One of my hens is a roo - what do i do!

[hudsonhousechicks]

Ha! I just discovered my youngest (17wk Wyandotte) is a roo. He's been figuring out how to crow, it's very cute to watch. So far he's only crowed a little bit in the morning. He is very sweet, he fell asleep in my lap last week. Maybe he's still a baby. His favorite pal is our largest pullet, a 19 wk old Buff Orpington. If his crowing doesn't become unbearable we are keeping him and housing him with the girls and eating their eggs.

In my opinion, Buff Orpingtons are beautiful roosters and I love their personality. I hope you get to keep him. And post a pic. People here are very knowledgeable. I'm sure you'd get some good feedback.

 

[shchinchillas]

We have four roo's in our "small" flock that is left roaming. 2 black sex-link roos, and 2 silkie roos. I love having the roos around. They keep the girls in check (other then Sampson who takes his 6 red hens to go bother our aunts flock and steal her females for the day...) However they are extremely sweet. The sexlinks don't mind being held, petted etc. Silkies would rather be left alone--but don't attack so thats fine with me. Of the four roo's they all get along great. Sampson tends to stay with his 6 red hens, but will share with Bonzo. The silkies tend to all stay together. Bonzo has his black sex-link female that tends to follow him around as he wanders between the silkies and the reds. He tends to sleep with the silkies, and hang out with the reds + sampson during the day.

I personally don't mind the crowing, so don't mind having them around at all. Still haven't sexed the group of 22 thats waiting to come out of the "baby pen". I know I have one deff. rooster , and i'm sure some of the silkies will be roosters too.


As far as fertile eggs...no problem eating those

 

[zoo2u]

I agree, i love roosters too but sadly we've had bad experiences. All of ours ended up kicking the kids and the last one literally bloodied my 3 year old, so he is gone! I wish i could find a nice breed of rooster to keep with the ladies. i've had white leghorn, Americana, Delaware, Jersey Giant, Cuckoo Marans,Polish. I love the way they talk to their hens, it is so cute but ours have always eventually gone after my kids. The most heartbreaking was the Americana who was amazing looking and raised from a chick by my 5 year old. We have pictures of her carrying around this gigantic rooster, but eventually he got ornery and bruised her shins many times till she was in tears, mostly because she knew she couldn't keep him.

Hope yours turns out wonderful.

 

[DelawareSilkie]

Buff Opringtons make fantastic roosters, especially when they reach an older age. Personally I've never raised them but met enough before I started to organize my flock to seriously consider introducing more Orps in the future. Like the other great posts here, If you have the space and time to condition your rooster to a friendly guy, then you won't be sorry. Most chicken enthusiasts favorite chooks turn out to be roos, and this Buff may be yours.

Also if crowing is a major concern you could always isolate your roos perch with a dark cloth to simulate it is still dark, and this should hopefully dissuade his crowing. And when your neighbors leave for work then he can crow all day if he wanted and no one would be for the better.

 

[xxSonja]

I agree with all that.
I was given a young hen once that we named Maggie, who was greatly in need of some tlc, she'd been dumped in town and left to fend for herself for months.
Got her home, cleaned her up, fed, watered and wormed her.
Few weeks went past and changes started to show, she was getting much bigger, larger comb and wattles, spurs where there were no spurs before...
Hey presto! She's a Roo!
But we kept her anyway, she's now our head roo.
Occasionally she gets an attitude but mostly very docile and friendly. She is super sweet to my hens, and rarely fights with my other younger roo's (Ive got about 9 all running together)

 

[OliviaDeHav]

Thanks so much for all the replies! We are DEF going to give George a chance... I will try to post pictures of the girls and george in a day or two.... family stuff for the next day or so.... but i am really sure he is a roo.... We just love him so far....
We don't hold or pick up any of the chickens... we did when they were little - we do if we HAVE to and after i get them they are cooperative - except Blondie who is getting better.
Camilla who is the top top chicken - she is 12 weeks old really seems to lash out at George... if he IS a roo.... would this be because she might know and is trying to put him in his place before she puts HER in HER place

posted photos below from 2 weeks ago

 

[OliviaDeHav]

Ok, here are some pictures - i hope! This was 2 weeks ago too - so they have gotten bigger since

Here are the 3 buff orps - George is the one with the skinny tail

Here is George - his tail structure is very different...

As you can see, side by side with Blondie.... he is just different

His wattles are more distinct than this photo which was 2 weeks ago...

 

[cindy99]

Are you SURE that that is a rooster? She/he doesn't look like it to me. I have a few "girls" that look to be about that age/size and I am hoping that you are wrong because a couple of my girls look just like that!

hope they are girls!

 

[Sissy]

I found out Matlida Buff orp.is a roo
one morning she greeted me with her new voice.

she is the best a yr.1/2 old and most friendly
of all the roos. we have.
keep him he will make a fine pet.

 

[Chickenfarmer 1-2-b]

George does not look like a roo to me either, at least for now.