ROOSTERS - pros vs cons

[ChicNmom]

I generally prefer a medium size rooster as they aren't usually as rough on the girls. My current boy is going to be full size but so far he isn't overly mating the hens. They are good as a look out and an early warning system.

My first rooster was the most protective. He'd fight anything for his girls. But he was a bit of a jerk and would be jealous and protective if I picked up a hen.

All of the others I've had I have raised. None of them have attacked me. I can pick them up even though they don't love it. I can handle the hens and they don't get upset. They eat out of my hand because I've worked with them since they were little.

And as mentioned then the older hens took over and taught them manners.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Pro’s:
-Can be great at herding in the hens on large acreage and a good rooster will help bring everyone in at night.
-Sounds the alarm for predators.
-Necessary if you want to start hatching from your flock.
-If given proper space most hens do enjoy having their rooster around.

Con’s:
-Pretty much useless when it actually comes down to defending against predators.
-Can become human aggressive if over handled by humans or does not have older hens to teach manners and flock dynamics.
-Needs to have appropriate space and enough hens to prevent boredom along with over mating (I would never recommend a rooster if you have bare minimum space requirements and keep your chickens contained 24/7).

Note: If you are going to get a rooster I agree with the above with letting the older hens raise a young cockerel. I have done test batches of roosters since I raise for meat and have the space to separate. All cockerels that I have had and placed with my older hens who bossed them around I have had no human aggression issues. The control batch of cockerels that I kept completely separate from all hens I had about 50% human aggression rates. For my initial test all cockerels were the same breed from the same breeder. I now pull out my cockerels that are keepers young and place with the hens. All of my butcher cockerels get placed in a separate pen and I do not allow my children to go into the butcher pen because of the average 50% human aggression rate. My kids have no problems being around my cockerels and roosters that have been raised by the older hens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If I should get one what’s some suggestion (types) to get?

Why do you want a rooster? What are your goals relative to having one? It's something like buying an automobile. Before you start looking you need to decide if you want a little sports car, an SUV, a pick-up truck, or an 18-wheeler rig. It's what "you" want that counts, not what I want.

If you are not planning on hatching chicks why do you want one? Eye candy, bug patrol, flock interaction, hen "protection"? I agree with most of the other posters. While it is possible a rooster will fight a predator I find it much more likely he will try to lead his hens to safety, if they can keep up. Roosters are often good warning systems but if you don't have a rooster one of the hens typically takes over the flock master job and warns of predators.

If you want to hatch chicks what do you want those chicks to be? Lay eggs, butcher for meat, sell hatching eggs or chicks, show, or something else? What hens do you have? If you are hatching eggs you need to match the hens with the rooster. They can be totally different breeds but you still need to match traits.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thank you. If I should get one what’s some suggestion (types) to get?

Depends on what you want. My favorites are Phoenix and Cornish bantam, but that's a personal preference

 

[DemeterAD9]

What 2 types are you keeping ? Considering maybe getting one

Currently I have 4 ~15 week old cockerels. A black Jersey giant, some sort of production red (RIR maybe?), a blue copper maran and a large fowl mix breed meat bird. I plan to keep the blue copper to make easter/olive eggers and either the Jersey giant or large fowl mix for hatching meat birds. All depends on who is well behaved and if 2 cockerels can get along in my setup. If I can only keep one then it will be the blue copper maran who is currently top dog and well mannered thus far.

 

[SamLockwood]

PROS:

You can hatch your own chicks, either to replace losses or if you want to sell some to offset your chicken-keeping costs.

Protection: How effective a rooster is depends on a lot of factors. A lot of people assume because some roosters get human-aggressive they're these little ninja-raptors that can drive off anything smaller than a bear.

The reality is even the meanest ones don't usually weigh more than 10 pounds, which barely puts them on even footing with a domestic cat, let alone something the size of a raccoon or the speed of a weasel. Plus, even most predators aren't really interested in an actual fight, and roosters are basically prey animals with the instincts to match.

That being said, I've seen mine drive off small predators more than once. Usually this is through bluster and posturing, although they did go after a hawk once (which resulted in two of them being injured).

More realistically, a good rooster keeps watch while the hens forage. Plus they tend to keep the girls herded up where they can watch them and keep an eye out for predators. I'd say most of the time what they do is spot trouble (well before I can even see the actual bird) and get everyone under cover and then get everyone to make a racket. Even the immature eagle that visited this winter didn't want to try his luck with the three dozen birds packed side by side under cover screaming abuse at him.

Keep in mind all these protective qualities only work in the daytime. At night they're just as blind and sluggish as the hens, and most predators will make short work of a sleepy rooster.

Third, a good rooster acts as a mediator. I currently have four, and the two lesser roosters in the pecking order will act as greeters to new birds I introduce, and will usually protect them from excessive bullying.

The two higher roos in the order, especially the alpha, will break up fights between the hens, and the alpha even stops fights between the beta roosters.

Finally, they're some of the most gorgeous livestock you can ever own: the fabulous plumage, the way the strut and pose.


CONS
First, they are NOISY. My copper maran makes my ears ring if he crows next to me. Sometime just before dawn they'll make a racket, and contrary to popular belief they'll crow all day long to show dominance, claim their territory, or if you have more than one they'll "sound off" to see where the rest of the flock is.

What people call the "egg laying song" is really an escort call hens often make before they lay an egg. Roosters often will repeat that call and it can make quite a racket.

Roosters also do this thing where they'll flirt by picking out a nesting site and calling a hen over: the nesting-call sounds more like some alien creature choking do death than any sound a bird should make. Creeped me out the first time I heard it.

If you've got neighbors near by, they'll complain. If somebody's bedroom is within 10 yards of the coop, they'll wake them up.

Second, roosters tend to be more "high-strung" than hens. Those same instincts that make them good protectors and flock leaders means they have some less appealing personality traits. A lot of aggressive rooster instincts are due to a failure to understand how their brains work and read the warning signs of impending aggression.

I also think roosters really need a spacious free-range environment to really thrive. Mine cover a lot of ground in a day, and they like to guide their hens to various foraging spots or sit down for a group dust-bath. If your backyard or run is measured in square feet instead of acres your rooster may start acting up just out of sheer pent up energy.

Second, if you're totally new to chickens or a hen growling or clucking at you seems intimidating, do not get a rooster. Many Roosters them will try to push boundaries with you, especially when they're younger or after the pecking order has shifted. It's something that if you ignore, or worse retreat from, will only escalate eventually into an attack.

Chicken-brains aren't wired for a relationship of equals, and there's a reason their social structure is called a "pecking order."

If you have little kids or one of those little yipping dogs, don't get a rooster. Things that dart around and make lots of noise will just hit a rooster's crazy button, and sooner or later they'll take a swipe at it. Most kids are incredibly stupid around farm animals, largely because most parents don't educate their kids properly: I know this from bitter experience: my first concussion was when I was at a montessori school that had a sort of petting-zoo-farm and nobody told me that a lamb staring at you intently is not an invitation to go pet him.

Third, If you tend to anthropomorphize animals (that is, interpret how they act is if they're people), you will be horrified at the mating habits of young cockerels. This is especially true if there's no adult roosters to keep them in check. They don't take "no" for an answer. Oddly it was two of the quieter adult legbar hens that started slapping some manners into my young "gentlemen."

Even when they learn to do it right, there may still be some feather loss to your beautiful hens. The only way for the rooster to mount a hen is for her to squat, and then he has to climb on top of her and grab the back of her neck with his beak to maintain his balance. Even if he tries to be as gentle as possible his favorite hens are going to get some feather damage as roosters are extremely randy.

Fourth, if you have more than 1 rooster, they WILL fight to establish the pecking order and any time something makes the pecking order shift. I had four shifts in my group between 9 and 13 months old, each time somebody got bloody (one of which was fatal).

Fifth, roosters in general are very prickly at social status. They tend not to like it if you toss treats to the hens, it's better to treat the rooster & let him call the hens to it. I have one that gets prickly over paying attention to him: most of them will come up & greet me if I show up in the back yard, but jackass is the only one that gets huffy if I ignore him.

The current alpha rooster does this thing where any time he sees me drop anything like a treat, he'll lead 4 to 8 hens over, chase the other bird or birds off that were there, and then make his tid-bitting call while his girls feast.

If you like petting and cuddling with your hens, I don't recommend getting a rooster. They don't have any real concept of what "petting" is, so any physical contact is related either to mating or fighting in their heads. If you're constantly picking up & touching your hens, his little brain might decide you're acting like a predator or a rival rooster and he'll start treating you accordingly.

In short: High-energy, high-maintenance, high-volume, but pretty and you can double your flock every month if you want to.

 

[DrDale1]

Is it beneficial to have a ROOSTER ?

I was told to have chicks and to protect the hens. I also was told that the feathers of the hens become bad cause the rooster is always on the hen

And if good what’s the best rooster to get

Any suggestion

We have multicolored Morana roosters that are very protective of the hens. One is the boss of all the other hens and roosters. He is always on watch for hawks and other birds or animals. When he starts making noise the hens all run for cover. He trained them well.

 

[WaterfowlsPoultry]

Roosters will let you get chicks, They will do warning calls on predators but as said already, They are useless when it comes to actually being face to face with a predator getting too close.
Majority of the time a rooster will herd the Hens onto roosting bars, inside the bushes, etc etc. I have heard stories about roosters fighting off small hawks, maybe a weasel one time but majority of the time they lose. Every blue moon you'll hear a story about a rooster kicking another hawks feathers out of their coop but that's as far as your going for a crime-fighting roo.

They are incredibly loud, My Roo crows every minute every second of the day infact They can sometimes pick favorite hens and ONLY mate with that hen sometimes and you might get an aggressive roo that likes the taste of fear in a humans eyes or a coward Roo who won't do warning calls and instead dive inside of a bush and not come out for a while until the predator is gone. Sometimes it is good that a rooster tries fighting off a predator and loses, Because they sacrifice themselves so the hens can run to safety but that's as much you are going to get from an average rooster.

I have a Barred rock rooster. Weighs about 10 or 11 pounds, He fought off a hawk once but he runs from me sometimes. Does not hurt the hens and hens squat for him. (You know if a rooster is overmating/hurting the hens when the hen does not squat for the rooster and rooster seems to force the hen down) Hes pretty well trained, He sounded an alarm call when he saw a fox creeping up on them one time. That's a type of rooster you'd want-or the type of rooster I like lol.

 

[Birdsonghill]

While you don't need a rooster if you don't want to breed chickens, I like having them. I agree with many people who have made various comments pro and con having roosters. I DO LIVE IN A MORE RURAL ENVIRONMENT. I do like to hatch out eggs under hens or in an incubator and I just like looking at a proud rooster strutting around. I also raise out bachelor flocks of excess roosters for meat, tick Patrol and as lawn ornaments! I seldom have a rooster go at me and have been keeping chickens over fifty years. Separating the young cockerels out when they begin to express Their identity, they go to live a separate life as young bachelors and free ranging over my back yard area and nearby garden areas, become entertaining lawn ornaments that cleanup ticks and beetles that they encounter. I have kept some till well after fully matured together, with no fighting or problems , when kept away from the girls. I have had a couple attacks by roosters over the decades and some ended as chicken and dumplings sooner rather than later. The ones that the large hawks took or the fox snatched were feeding the wildlife I enjoy to watch as well. I raise more garden and roosters for eating than I need so I can share some with the "neighbors". My pullets and coop boss roosters in my two fully enclosed coops with covered runs are safe from the predators for breeding and egg production. The meat roosters are locked up at night in a separate safe coop and run , so I might harvest some of them. I just take an easy pathway to meet my needs and try not to have any worry. When the young cockerels start acting like roosters a lot and developing adult characteristics so you know what they are for sure, I remove them to the boys club coop. My current Welsummer rooster in one breeder/laying coop is very happy and not aggressive to me and the other coop has my Whiting's True Blue rooster who also is non aggressive to me. Both are attentive to their girls and watch over them without ever hurting any in mating. I have a pet Partridge Cochin Rooster who is a sissy and lives non violently with the Welsummer rooster, who he is careful to not challenge and avoids the Welsummer mostly. They were brooder mates and worked it all out themselves and three years old with no fights or stressed out birds. The Cochin shows no interest in the hens. You may see different things with chickens over the long haul that defy the normal.

 

[Vicker]

I'm keeping a rooster to raise a few new chicks each year. My current rooster is working out beautifully, but I've auditioned a few before him. I've had various breeds and learned that breed isn't a good predictor of a beneficial roo. For me a good one has a minimally obnoxious crow, gets along well with others, keeps a respectful distance from me, and it doesn't hurt if he's a handsome looking bird. My biggest mistake with raising roos is making them too tame. The ones I handled a lot as chicks turned out to be the ones that weren't afraid to challenge me as adults.