Rhode Island Red - 6 weeks old

[lk1222]

We have 5 6-week-old RIRs. The one in front below looks different than the rest as you can see from the one next to it. Is she a HE? We also have 3 11-week-old girl RIRs that we adopted whose combs are still not as large as this one's. Looking for opinions. The rest of our 48 are girls, and I would love to have a well-behaved rooster, but my husband says he would need to be very well-behaved!



"He" would be the one on the right.


"He" is on the left in this picture below.




Another view of "him" on the left. Sorry for the blurry pics!

 

[GitaBooks]

Those are nice looking chickens!

And yes, I'm almost positive that is a rooster.
I've heard Rhode Island Red roosters can be mean, but it all depends on the individual. Careful in how you raise them, as they can be mean if they don't think you are respecting them and their hens.

Best of luck!

 

[Toddrick]

It's a boy for sure just like in my avatar. Aside from the head you can also see his dark hackles coming in. It's good to have one rooster IMO, because hatching eggs is awesome. Red roosters can be a handful, but you might get lucky. Make sure he knows you are the boss when he gets uppity and hopefully he will learn not to mess with people.

Here is a bigger pic of the one from my avatar:

 

[GitaBooks]

I've heard people try to teach roosters to be submissive, so I'm not disagreeing with this method, but I find the more I try to stop a roosters aggression, the more aggressive they get.
I give my roosters their space, letting them know they are the top guys of the flock, and we have a mutual respect for one another. I make sure he seems cool by putting food in front of him so that he can call the hens over.

The only time I chase a rooster (besides when catching them) is when they are being really irritating to another chicken.

As I said, this is just my experience, but I thought I would share it.

 

[Toddrick]

I've heard people try to teach roosters to be submissive, so I'm not disagreeing with this method, but I find the more I try to stop a roosters aggression, the more aggressive they get.
I give my roosters their space, letting them know they are the top guys of the flock, and we have a mutual respect for one another. I make sure he seems cool by putting food in front of him so that he can call the hens over.
The only time I chase a rooster (besides when catching them) is when they are being really irritating to another chicken.

As I said, this is just my experience, but I thought I would share it.

When raising them from chicks it might be possible to nip human aggressive the behavior in the bud. That's the theory I'm following anyways. Not by fighting with them, definitely not that, but by grabbing them and showing them they are absolutely no match for you. Chasing them to try and catch them might be good enough, but either way I wouldn't let them get away with a challenge without making them embarrassed at least. The theory is its better they are afraid than think they are equals. A cockerel might nip and charge but not go full berserk like a rooster right off the bat, so it's a lot easier to get them to back down.

My first experience was inheriting a very aggressive, grown rooster. It was too late to train him to fear humans, but throwing a lot of scratch and grabbing him at night did make him learn to respect me. I couldn't change him enough though. If I chased him he would take it as a challenge and would fight, so yea, chasing a grown rooster is probably not a good idea.

 

[GitaBooks]

Thanks for the advise!

 

[lk1222]

Thanks for your help! So, we have 3 kids who love to love the chicks. Do you think picking the boy up and babying him would help make him less aggressive, or meaner? Also, my husband tells me roosters can crow at ALL hours and they are much louder than the girls (even the wyandottes!). I have no problem with crowing after 5 am.... I really hope he's a good boy so we can keep him!!!

 

[GitaBooks]

I've raised roosters by hand that were both friendly and mean. I think it depends on the individual.
Our roosters don't crow at night, they seem to like to crow most when I'm out there, as they like to show off. When one starts, the others have to try and look cool too.

 

[lk1222]

I've raised roosters by hand that were both friendly and mean. I think it depends on the individual.
Our roosters don't crow at night, they seem to like to crow most when I'm out there, as they like to show off. When one starts, the others have to try and look cool too.

Ha! I love chickens!!! I hope we get lucky!

 

[BantamLover21]

Cockerel.