Roosters

[MysTzN]

Just discovered we have a roo, he is a Rock. So we now have two young girls, and a young roo. We have been bedding them down together, but should we build a separate area for bedding down for our roo? Kind of nervous having a roo, but after reading other threads, I've been treating him well, and maintaining my dominance. I'm concerned about my daughter though, will he allow dominance by more then one person? Thanks for any tips!

 

[LRH97]

I wouldn't worry about having mean roo until you know for sure that he's mean. Just tell your daughter to keep a close eye on him when/if she goes to the coop. Your roo can live with your hens. He'll protect them and find them treats and do his male "duties". Then you can have fertile eggs and try to hatch them. There are many good aspects of having a roo around. I have four.

In the ten plus years I've been doing this, I've had way more non aggressive roos than aggressive. Mind you, I believe only one aggressor was a Rock, a lot were RIR, and a few others. Just give him a chance. Rocks make attractive roos. He may turn out to be a real pleasure to have around!

 

[sumi]

No, you don't need to do anything extra in the coop for your cockerel. He can eat and roost and hang out with the hens. You may need to consider getting some more hens for him at some stage though. Cockerels tend to take their duties very seriously and too few hens can quickly get over-mated and/or injured. Anything from 8-12 hens per cockerel is a good balance, if possible.

 

[donrae]

If you just have a small backyard flock, I'd advise to simply get rid of the rooster. If you only have 3 birds total, you were probably only wanting some hens for eggs. Just cause you got an Oops rooster is not reason to keep him. He'll eat a ton, not produce anything, be noisy and with only two hens he's quite likely to overmate them. Depending on how old your daughter is and how naturally assertive she is, things could be just fine, or she could get hurt. Plus, a hormonal cockerel's going to be mating those pullets several times a day, and young chickens mating isn't always a pretty picture. There can be lots of resistance on the pullet's part until they both figure out how to correctly get things done and this can be quite distressing to folks not raised with animals mating.

I don't want this to sound as if I'm anti-rooster, I"m the opposite. Have several and thoroughly enjoy them. I do believe they have a place, though, and most backyards isn't the place for them. They're more livestock than pet. Folks often think they have to keep a rooster they really didn't want or plan for, just cause it was mis-sexed. You don't. Is it quite likely he'll wind up someone's dinner? Yep. But there are lots worse things than a good life and one really bad day

If you do decide to keep him, just leave him in the flock. Separating him would just be a cruelty imo. If he can't be with the ladies, I'd say why keep him?

 

[KeepOnClucking]

I wouldn't sweat having a rooster, unless you don't want chicks. In which case, don't incubate the eggs.