Rooster Behaviors

[wings]

I had one rooster and he was not nice: really bad on the hens, went at me once. We ate him (DELICIOUS!) and kept our other rooster, Blackie (not my naming idea). Blackie will eat out of your hand, let you pick him up (though I'm a baby and don't often), and doesn't crow a ton. We are still debating keeping him though, because he eats a lot and is a little hard on the hens (though any rooster would be) and crows in the morning when we want to sleep in.

 

[Chicken Girl]

I love roos!! I had a leghorn his name was Tom and i have a buff cochin named Rusty. Well Rusty was the nice one and them well he killed my leghorn roo!!!! Now he i so mean!!! It is in the middle of winter but he was nice entel he killed my Tom

.

heres Rusty!! lol

 

[jemagsy]

Yeah.... ours have crowed at 11:30 pm, 2 AM, 3 Am, 4:30 AM... and by 6 its not stop ~"here comes the sun..."~ at least until after morning breakfasts, foraging, and mating has been completed. Then you have your mid-day crowing, and your late afternoon crowing, and your going to bed "get in the house girls" crowing. Pretty much the only silence is from bed time until 3 or 4 am (between 11:30 pm - 4 am is rare but does happen).

Now don't get me wrong I love the sound of our roos, and honestly it doesn't disturb our sleep too much any more since we moved the extra cockrels to be on the opposite side of the yard from our bedroom (the main hen pen is maybe 100 feet from our bedroom). However we live in the middle of 5 acres where the nearest neighbor is a 1/4 mile down the road - so we don't have to worry if they are bothering anyone else and we find the songs and crowing very relaxing. If however this is going to bother you I would make sure I know the roo first... apparently there are some roos that don't crow all day and night??? My husband and I thought those kind of roos were the stuff of Disney.

 

[colby318]

Last year I bought 26 EEs straight run from a hatchery. Ended up with 16 roos. Whoops, my bad. Rehomed 13 boys. Long story short... Those 3 roos were jerks to the 10 hens. Ganging 3 on 1 hen, eating first, just being creeps. Rehomed 2 more roos. Now that we have just 1 roo, he has totally changed. He is ON THE CLOCK! I never had a better husband to his harem. Maybe it was group mentality when there was too many boys.

He crows, but there's usually a reason behind it. Mostly doing the Marco/Polo with the girls.

Colby in KY

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

Well, I absolutely love our Lt. Brahma rooster, very gentle and protective. He came to us with a limp. As the limp got better, he started mounting the girls more frequently, along with another younger rooster. Well, our good laying hens started giving us fewer eggs, and because we also were given a very hen pecked chicken that the boys wouldn't leave alone, we removed them from the coop (although Charlie remained his gentle sweet self) The girls were so stressed from being mounted, I guess they were protesting, because a day and a half later, we got a bounty of eggs in our nests!!!! It really was amazing. We will now keep them completely separate, until we are ready to incubate some eggs, (if we decide to incubate some, that is!

)

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there! I love my roosters! At the moment I have more of them than hens----due to a hungry fox last year who killed all but one of my hens. I've now goy 3 hens and 6 roos. 3 of them live in their own coop and 3 more live with the 3 girls---2 of these roos are youngish and all3 get along OK--------SO FAR!!!!! They all crow a fair amount but most of all in the morning and late afternoon, If anything disturbs them they start up; they will also do it to attract my attention!! I've never had a roo who hardly crowed ! I HAVE to say my neighbors are very good about it : I do live in the country but in a row of cottages. I think they enjoy the sight of the magnificent birds, as I do! To me it's a vision of heaven to see them moving through my garden (which I've planted to look like a woodland grove. It's a very different type of English garden but great for chickens as they have plenty of shelter. They never even try to escape!!!

 

[dancingbear]

I've had a lot of really nice roos. Nice to the hens, feeding them treats right out of their beaks, sometimes. They watch for threats and sound off if they see anything alarming. They don't crow at blowing leaves or paper, or anything like that, at least mine never have. If you have more than one, they crow to track each other, each staking out and announcing where they are. They crow at any light they see during the dark hours, so street lights, passing cars, the moon, a porch light...any light they shines into the hen house will set them crowing.

Most are not human aggressive, if you get one that is, you can always eat him and get a new one. My problem with mean roos, except for one, hasn't been toward people. There are sometimes roos who are really rough on the hens. We eat them, too, as I won't tolerate hen abuse. There are way too many nice ones to waste time and feed on a meanie.

 

[mariel37]

If the crowing would bother you, or get you in trouble with the neighbors, I would think twice. Here's the progression:

3 mos--oooh, isn't that a cute crow, and only in the morning!

4 mos--wow, he's getting louder, but it's only in morning and evening! next door neighbor notices you have a roo.
5 mos--wow, even better at crowing, crows all morning and several times in evening.
6mos--shut up you stupid bird, geez he's loud!, neighbor down street knows you have a roo! crows at kids, dogs, mailman, a stiff breeze, and at 4 AM

7 mos--hubby says get rid of the roo.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My solution? Get rid of the hubby. Keep the roo.

 

[so lucky]

I think it depends on the reason you feel you need a roo. If you just want him for the pretty colors, and because the crowing is cool (?) you perhaps should consider the negative aspects. When I had a roo, he terrorized the pullets, and kept them from eating. He was starting to challenge me, then I decided to put him on Craig's list. Without the roo, the girls are happy, get along reasonably well, and do not hog the feed. One has taken over as flock leader. The runt follows her around like a puppy. If you feel you have to get a rooster, I suggest you get one that is about the same age as your girls, or older. He will be showing his true temperament by that time. He will be big enough to not be victimized by the girls, hopefully. Also, he will be past his teen angst, when they are so unruly. Also, please consider the age of your human children. A mean roo can do serious damage to people, and they can jump and spur at a little one's eye level.

 

[mfowlers]

We have kept one rooster from the spring chicks, as I am hoping to have some chicks this spring. He is about 8-9 months old and his crowing doesn't seem to make sense, and it is often. I appreciate all of his other noises though, as once he has alerted the hens (and me!) to a coyote in the yard! He has special noises for letting the hens know there are birds flying by, where the good worms are, and when to take cover. He is pretty aggressive, attacking me and all four of my kids. We are now armed with a broom for rooster duty!