Roosters.

[noahsmom]

Tell me more about Roosters....How much do your's crow? For small set ups like me, do any of you just have an extra pen/coop with just one rooster and 1-3 or so hens for fertile eggs? I haven't even begin to think deep enough into keeping a roo to know what I would do for pen/coop, just "thinking" in general about the idea. I will be receiving 12 silkie eggs and 12 Heritage RIR eggs and thinking about keeping a RIR roo and adding in another hen or two from different lines. This is all just a thought and If I enjoy hatching eggs and the whole deal of chickens as much as I believe I'm going to then I'm thinking about having a roo and a few hens in a separate pen. We had a pet rooster when I was younger and he was the sweetest bird, he did crow but only in the morning hours and otherwise was a great roo.

 

[dretd]

I am not a huge expert on roos but can give you feedback on the few I have known.
How often to they crow: Varies depending on the rooster. Some crow a lot and some not very much.
-My first roo crowed starting early in the morning and crowed all day long. He even occasionally would wake up and crow at 3 am. Not good. He had 3 sons. One started crowing at a very young age and would start every morning at 4 am. Another of the boys started crowing at 18 weeks. He crows occasionally through the day but not very much and starts crowing (with a rare exception of much earlier) between 620 and 7 am.
-The crowing loudness and quality varied between the roos. The early crower was also louder and longer crowing than the last one that crowed later. Needless to say I decided to keep the quieter/later crower and don't regret my decision.
-I have a friend that had a Silkie and he was pretty quiet and was really sweet.


Disposition:
-Some roosters are very protective of their girls and may see the flock owner as competition/threat and may attack/flog the owner. Others may see the flock master as a really good-looking hen and try to court and get, hmmm, overly friendly with them, and others will be neutral to them.
-I had one roo that was ok but on occasion would sneak up an try to flog my butt when I bent over to feed. I was willing to put up with him because he was a good flock-protector. Eventually got rid of him because my daughter wanted to keep the quiet son who is more respectful and it really is nice to not worry about getting randomly attacked.
-I have a friend that had an ok rooster that out of the blue one day flogged her when she bent down and got her face. She might have lost her eye if she hadn't been wearing glasses. First offense, so I guess you should never trust one even if they have been great in the past.

Fertile eggs:
-I have hatched fertile eggs and I gotta say it was really fun to watch the hens raise the chicks. Plus I didn't have to clean the brooder and feed and water etc, so I have packed up the incubator and only will hatch eggs when I have a broody!
-If you keep your RIR, he will be capable of taking care of 6-12 hens. If you only have 1-3, this may be too low of a number for him and he may over-use the few hens (they will become featherless on the back and may have feathers pulled form the back of the neck etc). You could try saddles if this happens, but your easy solution is to keep more hens with him. Since you are going to try heritage (does that mean show quality?) I would be inclined to keep my best-type 6 hens with him to improve your flock and put the rest in the egg flock.

 

[donrae]

If you're getting 24 hatching eggs you need to plan on having 12 roosters when those eggs hatch. You need to think about what you're going to do with those excess males now, before you have them. Everyone will usually be fine together (males and females) until the males reach puberty, then you'll need to protect your hens from overmating from that many males. Seperate grow-out pens are used by lots of folks. Then, what are you going to do with the roosters? Sell them, eat them, etc. Is there a market in your area for excess roosters?


My rooster is just in with my layer flock.I have maybe 20 hens, my main roo Rocky and my oops roo from a batch of sexed pullets last spring. I have a grow out pen I use until the chicks are four months or so. Right now the last batch (2 cockerals and one pullet) are all in the general population. The roosters will be processed in a month or so.

 

[noahsmom]

If you're getting 24 hatching eggs you need to plan on having 12 roosters when those eggs hatch. You need to think about what you're going to do with those excess males now, before you have them. Everyone will usually be fine together (males and females) until the males reach puberty, then you'll need to protect your hens from overmating from that many males. Seperate grow-out pens are used by lots of folks. Then, what are you going to do with the roosters? Sell them, eat them, etc. Is there a market in your area for excess roosters?


My rooster is just in with my layer flock.I have maybe 20 hens, my main roo Rocky and my oops roo from a batch of sexed pullets last spring. I have a grow out pen I use until the chicks are four months or so. Right now the last batch (2 cockerals and one pullet) are all in the general population. The roosters will be processed in a month or so.

I will be looking for homes for these roosters the moment they are sexed. Their is a demand for roosters in my area, just not high demand. The roosters will be from nice lines so I plan to use that n my pitch as well. I have already put out a craigslist ad for those interested and obviously explained all the details and letting them know nothing available until eggs are hatched and then they are sexed. Yes it is VERY early, but I will continue to update this ad in hopes of a few people interested I can contact.

 

[jdywntr]

I have 3 roos and they crow, whenever. I've heard them at 3am so it all depends.

I'd have a plan other than craigslist. You could end up with 1 roo out of 24 or 23 roos. I see roos for sale all the time here and they are ALWAYS at the flea markets. Unless they are exceptional lines and someone just happens to need to replace one or add one, you may be stuck with them. I think the silkie roos will be MUCH harder to sell, people may buy the RIR to process but few would process a silkie.

Great plan for the pre-ad on CL though. Getting the word out may help.

 

[Hannah11]

Roo's are very hard to get rid of in my area atm I have 7 roos from 10 chicks..... one is the permanent guy but the others have just started crowing its BAD no sleep from 3-4am onward and its lunchtime now they are still crowing every ten mins. one crows and all the rest start too

I am going to process them very soon. another thing about keeping one roo is that you could end up with a lot of chicks, I have two broody's that have raised 4 clutches in 4 1/2 months!

I have found that you can get rid of heavy set roo's for free around here or for 1-2 dollars but that won't cover the cost of the feed while they are still with mum.

I hope you can find places for the roo's (i still really love roo's not all of mine are heading to the pot)

 

[PSJ]

Is there a specific reason you don't want to keep a Roo with your hens in just one pen?

 

[noahsmom]

Is there a specific reason you don't want to keep a Roo with your hens in just one pen?

I will be housing rirs and silkies together, it wouldn't work out, really not interested in an rir/silkie hybrid lol however, I wouldn't mind just housing several rir hens with one rooster.

And yes, I understand I could end up with many Roos... My only option would be to post ads in newspapers, flea markets and maybe just have to order a separate coop/run (which I have already thought of buying a prefab coop/run to set off to side for a couple different reasons. Maybe barn/larger run would be Rirs and prefab would be my silkies who r only going to be my extra pretty to look at pets and I don't plan to keep many of them - 6 or less.

I appreciate all the advice and your experiences!

 

[noahsmom]

Received 3 emails today about the chickens... Probably won't lead to much in the end but I'm glad their is "some" interest. One wants 3 Roos, If I have them. I will update them as I find out more info...