Pros and Cons of Roosters

[KDMck]

If there is a good thread, I hope someone will guide me, as I didn't find with a search.

I would like to hear from people the pros and cons of having a rooster. My dad had one with his girls, but they free ranged.

Mine don't/won't free range, primarily because of predators, not the least of which would be my weimaraner who has a strong prey drive. It would be a disaster for everyone. I have a nice sized covered run (16x60) and the chicken side of my coop is 88 sqft. I have two 2.5 year old hens, and six what I hope are all pullets who are 8 weeks old.

If one of this group, or a future group turns out to be a male, I want all the info I can get on pros and cons of having a rooster.

Have at it. Let me know the good, the bad, and the ugly.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

An all-hen flock can be like trying to manage a bunch of mean teenage girls. We have twelve hens and they all have problems with each other. It's exhausting. A good rooster sorts out the bullies and conflicts and bad behaviors and manages all of that so you don't have to.

Without a rooster, sometimes one or more of the hens tries to be the rooster, except they really don't know how and that just manifests as a lot of bad behavior: aggression, bullying other hens, biting humans, etc.

I would LOVE to have a rooster but we can't have them here. We did have a young cockerel who was just lovely but once he started crowing we had to cull him. I know a rooster might not solve all of the awful problems we've had to deal with but I believe a roo would have helped a lot.

In the next few years I'm going to relocate out of this $%^@#! desert and a requirement for a new place is that I must to be able to keep chickens - including a rooster.

 

[BonnieBlue]

Nobody can decide when, or whether, you need a rooster, but you. Please don't feel pressured to get one just because others are happy with theirs. Owning a rooster is not for novices.

Excellent advice, and hence, my question.

Even tho dad is no longer around, I did pick up enough from him to know my limits. Raising horses and cattle when I was young, one learns to understand where they are with animals, and to work with them and the abilities one has at the time.

I really want to know what I would be getting into. Learning is a part of understanding where ones abilities are. That is why I truly appreciate this forum. The wealth of knowledge is invaluable.

 

[The Birb King]

Roosters are pretty good to have around in general. As long as you have a good one they will protect the hens, stop the hens from fighting, and give you the ability to hatch eggs. They are also just pretty to look at. A bad rooster might attack you or hens but I wouldn't keep any like that

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Roosters are pretty good to have around in general. As long as you have a good one they will protect the hens, stop the hens from fighting, and give you the ability to hatch eggs. They are also just pretty to look at. A bad rooster might attack you or hens but I wouldn't keep any like that

This is really it in a nutshell. I feel like you have to go into it willing to dispatch any that prove to be a problem. This is particularly true if there are children around, as an aggressive or overly protective rooster can seriously harm an adult, much more so a child. Some people claim to be able to rehabilitate such a rooster, but it seems to me their methods, if they work, require major commitments of time and energy.

 

[The Birb King]

This is really it in a nutshell. I feel like you have to go into it willing to dispatch any that prove to be a problem. This is particularly true if there are children around, as an aggressive or overly protective rooster can seriously harm an adult, much more so a child. Some people claim to be able to rehabilitate such a rooster, but it seems to me their methods, if they work, require major commitments of time and energy.

I agree. There's tons of good roosters out there that are unwanted, so why waste time with the bad ones?

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I can only give my experience since I got back to having chickens.

First rooster, (Soup). Complete sociopath by every metric. Ted Bundy with feathers. Tried my best to get him right. Finally booked him a suite at the Iceberg hotel and resort when he got on my last nerve.

Second and current rooster, (Galoot). Absolute star. If none of the hens gets a clue and marries him, I might.

Best advice I can give on getting a rooster into a flock, get him as a chick and put him with mature hens. Hopefully they will do like my Henrietta did with Galoot and beat some sense into him, when he goes through his teenage idiot phase. If he turns into someone like my Galoot, treasure him and spoil him, if he turns into someone like Soup, make chicken soup.

 

[BonnieBlue]

First rooster, (Soup). Complete sociopath by every metric. Ted Bundy with feathers. Tried my best to get him right. Finally booked him a suite at the Iceberg hotel and resort when he got on my last nerve.

You owe me a coffee for that one. lol!