ROOSTERS - pros vs cons

[Love Donkeys]

Personally I would never own a Rhode Island Red rooster the can be very aggressive and unpredictable.....
My roos, Mr Boss Man and Mr White, are Speckled Sussex they were raised with older hens who taught them to be kind.....
They always seem to be on patrol or standing watch. Whether they would attack a predator is unknown, but they will make a racket......

 

[GracePoultry]

My rooster was great against hawks and always led the hens away from them to cover. He was always pretty scared when it came to ground predators though, I used to make jokes about it
but he went down protecting the girls from a fox. he was a very good boy

 

[Altairsky]

It makes sense to keep a rooster only if you need fertile eggs. Also some roosters are trash, others are amazing. With that in mind, and considering just the amazing roosters:

PROS
- Fertile eggs
- Helps rising chicks
- Will prevent any fighting between the females
- He decides the pecking order (and good roosters think all their girls are equal. I witnessed my boy get a slice of pepperoni out of the dominant hen's mouth, break it into pieces and offer one piece each hen, including the bantams).
- Will be a deterrent for aerial predators (only large roosters)
- Will supervise the integration of new females and limit aggression

CONS
- Roosters crows any hour of day and night
- Even the most gentle rooster will ruin your hens feathers. Hens don't care, humans do.
- Most roosters don't really fight predators. They just sound the alarm.
- Roosters tends to get hormonal and harass humans in many different ways. From aggression to trying to mount anyone and anything. The best flock protectors that are willing to fight predators tend to be the aggressive ones. So you get one issue, or the other.