Official BYC Poll: Do You Keep a Rooster?

[Little Meadow Big Sky]

I've tried several times but I get attacked, which is a dealbreaker.

 

[B-Goock]

Right now I have my laying hens (about 25) with two roos. A blue copper maran & a black pendesenca.
Then I have 2 more coops just for my black pendesencas. 6 hens and 4 roos which will be separated out for breeding purposes. 7 other BP roos that didn't meet the cut in another pen.
Then my wife's spangled Russian orloffs that only 4 hatched and all are roos.

 

[MarkJr]

Where’s the ‘Just one intentionally.’ Button?

 

[FeatherstoneFrm]

My current rooster and the 1 across the road talk to each other several times a day.
Now I have a young bantam cockerel that has just started to join in. I'm waiting to see if my HRIC (head rooster in charge) will let me keep him.

 

[Rcornerranch]

I have four. Four of the ten chicks we bought in mid or late March turned out to be roos. Three are Australorps, and one is a Production red. I love them all so much. We bought four adult laying hens to help the ratio and turn one flock into two flocks. We put one rooster, Tippy, in with the adult layers when we saw other roosters going after him while he just laid there screaming. He is very sweet and submissive. The new girls love him.

As for the original flock, Penguin rules. He’s big, shiny, and his eye shape gives him a permanent stink eye. He brings the girls to shelter during rain, follows me when I do chicken chores like he’s making sure I do a good job, and seems to be keeping the other roosters from over mating the girls. He doesn’t like me trying to touch him, but if I grab him he submits. Something tells me if one of the roosters ages into becoming aggressive, it will probably be him.

I can pick Bonnie right up and love him. He even comes up to me for attention and crowd to tell me the girls are running out of food or water. His orange and green-black feathers are so beautiful.

Then there’s Noni (white beaked wynona) who is always so so busy and fun to watch. He’s a bit odd. He paired up with one of our pullets and wanders off with her. He makes constant strange noises that crack me up. He has a body like a hen and little legs. Once he snuck up behind me and pecked behind my knee. I turned around, looked him in the eye, and he squawked and made frantic noises as he ran for about 300 yards back to the goat pen. He hasn’t done anything like that since. I don’t know if he knew he was pecking me or what...it was so funny. He runs with his wings out and body low to the ground. How could you be mad? XD He also looks and behaves exactly like a Tom turkey when he’s mad.

None of our roosters actually challenge me anymore. I was worried when the hormones first kicked in. They’ve calmed down a lot. I think they’re cute, so when they tried something in the past, I’d go to pick them up and cuddle them. It’s the opposite reaction they want. They’ve all realized intimidation doesn’t work on me. Gotta say: they are just starting to grow spurs. How they act with those might change the number of roos we have. We also talk about making a rooster coop here some day.

 

[RevlisRemmah]

Just one!

 

[Beaglegal]

I keep mine for their beautiful feathers

 

[AngelaY]

I have one roo, Mr. Tilney. I'm not TECHNICALLY allowed to have him because they're noisy and typical mean. But Tilney sleeps in the basement and I don't let him out till like 10/11 am, and he's actually nicer than my hens (the neighbor kids love him) so we don't get any complaints. (Although even if we did they'd have to pry him out of my cold dead hands lol) Anyways here's Mr. Tilney sitting on my shoulder

 

[kcan2]

I have 1 booted bantam rooster and he is also my screensaver because I am probably his biggest fan. He takes himself very seriously and is working to recoup the loss of most of his tail feathers following an unwarranted molt

 

[kcan2]

(Although even if we did they'd have to pry him out of my cold dead hands lol)

Cold dead hands...amen!
I had to ask, is Mr. Tilney an Austen fan, by any chance?