Rooster questions

[gottsegnet]

We are getting ready to put in a chick order and want to get a rooster. What breeds tend to be the least aggressive? And according to some chart, technically we need two roosters. Does that mean we have to divide the flock? I always thought they'd fight. Are there breeds that deal better with having a second rooster around?

 

[RockyPhoenix]

I dont know about anyone elses experience but all the RIR and Silver LWs were aggressive towards me and my hens...my phoenix bantams are too small to breed the standard hens and they arent aggressive towards anyone....HOPE THIS HELPS!

 

[seminolewind]

It depends on what kind of chickens you have, size wise. My Polish roo is very mellow. (White crested black). Speckledhen has barred rocks that are friendly. I don't think breed matters, each roo is different.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I can answer part of that for you, i think.

Some roosters will fight, but many, maybe even most have success with roosters abiding together in the same flock. One will become submissive to the other, and one will be the alpha.

The guidelines for number of roos are if you want all of your eggs to be fertile. If you don't care about that, then don't worry about it.

I don't know too much about other breeds of rooster, but my rooster is rir, and he does fine with having another rooster around. There maybe some scuffling, but there doesn't have to be big problems once they settle their order in the flock.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

You don't NEED a rooster unless you want to rear chicks. That being said, the only reasons I get roos are for their character and because they protect my girls.

That means, in your case, you don't NEED 2 roos. I have almost 20 hens and only have one rooster. Having a large ratio actually works much better. My rooster has more than enough hens and seems to be the 'happiest' boy I've had. I actually get kinda nervous at the thought of disturbing the peace by adding another. But, you're still able to have 2 at the same time if the hen ratio is large enough.

You can keep multiple roosters together so long as you have enough hens for each. They will fight, but that is normal behavior, and if you don't add any more birds, once they figure out who's the boss of whom, the fighting should stop. Unless one dies or has to be taken away. Then, once again, you might deal with some fighting.

You want to stay away from having a weaker rooster with a more aggressive breed of rooster. Otherwise, one may get carried away when fighting for dominance and hurt the weaker of the two badly. Generally, you want them both to have roughly the same disposition. I've heard good things about Brahmas and Cochins. There are other breeds too. You'll get alot of suggestions. Just do your research.

 

[BarredBuff]

My barred rock is a good rooster on the night we put them in the run he herded all of the hens together and put em in the house. Plus he is never agressive he wont let you pet him etc

 

[Bullwinkle]

Quote:
How many chicks are you ordering? I have found that (unless I'm ordering sex-linked chicks) there usually ends up being extra roo's from mistakes... or packing peanuts.

So... last year I orderd 83 chicks. I ordered x1 white giant, x1 black giant, and x1 light brahma, and x1 BO roosters. The hatchery added an extra BO rooster to the order. Then 1 of my 25 RIR's turned out to be a rooster, and lastly, one of my EE's turned out to be a rooster (He's really cute though). So in all, I ordered 4 Roosters, but ended up being sent 7.

I must say though... Roosters have their own personalities and I think they add a lot to a flock.

EDIT: what varieties of chicks are you getting? I made the 'mistake' of ordering normal size hens, but ordering really big roosters as I thought the roosters would help protect the hens. I did not know how 'rough' the roo's can be with the hens when mating (expecially since some of my roosters weigh three times what the hens weigh), so If I had it to do again, I would have got smaller size roo's...

 

[gottsegnet]

I was thinking about trying to get away with one rooster. Thanks! I do want to rear chicks, but we're looking at doing only a few a year, nothing drastic. Surely we can get a few fertile eggs a year out of our hens?

So far we have a RIR, Australorp, red sex link and a brown leghorn. We want some Easter Eggers and I don't know what else. Maybe more of what we have except for the leghorn. We love all our chickens but that one is a pain and impossible to catch.

I'm thinking maybe a black australorp roo, because I've heard they aren't so aggressive and the hen is the friendliest of all.

Thank you so much for your thoughts!

 

[hensonly]

Quote:
YOu'd get a few fertile eggs, but how do you know which ones?? If you incubate a lot of eggs to get a few chicks, it seems like a huge waste of eggs. And also, I ordered a batch of RIR pullets (from the local farm store) which turned out to be sex links, and I STILL got two roos!! So ordering sex links is no guarantee of getting what you want, it depends on how much attention the chick sorters at the hatchery are paying!

good luck!

BTW, my two roos grew up together and though they tiff a bit at times, they never fight, they share the hens (I onlyhave ten hens, need to get a few more), mate in front of each other, and though occasionally they snark at me when I go in, they are not seriously aggressive. I call the alpha roo Hotshot(because he is one), and the other one is Wannabe (because he is one). I don't free range, due to too many predators, so they're confined together all the time and I've had no trouble. Lucky me!

 

[BarredBuff]

Quote:
They wont fight as long as their are alot of hens a 10 to 1 ratio of hens to roosters, I have two roosters they fight rarely. I think on the aggressiveness it depends on the actual chicken my Barred Rock roo never fights with me he runs from me and the same with the RIR X roo.