Whenever a flock member leaves or is added, the pecking order must get re-established. It may only last a day or a few weeks, but they'll be fine.We've had our roo, Cheep, for just over a year now. My wife thought it would be fun to hatch chicks ourselves. Of the 7 eggs that hatched, 5 ended up as roosters.....Guess who's job it was to cull the flock when we had 4 roosters all crowing at the same time? Cheep survived the culling because we thought he was a hen because he didn't grow any waddle or tail feathers or crow until we got rid of the other roosters. Sneaky little cock.
Anyways, we're looking to get rid of him because roosters are prohibited in our city and our new neighbors down the street who fancy themselves regulation experts threatened to tattle on us to the city.
My question, is there any social trauma to the flock by getting rid of the only rooster after a year growing up with the flock? Are there any serious drawbacks to not having any roosters? He's kind of useless on the protection front as I've watched him watch rats eat chicken feed right next to him and he doesn't make any noise when hawks are flying around. Thoughts?
We had the same issue when one of our former lav orps got too cocky around my kids. He was too unpredictable & I didn't trust him. I knew there were plenty of good roosters out there, so I didn't want to waste my time or endanger my kids. We got rid of him & the top 2 hens sort of took over. Eventually one of the spring chicks grew up into our new flock leader, but that summer, the 2 mature hens ruled the roost.