Looking for Rooster

[Angileen]

Hello- we are new to tending chickens. Have 4 buff Orpington Hens(1 laying). Still figuring out how to best care for these sweet hens. I see turkey vulture, hawk activity regularly. It seems their greatest threat is from the sky. Question:Will adding a rooster help protect my hens?

I welcome any knowledge of where I will find an English red Orpington rooster. We offer a loving, good home for this special fella. We desire to give a good rooster a pleasant home.

Tree

A Rooster may help but not a guarantee, If you get a Rooster you should have at least 10 hens or your hens will get over bred and end up with a lot of missing feathers and sores. Also the lighter the breed of chicken the more the predators notice them. Dark colored breeds and barred breeds are more camouflaged. A flight netting on top of their pen is the only fool proof way of protecting your hens from flying predator's. If you have a dog that gets along with your chickens and wont hurt them you could keep him inside the fence with the chickens, that may help.

 

[ErnieBerley]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about buzzards.. I see em all the time. Hawks and eagles, now they a different kind of scary.

Lost my boy HOOTIE to a hawk in December, he died but his girls lived. WHITE BOI the little prissy scared dingy leghorn ran away screaming like a sailboat with smoke flying beneath is feet. He has now stepped up and watches the sky.

on another note..that is a bizzare avatar pic u have.... what is that? lol. it's almost like a TOOL video if you know what i'm talking about ...haha

 

[Angileen]

A Rooster may help but not a guarantee, If you get a Rooster you should have at least 10 hens or your hens will get over bred and end up with a lot of missing feathers and sores. Also the lighter the breed of chicken the more the predators notice them. Dark colored breeds and barred breeds are more camouflaged. A flight netting on top of their pen is the only fool proof way of protecting your hens from flying predator's. If you have a dog that gets along with your chickens and wont hurt them you could keep him inside the fence with the chickens, that may help.

Also want to say, once a predator finds your chickens they will continue coming back until they are all gone. So be prepared to build a safer enclosure for them.

 

[ErnieBerley]

and try to be around when something happens to scare the crap out of the attacker...then they wont come back..generally. I had netting around my coop, except like a small 3-4ft section and a coopers hawk found it and poof, my beautiful Mille fleur d'uccles hen was gone.

 

[2 many chickens]

on another note..that is a bizzare avatar pic u have.... what is that? lol. it's almost like a TOOL video if you know what i'm talking about ...haha

I love TOOL haha
Its Don Vito, Bam Margeras fat slow uncle. I used to watch his show when I was a teen and always thought the uncle was hilarious
I think hes riding a tractor or something idunoo

 

[Angileen]

I have 4 Roosters in my flock of 30 hens, I only wanted 3 but got another by mistake. I have a Jersey Giant, Midnight Majesty Marans, Lavender Orpington and a Buckeye. All my boys are well behaved they get along great with each other and with humans. They were raised together and I spent alot of time socializing them. My Midnight Majesty Marans Pecked me once when he was a juvenile and thought he was protecting his girl I was holding. Instead of letting him get the upper hand I picked him up and carried him around for a while. He ran up to me one other time and I turned on him and chased him down and held him again. He has never challenged me since and has turned into a fine Rooster who I know will protect his ladies if need be. My Buckeye Rooster is a big baby and loves to be held and is the bottom of the pecking order, my Jersey Giant and Marans are the next in line and are equals, my Lavender Orpington is at the top but I believe it is because of his size, he is huge but has a very docile personality. My Roosters have never hurt each other they do get into very mild squabbles once in a while to reinforce there pecking order. Some of my hens are getting a little tattered looking from over breeding so once I am done collecting eggs for the incubator I am going to put my Roos in a separate part of the pen for a while so my girls can get a rest. Even though I have 4 Roos I still have my flock in a fenced in area with flight netting on top and I make sure they are all locked up safe in their coop at night. I have way too many predators where I live, ground predators and ariel predators. I have 2 neighbors that have tried raising chickens and Guinee fowl and lost their flocks in one summer they didn't even make it a year because they didn't have them in a safe enclosure.

 

[ErnieBerley]

I love TOOL haha
Its Don Vito, Bam Margeras fat slow uncle. I used to watch his show when I was a teen and always thought the uncle was hilarious
I think hes riding a tractor or something idunoo

oh yea i know that show....lol i think i was 30 or so gotta luv the old MTV