dashman1319
Chirping
Hi all,
I've posted a few times about my back and forth thinking regarding keeping a rooster that showed up in our first order of sexed chicks. We ended up with four hens and a RIR rooster. There were a lot of up and down moments, but in the end our observation seemed to be that our little flock was well enough balanced and we figured the rooster provided some extra protection for our free ranging birds.
Thing is, I've been of the mind lately that our rooster actually doesn't do much protecting. We got a dog about two months ago, and while she is always leashed, she loves to make hopeless runs at the curious hens who always show up around us when we go outside. I couldn't help but notice that the rooster seemed unperturbed and also would turn and scoot when the dog showed anything resembling aggression.
Then this morning, as I sat at the breakfast table shortly after letting the flock out of the coop, I heard an almighty commotion. I turned around just in time to see perhaps the most beautiful fox I've ever seen in the wild gleefully chasing my flock through the yard. Everything happened pretty quickly - the dog was thrown into its pen, I ran barefoot into the yard yelling, and chickens were flying everywhere - but a lasting impression was the rooster, far ahead of his flailing hens, hightailing it behind the house. Luckily, no damage was done besides a few ruffled feathers.
When things had calmed down and I went to reassure the hens that all was well again, I found the rooster, as always, mounting his girls. And I just thought, you useless, cowardly creature. You haven't earned that right.
So does this sound like an inordinately ineffective bird? Or is this just par for the course? We put up with the rooster's noise, the girls put up with his insatiable sex drive, and for what? (For what it's worth, to balance the flock more we are adding an additional 4-5 laying hens in June).
I've posted a few times about my back and forth thinking regarding keeping a rooster that showed up in our first order of sexed chicks. We ended up with four hens and a RIR rooster. There were a lot of up and down moments, but in the end our observation seemed to be that our little flock was well enough balanced and we figured the rooster provided some extra protection for our free ranging birds.
Thing is, I've been of the mind lately that our rooster actually doesn't do much protecting. We got a dog about two months ago, and while she is always leashed, she loves to make hopeless runs at the curious hens who always show up around us when we go outside. I couldn't help but notice that the rooster seemed unperturbed and also would turn and scoot when the dog showed anything resembling aggression.
Then this morning, as I sat at the breakfast table shortly after letting the flock out of the coop, I heard an almighty commotion. I turned around just in time to see perhaps the most beautiful fox I've ever seen in the wild gleefully chasing my flock through the yard. Everything happened pretty quickly - the dog was thrown into its pen, I ran barefoot into the yard yelling, and chickens were flying everywhere - but a lasting impression was the rooster, far ahead of his flailing hens, hightailing it behind the house. Luckily, no damage was done besides a few ruffled feathers.
When things had calmed down and I went to reassure the hens that all was well again, I found the rooster, as always, mounting his girls. And I just thought, you useless, cowardly creature. You haven't earned that right.
So does this sound like an inordinately ineffective bird? Or is this just par for the course? We put up with the rooster's noise, the girls put up with his insatiable sex drive, and for what? (For what it's worth, to balance the flock more we are adding an additional 4-5 laying hens in June).