'nice' rooster

[janed]

I had a mean rooster and gave him away. My hens seem to fight each other more since he is gone. Does a rooster keep order in the flock? Is there any such thing as a 'nice' rooster? Would a banty rooster be better, if I coult find one?

 

[CMV]

Roosters do keep order in the flock. There are nice roosters out there, but they seem to be few and far between. The only way to know if a roo is good or bad is to try them out within your flock. There are certain breeds that are notorious for producing aggressive birds and some bantam breeds are amongst this group. The upshot of getting a bantam roo, though, is that they are less able to do physical damage to the people around them.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[ralleia]

Yes, there ARE "nice" roosters. Certain breeds are more apt to produce well-mannered roosters than others, but it really depends on the personality of the individual rooster.

The all-round sweetest dispositions that I've seen so far are in Black Australorps--we had a BA rooster for a while and he was very sweet.

My favorite rooster however is my Barred Rock. He's very intelligent, sweet to the hens, takes grubs from my hand (though I never tried to train him to do this), and he has never tried to spur anyone.

Our first rooster was a Buff Orphington that turned mean--he was chicken soup.

I don't think a banty roo would necessarily be any better. I would just set out to find a well-behaved roo and be prepared to give away or stew any that turn out mean. Also, even if your rooster is well-behaved, as my two are, that doesn't mean you can ever fully drop your guard. They are animals, after all, and being of a different species, you can't ever fully tell what might set a bird off. I love my Barred Rock rooster, but am always watchful for signs of aggression.

 

[heather112588]

nice roos do exist

In my first batch of chicks ever, i had several roos that were very docile. Here they are coming up to our door and begging for treats.

Sadly, i couldnt keep all 3 of my tame boys and couldnt find homes for the other two (which broke my heart) bc nobody ever wants roos

I couldnt even butcher them myself bc they trusted me too much (would let me pick them up, etc).

 

[sunnyvera]

We had 2 roosters recently, Silver Wyandotte X, they were a pain, fought and crowed constantly - ended up in the soup pot. Now our new Silver Wyandotte X roo is very nice to us. He is a little shy around us, but nice to the hens at least. He is only 6 months old, so he might get better or worse. Time will tell. We have a new batch of Swedish Flower hens in the brooder. Looks like at least 1 Roo of the bunch. I hope he is nice - they are not cheap, I would hate to eat him. We are enjoying them tremendously, though.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

I have 2 BR roos, no hens yet. If Im mostly wanting chickens for pets, would my roos be more docile if I just keep the 2 of them.. or do they tend to get more aggressive when there's ladies invovled?
I jokingly named them "Soup" and "Potpie".. but I wouldnt have the heart to actually do that, even if they did turn out to be mean bastards. (tho I probably wouldnt have any qualms about giving them to someone who would butcher them)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:
Good names. I don't name mine but when people ask what their names are I tell them bar-b-que.
All of them.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

heheh I also thought of "original" and "extra crispy" for names

 

[Pinky]

I feel I got lucky and got a very nice WLH and RIR roo

Pinky

Stinky

Don't let a mean rooster ruin your chicken experience. Hope you find a good roo if you get another one!

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

I also have to agree with everyone saying that there are nice roosters!! I have two even. One is skittish with me and would rather not be handled which is perfectly okay, he takes care of his girls and that's all I need. My other one loves to be handled, picked up and held, etc.