Let that Rooster Crow 🐓

[HenHouseB]

Meet Annibel. Yes, I know that’s a girl’s name but I didn’t realize I had a rooster until he was 4+months old. So I decided to keep his name...boy named Sue. Anyway, he is a beauty and I love to hear him crow!

 

[BonNuit]

what kind of chicken is the white one? I got some hatching eggs from a barnyard mix. chicks are now 13 weeks old. One looks exactly like your white one

I believe that's Smoosh (so named because she was caught under the bedding mat and 14 other chicks stomping on her for 9 hours when she was 2 weeks old) -- and if so, she's a White Leghorn. However, if it isn't Smoosh, then the only other possibility is that she's a Amberlink, as that is the only white hen breed I have.

 

[Tre3hugger]

He is a beauty, what is he?

IDK, an Easter egger probably.

 

[muttsrbest]

This is our current rooster. He is about 1.5 years old. He is a French Wheaton Maran. I had bought 12 chicks, straight run, 8 black copper marans and 4 french wheaton. There were 6 roos in all but only one was french wheaton. The roos all looked exactly alike except the french wheaton had white feathers on his backside so his name is White Butt . I’ve had quite a few roosters over the 10 years I’ve been keeping chickens. Only a few turned out to be good roosters that didn’t want to attack me. One was a Lavender Orpington, who I just loved. Another was some sort of cross, down the line from that Lavender Orpington, had a Speckled Sussex who was nice, one of those black copper marans and then this guy. He and that black copper lived peacefully together until they hit about 9 months old and then tried to kill each other. This guy was always my favorite, plus he won the fight and all the girls after being the underdog for 9 months, PLUS I was pretty sure he fought off something that got in the coop one night before I super duper fortified it, so he got to stay. Since then, we didn’t exactly catch what happened but recently he ran off something that got in their free range yard during the day, probably a fox. There was a great disturbance in the yard and my husband caught something running on the ground out of the corner of his eye with White Butt hot on it’s tail. All the hens, including a Mama with five 4-5 week old chicks were all safe. We do not raiae our birds as pets so he won’t let me touch him but he will definitely snatch a tomato or some other prize from my hand, run off, drop it on the ground, and call his hens to get it. When he was the underdog, he would hang out with me while I picked vegetables and I’d feed him bad tomatoes because I felt so

sorry for him. He didn’t have any friends and he wasn’t allowed to play with the hens. The other rooster would run him off. There’s my story!! I am a city girl, raised in Miami, but my husband introduced me to chicken raising and yes, I loooovve to hear a rooster crow!

 

[FortCluck]

View attachment 2274426
This is our current rooster. He is about 1.5 years old. He is a French Wheaton Maran. I had bought 12 chicks, straight run, 8 black copper marans and 4 french wheaton. There were 6 roos in all but only one was french wheaton. The roos all looked exactly alike except the french wheaton had white feathers on his backside so his name is White Butt . I’ve had quite a few roosters over the 10 years I’ve been keeping chickens. Only a few turned out to be good roosters that didn’t want to attack me. One was a Lavender Orpington, who I just loved. Another was some sort of cross, down the line from that Lavender Orpington, had a Speckled Sussex who was nice, one of those black copper marans and then this guy. He and that black copper lived peacefully together until they hit about 9 months old and then tried to kill each other. This guy was always my favorite, plus he won the fight and all the girls after being the underdog for 9 months, PLUS I was pretty sure he fought off something that got in the coop one night before I super duper fortified it, so he got to stay. Since then, we didn’t exactly catch what happened but recently he ran off something that got in their free range yard during the day, probably a fox. There was a great disturbance in the yard and my husband caught something running on the ground out of the corner of his eye with White Butt hot on it’s tail. All the hens, including a Mama with five 4-5 week old chicks were all safe. We do not raiae our birds as pets so he won’t let me touch him but he will definitely snatch a tomato or some other prize from my hand, run off, drop it on the ground, and call his hens to get it. When he was the underdog, he would hang out with me while I picked vegetables and I’d feed him bad tomatoes because I felt so View attachment 2274426sorry for him. He didn’t have any friends and he wasn’t allowed to play with the hens. The other rooster would run him off. There’s my story!! I am a city girl, raised in Miami, but my husband introduced me to chicken raising and yes, I loooovve to hear a rooster crow!

I love it too!!!

 

[CrazyTownChick]

What will you do with males? Keep them, rehome them, or use for meat?

Fair question. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, or when the chickens cross the road....whichever comes first.
It depends on the number of cockerels, first. I think we could probably deal with keeping one or maybe two at the most and see how that goes. (My husband says "maybe one, not two") If we had more than two, we would definitely look into rehoming -- with neighbors or other chicken owners we know locally.
I know it's a newby mistake but we (especially me) have already become very attached to all of them. We don't yet have that "farmer" mentality where you keep them either only for eggs or meat, and will eat them when convenient. We hope to keep an egg producing flock.
Because they're still in a large brooder in the garage, if the weather is good we take them outside for several hours every day. I sit in the outside pen with them for a little bit and every one of them climbs or flies onto my lap. Some stay for pets, some just come to say Hi and leave. They are lovable.
So I could not imagine eating or selling any of them for meat. Not even a rooster. We'd need to find someone who would want to keep them in their flock. I hope I'm not being too idealistic -- we'll see.
obviously this is our first experience keeping chickens.

 

[CrazyTownChick]

View attachment 2274426
This is our current rooster. He is about 1.5 years old. He is a French Wheaton Maran. I had bought 12 chicks, straight run, 8 black copper marans and 4 french wheaton. There were 6 roos in all but only one was french wheaton. The roos all looked exactly alike except the french wheaton had white feathers on his backside so his name is White Butt . I’ve had quite a few roosters over the 10 years I’ve been keeping chickens. Only a few turned out to be good roosters that didn’t want to attack me. One was a Lavender Orpington, who I just loved. Another was some sort of cross, down the line from that Lavender Orpington, had a Speckled Sussex who was nice, one of those black copper marans and then this guy. He and that black copper lived peacefully together until they hit about 9 months old and then tried to kill each other. This guy was always my favorite, plus he won the fight and all the girls after being the underdog for 9 months, PLUS I was pretty sure he fought off something that got in the coop one night before I super duper fortified it, so he got to stay. Since then, we didn’t exactly catch what happened but recently he ran off something that got in their free range yard during the day, probably a fox. There was a great disturbance in the yard and my husband caught something running on the ground out of the corner of his eye with White Butt hot on it’s tail. All the hens, including a Mama with five 4-5 week old chicks were all safe. We do not raiae our birds as pets so he won’t let me touch him but he will definitely snatch a tomato or some other prize from my hand, run off, drop it on the ground, and call his hens to get it. When he was the underdog, he would hang out with me while I picked vegetables and I’d feed him bad tomatoes because I felt so View attachment 2274426sorry for him. He didn’t have any friends and he wasn’t allowed to play with the hens. The other rooster would run him off. There’s my story!! I am a city girl, raised in Miami, but my husband introduced me to chicken raising and yes, I loooovve to hear a rooster crow!

Great story, thanks for sharing. He is gorgeous.

 

[CrazyTownChick]

love love roos !!! I currently have 5 they are 6 years old along with the hens that they came with. Am getting 2 new babies along with a new group of hen babies to refresh my flock.

Its my LGD that keeps my Roos getting along he doesn't like fighting. So when the roos start fighting he breaks them up, picks out the aggressor, crowding them, getting between them, using his huge paw to swat at one, and then using his nose up the aggressor roos butt to escort him out of the area. The aggressor roo gets tired of the intervention... and moves on.

what's an LGD?

 

[PatriciafromCO]

what's an LGD?

Livestock Guardian Dog

 

[KMedley]

No name for this one yet - I’ll take suggestions picture was taken while transporting him home. He’s getting along with the girls nicely! Can’t wait to move them all into the coop.