Rooster help

[jak2002003]

actually chickens are not flock birds at all people say they are but I don't know why could I have some examples why you think they are flock birds because I have reasons to say their not flock birds .. flock birds stay more together and follow everyone but mine don't do that some of my hens follow the alpha rooster but that's normal because their his hens and they follow him every where but I have some smaller breeds of chickens and they stay by the barn and not follow everyone else they go down there sometimes but they like staying with some of the other smaller breeds and not following the roosters .. I have 8 roosters 16 hens and 3 ducks but most of my roosters have pairs and they don't mate with the other breeds a lot and the other roosters are a smaller breed most of them I have 4 big roosters but I am getting rid of one or two big ones but my alpha rooster is a big bird partridge chantecler and the beta rooster is a white bird I think a leghorn then the omega I think they are called are the rest of the roosters don't have much breeding rights they try to breed but the alpha or beta rooster kicks the crap out of them but each rooster has at least their own little fav hen .... so yeah I will stop yammering lol but I just want to have some examples please .. thanks ...
Jason

Chickens are flock birds - they prefer to live in small groups made up of one rooster and several hens, with chicks at various ages.

Evidence is found by the way they live in the wild - in groups.

They will roost together,

Forage together

Have a social pecking order

Have a lot of sounds to communicate with each other

Have social behaviours for display - eg rooster display dance, wing flapping, body language etc.

If they were not social birds then they would not have these behaviours.

If you have a lot of roosters and hens and different breeds, they will divide themselves into small groups, and each group will have their own space - this is what is happening with your birds.

 

[farmer boy]

not all of my birds i have a lot that like to be by their self's that's not being a flock bird ... i know someone they had a couple of coops and they were being attacked by weasels and two hens left the coop and lived by their house outside well the rest of the birds were in runs and the hens wouldn't go over there ... all birds are different chickens do not need to be in groups they can go by their self's and do just fine and they have these behaviors to communicate / wing flapping thing with roosters showing whos the boss they will fight each other to show is the alpha rooster .. my dogs do this fight with each other to show who is boss but their not a flock and dogs have all of this showing who is boss ways of communicating with each other a lot of animals do

 

[crazycluck86]

I have a brahma roo who does a brilliant job looking after his hens, letting me no when the postman comes or someone is at the door by crowing! He is wonderful.....but not at 4.15am!!! Unfortunately he has seperate sleeping quarters in our garage away from his girls. He doesnt seem to mind and when I let him out in the morning he runs right out to greet his girls doing his little dance! I no this is not ideal but the only way that I can keep him. He sounds beautiful to me anyway....like the barry white of the chicken world ha!

 

[jak2002003]

not all of my birds i have a lot that like to be by their self's that's not being a flock bird ... i know someone they had a couple of coops and they were being attacked by weasels and two hens left the coop and lived by their house outside well the rest of the birds were in runs and the hens wouldn't go over there ... all birds are different chickens do not need to be in groups they can go by their self's and do just fine and they have these behaviors to communicate / wing flapping thing with roosters showing whos the boss they will fight each other to show is the alpha rooster .. my dogs do this fight with each other to show who is boss but their not a flock and dogs have all of this showing who is boss ways of communicating with each other a lot of animals do

So if most of you birds are social, then that means that most like to live together right?
Those ones that are on their own are too scared to go back to their coops because of the weasels.
Any animals can live on its own - but a social animal will be most happy and (in the case of chickens) give more eggs and grow faster - if they are in groups.
You could live on your own fine in a closed room if someone gave you food and water through the door every day, but I doubt you would be happy.

Dogs too are social animals. They live in packs - be it other dogs or the human pack.

I don't understand why are you trying to say chickens are not flock birds - when all evidence and scientific research says otherwise.

 

[farmer boy]

So if most of you birds are social, then that means that most like to live together right?
Those ones that are on their own are too scared to go back to their coops because of the weasels.
Any animals can live on its own - but a social animal will be most happy and (in the case of chickens) give more eggs and grow faster - if they are in groups.
You could live on your own fine in a closed room if someone gave you food and water through the door every day, but I doubt you would be happy.

Dogs too are social animals. They live in packs - be it other dogs or the human pack.

I don't understand why are you trying to say chickens are not flock birds - when all evidence and scientific research says otherwise.

flock birds don't make their own decisions but chickens make their own decisions chickens choose what they want to do where they want to go but like geese they all go together they don't choose where to go they go with the flock eat what everyone else eats but chickens all eat different things some like different things then others the hens follow the rooster because they look for safety from he he s the alpha the biggest and the strongest ( the weasel thing is not me and they chose not to go to the other coops they could have but they didn't they stayed where they wanted to stay and if they were a flock bird they would go with the rest of the chickens not stay there ) so i don't see how they are a flock bird

 

[SD Bird Lady]

flock birds don't make their own decisions but chickens make their own decisions chickens choose what they want to do where they want to go but like geese they all go together they don't choose where to go they go with the flock eat what everyone else eats but chickens all eat different things some like different things then others the hens follow the rooster because they look for safety from he he s the alpha the biggest and the strongest ( the weasel thing is not me and they chose not to go to the other coops they could have but they didn't they stayed where they wanted to stay and if they were a flock bird they would go with the rest of the chickens not stay there ) so i don't see how they are a flock bird

I think you are just comparing group dynamics. It is a lot like cattle and sheep. Cattle are herd animals but they tend to spread out and not follow the leader like sheep will. Cattle tend to follow but it isn't a rule more of a common happening kind of like chickens. If you drive through the group with a 4 wheeler they scatter and then just stand there while sheep are frantic to get bunched back up, Sheep follow no matter what more like ducks & geese.

 

[Mrs. K]

"some of my hens follow the alpha rooster but that's normal because their his hens and they follow him every where" and "smaller breeds of chickens and they stay by the barn"

I think you disprove your point, it sounds to me like you have multiple flocks, with different groups, but those groups do flock together.

Mrs K

 

[chooks4life]

I think you'd qualify an animal as a social one if in its wild state it seeks out its own kind for permanent association. Chooks do. In domesticity they may have loners among the flock but in my experience that's just a chook that hasn't found its own 'birds of a feather' --- chooks that it gets along with. If a hen or rooster is dumped in the wild they don't merrily get along with living in one place alone. They wander until they find a flock somewhere. Roosters seek hens and hens seek roosters. A rooster's crow is to let other roosters know that the territory they may hear hens clucking in is occupied. Crowing itself is a social marker because they don't only do it in the breeding season like a stag for instance; they maintain permanent family groups and territories, and go on defending both year round, year after year.

Silkies, pekins and some banty mixes are sometimes prone to do an 'adam-and-eve' thing though, at least in my experience; when you have a flock of birds they don't necessarily get along with or find it hard to compete with; they seem to find a mate they really like and go search for a new territory to start their own flock. The hens in particular can be real loners until they find their ideal rooster.

But I've had a lot of random experiences that may not be anything like yours. So it may not be relevant to you.

 

[farmer boy]

all my birds live together in the barn with ducks and stuff but once their outside its a different story everyone does not stay with each other they just leave the barn area and go of some where else ... i have a hen with her chick they leave and go far away from the birds to just do their own thing and some times a nice big rooster goes with them i call him daddy of the chicks because hes really good with the chicks he will find them treats and give it to the chicks ... and then there are others who stay right with the alpha rooster and one or two hens that stay with the beta rooster ( the old alpha ) and then with my ducks the female is the leader they follow her around ... i have a young rooster who likes us better then the other chickens and he was raised with a hen that hatched him out but he likes us better he is more of a dog then a chicken he likes going into the house or going for car rides .... all birds are different none are the same .. but besides this i saved a hen the other day i went out to work at a farm that had 20 pigs and like 100 hens or more and they were all half naked because the hens were all really stressed out but they had space but they just picked on this poor hen she has barley any feathers left she is staying with my young rooster who is like a dog and he is just recovering ( he couldn't walk always fell over and stuff never standing well or walking much but he is a lot better now ) so now i have to introduce her to my birds once she gets her feathers come back and her wounds heal up nicely

 

[chooks4life]

Chooks in general are quick to realize that if 10 chooks go foraging together, only the most dominant ones get the goodies they find, so during daytime wandering they will usually spread out to maximize their intake of all the best greens and insects.

Also if a hen with chicks is silly enough to stay with the main flock as she forages for their meals, other chooks will often learn to come to her food call and take the food she tries to give to the babies. Even a tough and dominant full-size hen can't save food from a flock of opportunists.

Those chooks that hang out with the alpha aren't necessarily breeding with him even if they mate with him. Often it's some sort of apathetic courtesy mating, like 'thanks for the food'... I suspect they don't line their oviducts up inside their cloaca to avoid getting pregnant when they mate without intent. I think the less intelligent hens mate as per usual. But I notice there's not much that's less sexy to a chook of either gender than a brainless mate.

Where I live in australia a lot of people report that it's always the subordinate males that get the offspring, even though the hens are happy to follow around the alpha for the food he finds and the protection he affords from other unwanted roosters. They don't consider themselves 'his' hens just because they're with him. They're out-and-out- opportunists. The alpha roosters I've had were always very hard to breed, it was always a case of the hens hanging out with the tops for food, then breeding with the bottoms, so to speak. No idea why. Being promoted to alpha rooster was always the death knell on a rooster's previously very active breeding life, and eventually they all twigged onto that, and stopped trying to get the alpha position.

Very few flocks or herds or groups of anything tend to stay very close to all the others during feeding hours; the majority prefer to spread out at least a little if given a chance. For the definitive answer as to whether or not chooks are flock birds you'd need to look up the scientific definition, as in the rules applied to judging whether or not an animal's social. If chooks weren't social, they would all fight incessantly if kept together, be terribly distressed, etc.