Roosters - to keep or not to keep - that is the question!

[christa7032]

I hate my rooster (who was an accident) but I loved my previous rooster who was killed be a neighbor's dog so I guess it all depends on the temperment of the one you get. Mine was nice when he was little (before I knew he was a boy) but then he got beat up pretty badly by my bigger hens. Since then he has had a chip on his shoulder and will attack me any time I go near them. Luckily he is a bantam so he isn't doing much damage. When he jumps at me he doesn't even reach my knee and my muckboots protect me. So far I am just dealing with it but I may try to get rid of him if his antics get old and he doesn't calm down. He also hasn't done any damage to the girls yet. He is interested in them but they seem to have been able to get away from him so far so we'll see on that end also. I honestly don't really know what to do with him though if I decide I don't want him...

 

[InsaneBreeder]

To not have a rooster would be to miss out on its general silliness, self-assumed magnificence, and ability to amuse constantly.

 

[Margot]

I have 11 Roos - the batchelor bunch. All but 1 are from one group of eggs hatched last summer. (Hen disappeared - found her with 16 eggs) They are so comical and funny. Free range and live in the barn and patrole the hen houses. My batie house has 3 roos and my big hen house has 2 silkie roos. All are wonderful and I enjoy them as much as I do the hens. Only had 1 bad roo- he was big and would attack me constantly. Drew blood on my shins so many times...I still have the scars. He had to go, One bad one out of 16...pretty good odds.

Margot in cold snowy Michigan

 

[momiphouph]

To not have a rooster would be to miss out on its general silliness, self-assumed magnificence, and ability to amuse constantly

I whole heartily agree! This was our first year with chickens and out of 9 babies... we ended up with 5 roos! Somehow got 2 from a batch of pullets... go figure! I keep telling the kids we HAVE to get ride of some of these roos! But to be honest (dont tell the kids) the thought is heartbreaking. They are so much fun and each has his own personality. We have had to seperate a few from the hens and there are 2 that try to get agressive (1 of those is a bantam, so he is hardly a threat and thinks he is a giant

). The rest are teddy bears and take great care of the ladies and are good with my kids. Ive thought if anything did try to get after the hens... they sure would have a lot to deal with.... LOL All the roos get along fine, although I know we will need to part with one or two soon... it really will be hard to pick which ones. So my thought is why not try it out? Keep a breed that is normally not very aggressive and if it doesnt work out, find him a new home or have a great meal!​

 

[chickbird]

I Have Several Roosters And None Are Aggressive, I Love Their Crowing . I Always Get More Roosters Than Pullets When Hatching And Have Given Many Away, But Really Hate To See Each One Go. I Now Have 7 And Have Got To Give Away 4. The Roosters Are A Joy To Watch. My Older One Herds The Girls Into The Coop Each Night And Will Continue To Go Back And Get Them If They Are Lingering Too Long. Too Many Roosters,however, Are Not Good For The Ladies As They Overwork Them And If A Hen Is Very Docile And Submissive This Can Be Bad For Her. My Husband And I Both Have A Difficult Time At Thinking Of Slaughtering The Extra.

 

[tammyd57]

I always wind up with more roos than hens, and I like it that way! I can only eat so many eggs a week, but the entertainment of a bunch of roosters is priceless! And they are so beautiful! My hubby wants to get rid of the 'extras', and I have tried, really I have.............but no one wants to pay $100 for a hatchery hatched BO roo! Gee, I wonder why?

"I don't know hun, I listed them on Craig's List, Thrifty Nickel, and the Save-A-Buck, but no one has called..............."

 

[lauralou]

My first rooster was very agressive. And downright scary. He attacked people. We ate him.

His sons seemed to be going in the same direction. We ate them, too.

I thought I'd never want another rooster. Now I have two of them, in separate pens, with their own flocks of ladies. I am really quite in love with both of them. They are beautiful and well mannered, and like others have said, their antics are simply priceless. I get hours and hours of enjoyment out of them. And their hens love them, too. The key to this, I believe, is that I have plenty of hens. One roo has 9 hens, the other has 14. So none of them are terribly overbred.

So, roosters can really add something to the flock. If you get a nice one. If you don't, you have real problems! And when hatching eggs, you will always end up with too many roosters. So you need to have a plan for getting rid of the extras. This is easy if you are willing to eat them. But that's not an option for everyone. They can be hard to sell, because there are lots of people trying to sell their extras. I haven't had too much of a problem, but I'm planning a rooster pen for next year, to hold my extras until they can be sold. I had seven roos at one time last year, and they just about drove me nuts when they hit the teenage, mating tornado stage. My poor hens were terrorized! Hopefully the bachelor pen will solve that problem when I start hatching this year.

Here's one of my pretty roos. Axel.

 

[momiphouph]

but no one wants to pay $100 for a hatchery hatched BO roo! Gee, I wonder why?
"I don't know hun, I listed them on Craig's List, Thrifty Nickel, and the Save-A-Buck, but no one has called..............."

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I'm a suburbanite, so I am limited on the number of chickens I can keep on my property. It's not the law that limits me, just the amount of room in the back yard, which has to be subdivided into vegetable garden area, chicken area and my six year old daughter's play area.


My wife and I did NOT intend on getting a rooster. We wanted all hens. Again, it was not a legal matter, since there are no laws regulating chickens in our area. We just wanted all hens.


But the feed store accidentially sold us a cockerel Easter Egger. I guess at 1 day old, it is easy to make sexing mistakes.


Originally, we figured that we'd rehome the rooster, because our plan was to have hens only.


But he was so cute, and so friendly -- well, to make a long story short, we kept him.


DaddyRoo will be a year old later this month. We don't even like to think how empty our family would be if we did not have that little guy in the family.


We purposefully raised him to be gentle and loving to us, because we have heard all the reports about roosters attacking their owners. We pick him up regularly, to tell him how handsome he is and to feed him scratch out of our hand. He actually asks us to pick him up, and if we ignore him too long, he'll fly into our arms whether we are ready for him or not. I'm not sure if that is because he loves us, or he's just associated being picked up with getting a handful of chicken scratch. (I want to believe it is the former, but feel pretty certain it is the latter).


At any rate, because we have always been very gentle with him, and have raised him to be friendly -- to date we have not had any negative experiences with him.


And best part about it -- when one of our buff orpingtons decided to go broody on us, we had fertilized eggs to give her, courtesy of DaddyRoo.


We are now raising four of his children.


DaddyRoo, bum that he is, has not yet paid us a single penny in child support to help pay for HIS offspring...

 

[Sjisty]

I have 5 roosters for my 16 hens. I know that's too many, but they are so cute and funny I just can't give them up. Watching my serama, Romeo, mount my LF Brahma hens is just too cute. Now we have Angel, a bantam Cochin frizzle who has a harem of 3 pullets. Rocky (LF light Brahma) is the main man, and Gadget and Gizmo (LF partridge Brahmas) are the young boys. I will probably have to give up one of the boys. They work together to catch the hens and then gang rape them, but Rocky and Romeo mostly keep them under control so far.

Roos make the whole chicken experience fun and interesting!