Hello! I am a new member to this site. My husband and I are empty nesters and want to raise chickens. We have never raised chickens before and did not grow up on a farm. We have started building our coop this week. We will be purchasing about 20 layers in July. We are debating about having 1 rooster to protect the girls. We live on an acreage and have some predators lurking about. We have attended local workshops and have been reading books and searching the internet for information. We were surprised by all the information and the people willing to share their stories. This website has been very helpful.
and Welcome To BYC! TwoCrows gave you some good pointers on roosters, you of course need them if you want fertile eggs, and they sure are pretty to look at and do add another dimension to the flock dynamics, but so far as predators go, it is their job to alert and get killed first so you or the dog etc can get there to deal with whatever, they are not really going to be much protection against any serious predator, ie foxes, dogs, coyotes, raccoons etc. X2 on check out the BYC Learning Center check out your state thread for any tips from chicken keeping neighbors about building your coop for dealing with your weather or local predators etc 
