why would you want him to attack anyone else? He’s not worthless, just aging and you shouldn’t put him in a situation where he could be injured or injure anyone else. SMH.

 

[Huntmaster]

Sounds like you are trying more to protect your hens from the roosters rather than roosters fighting together. You are not going to stop roosters from trying to mate your hens, your hen to rooster ratio is off.

I am getting rid of 15 tomorrow morning and 3 will remain. Truthfully, I should only keeps one, but how can I give away a rooster whom I nursed back to health from near death?

You said it yourself you should only keep 1 rooster with your few hens. 3 to 4 ratio is not good for your hens as you already see.

 

[LuciferRoo]

Just to close the loop, Peter was not worthless. Unfortunately I lost him 3 weeks ago and within a couple of days of his passing, my other rooster was killed by a fox. Then the following day, 2nd rooster was killed also.
This leads me to believe that Peter must had been protecting the backyard from the fox.
I did find feather in the backyard sometimes, and always assume it was the other roosters' who got into a spat. There are 2 coops in the backyard, and one of these roosters lived in one coop and the others lived in the other.
There were many times when Goldie (Peter's son, and lived in same coop as Peter) came up to the other coop and was chasing that rooster.

The other 2 roosters also did try to protect the hens and gave up their lives in the effort.
Peter was the biggest of them. Now my assumption is that the fox probably chased a chicken until Peter came charging at him.
I know first hand how much it hurts when a rooster his size attacks. Peter's brother became very aggressive and one time spurred my knee. I had a big bruise and limped for over week.

 

[2ndTink]

I'm sorry you lost Peter and the others to the fox. He may indeed have been keeping the fox at bay as they definitely pack a wallop in their kicks.

 

[LuciferRoo]

Thank you.