Rooster or no rooster…

[Folly's place]

Roosters add beauty and complete the social order in the flock.
Mary

 

[Yardmom]

Not sure what you meant by not breed. You only get chicks if you get a broody hen and let her sit on the fertile eggs for 21 days.

 

[wrathsfarm]

This is why I tolerate mine being a jerk....I figure at some point he's going to sacrifice himself for the flock.

It's always the good ones we lose.

We have roosters, and enjoy them in the flock. Good roosters (and they grow into their role!) watch out for danger, court hens, and aren't interested in attacking the Giants who bring food. We don't tolerate 'attack birds', they belong in someone's freezer. There are so many good cockerels who need homes, don't keep a jerk.
Right now we have three nice cockerels who need homes, for example.
Mary

This is true.

yes, a roosters main benefit is calling out a threat .. they do act as a decent alarm not only to the flock but to you, so you can act if prepared .. but protecting against a predator, not really, nothing will stop a seasoned predator but you .. my advice is eliminate predators on sight, no exceptions .. and yes keep a rooster if you can stand their attitude, they do vary in that quite a bit, in my experience a smaller rooster is much easier to put up with and usually alot less aggresive, not forgetting that their vocal alarm is the main benefit of 'protection' ..

Raptors are exceptions.

Roosters add beauty and complete the social order in the flock.
Mary

This is true also.

Not sure what you meant by not breed. You only get chicks if you get a broody hen and let her sit on the fertile eggs for 21 days.

Unless you have an incubator.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

This is why I tolerate mine being a jerk....I figure at some point he's going to sacrifice himself for the flock.

Yeah same I don’t kill him because my neighbor has dogs small ones but they go from mean to wusses the moment they get hurt and all three of my roosters hate dogs except for one of my dogs