Rooster aggression by breed - Hatchery stock

[puddleglumWI]

Hi all,

I am hoping to start a flock with hens and a rooster that will have sex link chicks. My original plan was to stay away from a RIR/New Hampshire rooster as red roosters have a rep for being more likely to be feisty. I was thinking of going with Barred Rocks and an Australorp Rooster, as Australorps are known for being mellow. I recently read that the mellower tendencies of breeds are more pronounced in breeder stock, but hatchery stock will be wild cards.

If I am going to be getting hatchery stock, will it really matter what breed of rooster I get?

Is a hatchery Australorp rooster about as likely as a hatchery RIR/New Hampshire rooster to be feisty?

Thanks,
-pg

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@3KillerBs has australorps.

Are ypu wanting sexlinks for eggs or meat?

 

[puddleglumWI]

I would sell the female chicks to locals who are looking for layers and then raise the males for meat.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I would sell the female chicks to locals who are looking for layers and then raise the males for meat.

if you can find an asian black male, I'd highly recommend that for the rooster. Mine is giant, very tame, and his son's got the size too

 

[puddleglumWI]

I am hoping to be able to make one order with 12ish pullets and 3-4 cockerels from a single hatchery. I have no doubt breeder stock would be better, but am not really interested in spending days/weeks trying to track down local breeders and then have to get straight run. The hatchery sexing service is worth a lot to me.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Totally understandable. I think an australorp would probably do well then. I've never had one though

 

[FunClucks]

I am hoping to be able to make one order with 12ish pullets and 3-4 cockerels from a single hatchery. I have no doubt breeder stock would be better, but am not really interested in spending days/weeks trying to track down local breeders and then have to get straight run. The hatchery sexing service is worth a lot to me.

I'm not scared of straight run anymore, now that I know how to process my own chickens. As long as I have the space, I order twice the number of chickens I want to keep and eat the extra cockerels. They are tasty. But a pain to grow out if I'm not feeling like it.

I tried to buy a French Black Copper Maran roo for making Olive Eggers, and she turned out to be a girl. Luckily I had a blue egger rooster so could still do it, but yeah, more than one roo is best just in case.

 

[puddleglumWI]

If the hatchery Australorps are just as likely to be feisty as a New Hampshire, then I might order up 6 Barred Rock females, 6 Delawares females, and 3-4 New Hampshires males from MurrayMcMurray or Cackle. Then I would have black sex link and red sex link chicks.

A little variety in the flock would be more interesting than all barred hens.

 

[CutterDuke]

I have a 8 months old Austra Roo. Up until a few days ago, he was the perfect gentleman with his 12 hens and just tried to totally avoid human interaction. I also have a Buff Roo with 9 hens. Both Roos are same age and were raised together until they started crowing and I separated them into their own Coop with their own hens. I do allow them to free range 3-4 hours a day together. Austra Roo tries to keep his girls separated but the Buff spends most of his time chasing the Austra's hens when the Austra isn't looking and the Buff's hens are whilly nilly all over the place. The Buff Roo has shown limited signs of being aggressive with me but he is a total jerk to his hens. The Austra is the Alpha Roo so it's back and forth between them the whole time, but no major squabbles, so I continue to let them free range together. The Austra Roo just mainly pecks the Buff anytime he mates with a hen and the Buff jumps off and shakes his head. Well, the past two days the Austra Roo has tried to flog me for no reason. Wasn't super aggressive with it but it was a total change from the past. I grabbed him and put him down to the ground and gave him a good talking to and he went right back to his old self and avoided me. If he does it again, he's dinner. I hate it too because I specifically wanted to use him to give me a batch of Austro hens and weed out some of the older hens I have. There is no way I'm keeping the Buff Roo. He's not only stupid, he's just awful to the hens. I've also had 2 RIR Roo's and they were both SUPER aggressive. Ended up eating both of them. So my experience has been there isn't a Rooster worth keeping, but keep in mind it's limited experience. I want to live a self sustaining life style but the hatcheries just make it too easy to buy chicks and not have to deal with Roosters to raise your own in my opinion. I do have a Buff Hen laying on 12 eggs right now and I'm thinking of trying to keep one of her Roo's as I've heard a broody hen raised rooster is less likely to be aggressive but I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[FunClucks]

I have a 8 months old Austra Roo. Up until a few days ago, he was the perfect gentleman with his 12 hens and just tried to totally avoid human interaction. I also have a Buff Roo with 9 hens. Both Roos are same age and were raised together until they started crowing and I separated them into their own Coop with their own hens. I do allow them to free range 3-4 hours a day together. Austra Roo tries to keep his girls separated but the Buff spends most of his time chasing the Austra's hens when the Austra isn't looking and the Buff's hens are whilly nilly all over the place. The Buff Roo has shown limited signs of being aggressive with me but he is a total jerk to his hens. The Austra is the Alpha Roo so it's back and forth between them the whole time, but no major squabbles, so I continue to let them free range together. The Austra Roo just mainly pecks the Buff anytime he mates with a hen and the Buff jumps off and shakes his head. Well, the past two days the Austra Roo has tried to flog me for no reason. Wasn't super aggressive with it but it was a total change from the past. I grabbed him and put him down to the ground and gave him a good talking to and he went right back to his old self and avoided me. If he does it again, he's dinner. I hate it too because I specifically wanted to use him to give me a batch of Austro hens and weed out some of the older hens I have. There is no way I'm keeping the Buff Roo. He's not only stupid, he's just awful to the hens. I've also had 2 RIR Roo's and they were both SUPER aggressive. Ended up eating both of them. So my experience has been there isn't a Rooster worth keeping, but keep in mind it's limited experience. I want to live a self sustaining life style but the hatcheries just make it too easy to buy chicks and not have to deal with Roosters to raise your own in my opinion. I do have a Buff Hen laying on 12 eggs right now and I'm thinking of trying to keep one of her Roo's as I've heard a broody hen raised rooster is less likely to be aggressive but I'm not going to hold my breath.

If you raise the roo with older hens, they peck him into his place, and he's more respectful of the ladies when he's grown. Or so I've heard.

I've read stories on here of folks having nice roos, but haven't yet experienced that myself. It's very genetic. If I was willing to buy from a breeder that focuses on nice-ness in roos, I could probably find one, but I haven't gone that route yet.