Rooster

[ChickieB]

Looking for some information on Roosters.
Do they get along with other Roosters?
Should you keep them with your hens?
Do you seperate them from your hens?why?

My chicks are a couple weeks old. Not sure if I have a rooster or not but I think I might. Just looking for some tips on how to handle this before I run into problems.

 

[Kiki]

What breeds do you have?
How many total chicks do you have right now and did you buy straight run?


Read this:
A Viewpoint on Managing Roosters

 

[ChickieB]

What breeds do you have?
How many total chicks do you have right now and did you buy straight run?


Read this:
A Viewpoint on Managing Roosters

Silkies. Total 5. Yes straight run.

 

[Kiki]

Silkies. Total 5. Yes straight run.

Silkies aren't known to be crazy attack roosters. You won't have any problems at this current age.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

What are your goals for chickens? Why are you keeping them? Why might you want a rooster? To me the first thing you need to decide is whether you want roosters or not. I generally recommend that you keep as few boys as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems, but the more boys you have the more likely you are to have problems. For many people the correct answer is zero, but for others it can be more.

Your questions are about the behavior of living animals. There are no clear easy answers, with animal behavior about anything can happen.

Do they get along with other Roosters?

Sometimes. Sometimes they fight to the death. Sometimes they get along great. They will determine which is boss, which might be violent or it may be so peaceful you never notice how they do it. If they do fight it is often a skirmish where the loser runs away, as long as they have room to run away and get away. To me, how much room they have is very important. The less room they have the more likely it is to be violent. But a lot depends on the individual personalities. Some are going to fight to the death no matter what. Some tend to be a lot more peaceful.

Should you keep them with your hens?

Do you seperate them from your hens?

What are your goals? Why do you want them? What are your concerns? Why would you worry about this? It's hard to address such a wide open question, it's a lot easier to discuss specific things. Many people keep the boys and girls together, some separate.

why?

If you want fertile eggs they have to be together. Some people think a rooster adds predator protection for the flock. Having them together may mean less cleaning or other reduced management issues.

Some people separate because the boys can be rough on the girls, especially during puberty. They are not always rough but it can happen. Or if they want a specific rooster to fertilize the eggs they have to separate.

I'm sure there are many more reasons people might do one or the other. It's hard to cover everything. That's why specific questions or worries are easier to address.

 

[BDutch]

Do you like to keep them if possible? Do you have bantam Silkies or the big ones?

Maybe you can ask a few people who have Silkies. Look into threads about Silkies and tag @ some Silkie owners with roosters here.

I’ve been reading they are much less aggressive as most other roosters and it’s possible to have more than one Silkie rooster in a small flock.