Roosters? What's wrong with them?

[BrittnyChicks]

My first ever chicken was a rooster, and I fell absolutely in love with him. He was the sweetest thing in the world and loved cuddles, interaction with other pets, and he was convinced he was a lovable puppy (He acted like it too).

I heard LOADS of people say they don't want to hatch because of the chance of Roosters, or roosters being shunted away and abandoned, whats up with that?

I know roosters can be mean to other hens and males, but they can't all be bad surely?

Might be my lack of chicken knowledge

 

[Chicken boy 1156]

It kinda just depends on how they’re raised, I expierienced a SUPER mean rooster and we… delt with him. But rn we have a really sweet rooster we named after a nice friend who passed away

 

[Sussex19]

I love roosters too!
I think in many cases, it is because they live in towns and cities, where they are not allowed to have one.
Also, if you hatch say 20 chicks, you could easily keep the ten hens all together (going with an average of 50/50 male and female) where as if you keep all those roosters together with the hens, they will fight and over breed the poor hens in many cases.
One could keep them in a bachelor coop, but some people don't have the space.
And....going by the amount of aggressive rooster posts one gets on here, some people do have a lot of problems with them. (I never have really, though)
I think if you aren't willing to cull when needed, to maintain peace in the flock, then the decision to not hatch chicks is a good one.

 

[BrittnyChicks]

I love roosters too!
I think in many cases, it is because they live in towns and cities, where they are not allowed to have one.
Also, if you hatch say 20 chicks, you could easily keep the ten hens all together (going with an average of 50/50 male and female) where as if you keep all those roosters together with the hens, they will fight and over breed the poor hens in many cases.
One could keep them in a bachelor coop, but some people don't have the space.
And....going by the amount of aggressive rooster posts one gets on here, some people do have a lot of problems with them. (I never have really, though)
I think if you aren't willing to cull when needed, to maintain peace in the flock, then the decision to not hatch chicks is a good one.

That makes sense. I rarely hatch over 5 chicken eggs at once, cause of the chances of hatching many roosters and small amounts of hens. I do have experience of over-breeding roosters,

 

[Tookie]

When hatching, you'll probably get about half females and half males. That male to female ratio isn't good, way too many males for that amount of females.
The males will eventually start mating the females, and the poor females will be over mated. Also the males will probably start to fight due to not enough females.
So, many people may not like to kill their males, and therefore dump them, or try to give them away and have no luck. Or maybe they can't have any males where they live.
I myself don't like hatching, due to having to deal with a bunch of males.

 

[BrittnyChicks]

When hatching, you'll probably get about half females and half males. That male to female ratio isn't good, way too many males for that amount of females.
The males will eventually start mating the females, and the poor females will be over mated. Also the males will probably start to fight due to not enough females.
So, many people may not like to kill their males, and therefore dump them, or try to give them away and have no luck. Or maybe they can't have any males where they live.
I myself don't like hatching, due to having to deal with a bunch of males.

Oh, that makes a lot more sense now. My first rooster was a single chicken and lived with 8 quails.
Don't worry, they did not fight as they grew up together since they were born.

We originally had 5 chicken eggs, 2 were infertile, and 1 quit around Day 19 and 1 internally pipped but was too weak to proceed to the external pip.
My Rooster, Eggnog is a warrior, he got through a power-out, and humidity spike, when most eggs quit around that time.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We have only hatched once. Out of six live chicks, four were cockerels. Not a problem for us, as soon as they started fighting with each other and chasing the pullets, into the freezer they went. Everything has a purpose around here. Hens lay eggs. Roosters, or cockerels, go into the pot. They make good soup.

 

[BrittnyChicks]

We have only hatched once. Out of six live chicks, four were cockerels. Not a problem for us, as soon as they started fighting with each other and chasing the pullets, into the freezer they went. Everything has a purpose around here. Hens lay eggs. Roosters, or cockerels, go into the pot. They make good soup.

Wow, I could never have the guts to do that!

Just a questions- do you put the cockerels alive in the freezer?

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

I love roosters, but keeping them isn't always as simple as most think. They aren't really anything like hens.
I have one rooster who is super lovely, never gives me issues, another who's not a fan of me but we make it work. And a bunch of cockerels who are still developing their personalities!
Did you chick actually reach maturity? I just get the feeling your "rooster" was still a young cockerel, they can be quite different to roosters...

 

[Sussex19]

To put a bit more perspective on it, over the 15 months I have processed something like 20 cockerels for us to eat.
Whereas I have not processed any females. If I was not willing to kill them, I would be feeding 20 hungry, none productive chickens. If I was somewhere which has restrictions on how many chickens I have, that would be a really big problem.