Rooster effecting egg laying?

[macmac955]

So I have 5 20w/o buff Orpington pullets and 2 EEs. My cousin told me to get rid of my EE cockerel and they’ll start laying. I find that hard to believe because my rooster is generally nice. My family keeps peer pressuring me to get rid of him, and my mom told me she refuses to eat a fertilized egg. I already traumatized myself by killing the mean EE rooster with my hands and I’m trying to spare the nice rooster. I need your opinions on this one. ._.

 

[sourland]

The pullets are still a bit young - they will lay. The cockerel is having no impact on them unless he is harassing them. Explain to your Mom that eggs do not develop unless incubated, and daily collection will prevent that. If the chickens were my responsibility, I would keep the cockerel.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Unless the cockerel is being a total demon and obviously stressing the flock, it's got nothing to do with egg production. BOs can take quite a while to start laying. Mine took 24+ weeks.

Unless your mom knows exactly what to look for, she may well have already eaten a fertilized store bought egg or two at some point depending on what type they were. It sounds to me like your folks maybe have something else against roos and are just coming up with other reasons.

 

[macmac955]

Unless the cockerel is being a total demon and obviously stressing the flock, it's got nothing to do with egg production. BOs can take quite a while to start laying. Mine took 24+ weeks.

Unless your mom knows exactly what to look for, she may well have already eaten a fertilized store bought egg or two at some point depending on what type they were. It sounds to me like your folks maybe have something else against roos and are just coming up with other reasons.

Thanks. My family gives roosters a bad rep saying they’re just mean and they hurt the flock. I already got rid of a bully, but this one is actually a good roo. He calls the hens when he finds “food” (its usually sticks lol) and he calls to find and protect them. He’s pretty polite about mounting too. He does a little dance and if they reject him he just walks away. I’ve only seen him mount my hens once so far.

 

[tofuflower]

This is just one anecdote, but when my brood was 5 months old with 4 pullets and 1 cockerel, the cockerel went hormonal and tried to mount every chicken in sight, often grabbing them by the back of the neck or having them fly away while they squawked in terror.

It was very alarming, but then they started laying eggs! They were super tiny, maybe 25 g in weight (the mother's eggs are 50 g in comparison). They are now 8 months old with the eggs being 35-42 g in weight. So, if anything, I thought the cockerel sped up the egg laying process.

A good roo is so nice to see, I agree with you on wanting to keep him around. I had a period of no roosters around (some territorial issues, unfortunately), and the hens make so much noise wanting a rooster than I have to ward off three different roosters from the neighbors! If you have the choice, it's good to keep one so he can let other roosters know that your hens are not up for grabs!