Raising Roosters vs Acquiring One

[FlyAnywayAJ]

Hi Folks,
We have had a few different roosters over the years with different degrees of success.
Ultimately my question is; do roosters do better at their job(protecting and breeding) if they learn from an older rooster or is "roostering" innate in them and the differences in how good at it vary from rooster to rooster?

 

[Mrs. K]

In my experience, the worst roosters you get are raised just with flock mates. They out grow them, are interested in sex much earlier, and often times become a bully or worse a group of bullies.

Often times, these are in first time chicken raisers, and they have been highly attentive to their little chicks, playing with them and cuddling them, giving them treats. The the rooster chicks compound their behavior by not being afraid of humans, and some terrible mean roosters can occur.

A multi-generational flock is the best to raise them in, you get better roosters that are attune with proper chicken society. The most successful roosters are at least a year old. However, roosters are a crap shoot, and some are incredible additions to your flocks, and the rest should be soup.

I want a rooster that is the first to see me, when I come to the coop/run. I want a rooster that is aware of where his hens are, and I want a rooster that gives me room. A rooster, that does not attack my grandchildren. Without a doubt, some roosters are better than others.

In all my 7 roosters to date, one was outstanding. Peace in the flock, good forager, and very, very good predator awareness. My day time predation losses were non existent in very rough country. The one I got now.... maybe he will get there, not quite a year old.

Mrs K

 

[Harmony Fowl]

A distinction should be made between acquiring an adult rooster who has already demonstrated his quality versus acquiring one as a chick to raise by hand versus allowing a hen in an existing flock to raise a male chick. I don't really think the presence of an adult rooster impacts the young males so much as just the presence of functional adult chickens. Hens can and do lead flocks and keep young cockerels in line, at least for awhile. We (collectively) often raise chicks by hand. When we do this for puppies or kittens, we are incredibly aware of socializing the babies, usually to be good pets in the future. How do any of us know anything about socializing hand raised chicks to be good chickens? Most chickens aren't indoor pets in the sense cats and dogs are, so when they're raised by hands and socialized as pets and then sent into the coop to live as chickens, they don't make very good pets or such great chickens. I hear a lot of stories about mean hens, too, and while I have my share of mean individuals, my whole flock altogether couldn't give two hoots about me integrating new chicks again. There certainly isn't any of the death squad mentality I've heard described between an existing flock of (you guessed, hand raised) hens and a new batch of youngsters. I think growing up in a flock, at least from a young age, is what gives roos the best chance at being good roos. They still won't all be good, genetics play a large role in personality, but normal behavior in the flock teaches that same behavior to its new members. No flock, no normal behavior, from male or female role models. Acquiring a good adult rooster is good. Allowing hens to raise chicks to get a rooster is good. Acquiring chicks to raise by hand is most effective, in my opinion, when you can get those chicks outside ASAP to be part of the flock, far earlier than the fully feathered criterion some use. The earlier, the better.

 

[Shadrach]

Hi Folks,
We have had a few different roosters over the years with different degrees of success.
Ultimately my question is; do roosters do better at their job(protecting and breeding) if they learn from an older rooster or is "roostering" innate in them and the differences in how good at it vary from rooster to rooster?

My experience has been that a cockerel raised in a group/tribe/flock with a senior rooster present and senior hens to make much 'better' roosters all round.
This article might be of interest to you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

 

[sylviethecochin]

They're often better at it if there is an older rooster to provide an example; innate characteristics play an important part, though.

Phillip is a polish/cochin cross I picked up for $0.50 in 2016. He's a great rooster, and he's raised my juvenile flock for me for the past two years. Since I instituted the Juvie flock, my home-bred roosters and cockerels have been much better behaved—and the only thing that has changed is Phillip's presence.

But genetics still plays a part. My homebred cochin cross roosters weren't worth dirt. Neither were their uncles. They just didn't seem to have the instincts, and the only thing that they wanted to do was ambush the hens. Phillip has two sons; one just went to a little farm on the other side of town that wanted a rooster, the other is sticking around until I find him a good home. Both are excellent roosters.

Another important function of an older rooster is to keep the cockerels under regulation until they mature. Some fierce older hens can accomplish this, somewhat--but most don't care if the cockerel goes after a less dominant hen. So the weaker hen ends up being the rooster's "favorite" and she's abused mightily.

 

[AZWhiteKnight]

In my experience, it is innate. I cannot think of a single roo I have had that did not take the breeding job extremely seriously. It is typically the protection role that I have had some struggle with. Whenever I have had two or more roosters in a flock, one dominates the others and I do not see the younger ones learning from the senior one in any significant way. Even when I restarted a flock over a decade ago, the better roos just had it in them.

 

[kellyhubb]

Each rooster has their own personality. It is just like each person is different. However, I have found most roosters to traditionally be very good at taking care of hens, no matter how they were raised. It is their instinct. However, if you super concerned, why not simply adopt an older rooster from the animal shelter who will be less prone for aggression? Just look at Adopt a Bird Network - http://www.adoptabirdnetwork.com/listed.php they list roosters all over the US who need homes.

 

[BantyChooks]

My experience has been that a cockerel raised in a group/tribe/flock with a senior rooster present and senior hens to make much 'better' roosters all round.
This article might be of interest to you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

Agree...

In my experience, the worst roosters you get are raised just with flock mates. They out grow them, are interested in sex much earlier, and often times become a bully or worse a group of bullies.

Often times, these are in first time chicken raisers, and they have been highly attentive to their little chicks, playing with them and cuddling them, giving them treats. The the rooster chicks compound their behavior by not being afraid of humans, and some terrible mean roosters can occur.

A multi-generational flock is the best to raise them in, you get better roosters that are attune with proper chicken society. The most successful roosters are at least a year old. However, roosters are a crap shoot, and some are incredible additions to your flocks, and the rest should be soup.

I want a rooster that is the first to see me, when I come to the coop/run. I want a rooster that is aware of where his hens are, and I want a rooster that gives me room. A rooster, that does not attack my grandchildren. Without a doubt, some roosters are better than others.

In all my 7 roosters to date, one was outstanding. Peace in the flock, good forager, and very, very good predator awareness. My day time predation losses were non existent in very rough country. The one I got now.... maybe he will get there, not quite a year old.

Mrs K

...and agree.

I have noticed a large difference in how good the mature cock birds are based on what their environment was like when they were young. One of the worst birds I ever had was raised (by someone else) with only pullets the same age as him. No older hens, no roosters, not even a rooster the same age. He had some of the worst chicken social skills ever. He eventually fought to the death with my lead cock. (It was a hot day; he got heat stroke.) My current arrangement (several older cocks with a clear hierarchy around to train the little guys) outputs many more decent roosters than any of my fellow local chicken-keepers get.

Almost all roosters will breed hens without hesitation. Whether they aren't jerks about it is another factor entirely.

 

[Mimi13]

I have read and reread everything possible on how to raise a good rooster. It wasn’t until my 13th one that I think I finally achieved it.

I held on to my old mean roo hoping he would help me raise a good youngster, however, I don’t believe he did a thing toward raising a decent one. I attribute my mixed age flock for raising a mannered cockerel. He grew up with 22 older hens, 3 pullets and 6 cockerels his same age. I had to put 5 of the cockerels in their own run (the ones I knew I wouldn’t be keeping) and kept out two keeper possibilities.

The older girls kept those two cockerels in line, I’m here to tell you. When I was around the chickens, the two boys couldn’t stay fixated on me, they had to constantly watch their backs from each other and the older hens. This time around, whenever the cockerels would seemingly be running at me, it was only because they were running from the old biddies. It has been quite funny at times. So so much different than before when I’ve tried.

I hope I have not jinxed myself by bragging on the one I chose to keep and this little 24 week old cockerel remains a good one. So far, so good. I do separate him from the flock some mornings just to lessen the stress on my 3 oldest girls. He and most all roosters want to show their love in the early mornings and then again right before roost.

I don’t think I answered your question necessarily, but I wish you the best in finding an excellent roo.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

Interesting discussion....I adopted my first rooster earlier this year. A beautiful 1 year old salmon favorelles. He came from a flock with multiple roosters and I expect he was lower on the social ladder than most of the other roosters. He absolutely terrorized my hens. We gave it a month to see if he would settle in but he never did. It wasn't just over mating, he was downright mean to them. We culled him. Shortly afterwards I had a broody hatch out a single Speckled Sussex who has turned out to be a little cockerel. He is about 10 weeks old and has been raised and socialized with a flock of 20 something adult hens. I'm super interested to see how he turns out as an adult as I would still like to keep a rooster in the flock. I'm optimistic that they'll teach him good manners. He certainly hasn't been handled much, I think we may have picked him up briefly 3 or 4 times for various reasons. Fingers crossed.

This is just another one of those chicken hunches, but I think sometimes that less dominant birds are less dominant for a reason, like they aren’t good at chicken leadership or the others sense something dysfunctional about them. Not all, someone has to be on the bottom even when they’re all super, but I also have had birds on the bottom turn out to be weirdos when those above them were removed from the equation and they were put on top.