Sebright rooster...should i get him some girls?

[lovincolorado]

I have a classic obnoxious sebright rooster with my backyard flock comprised of 4 BO, his brother, another submissive sebight and 2 silkie hens. The rooster is very vocal and protective. if your back is to him, he will try to flog you, which I chalk up to approproate protectiveness and bad behavior on our part- never turn your back on a rooster. When/if he does this, we pick him up and he calmly takes his "time out"
He attempts to mount the BOs. He ignores one silkie but will chase down the other, as if she is a rooster. She has no rooster qualities at 8 mos of age (whereas a clutch mate had long been crowing- RIP fox bait).
So my dilemma: Do i get him some sebright hens to expend his enegies appropriately or will his behavior heighten, to the detriment of my silkie, and/or his brother? If I make soup, will his brothers behavior become more dominant without him? Currently they roost together...would this relationship change if their were breedable girls in the mix?
Thanks for your insight!

 

[danielle82]

I'm tough on roos, I keep only the nicest of the nice. I've been told I'm not breeding a very good "survivor" strain, but I don't care if they are good for free ranging, I just like tame chickens. So I voted soup, but I am very biased towards docile roosters.

 

[lovincolorado]

Thanks for your input danielle82. i am definitely torn here. Atleast he is small so he is low risk, and my 4 yr old is not afraid of him at all. My son votes not to make him soup, but im leaning towards soup. he certainly isnt a candidate for rehoming. I think he may be big for SOP too.
He is a sebright, so is this dominance typical. I thought his brother was a hen for the longest time, as he is smaller, and has never crowed. i think he knows his place.
Its not like sebrightsd are easy to come by so this breeding project may just be a pipe dream!!! I heard sebrights are prone to sterility. i bet he is fertile based on his behavior. so undecided.
Any Sebright breeders want to weigh in????
Thanks

 

[kristenmister]

I'm in this situation as well, but I refuse to kill a perfectly healthy bird, so I'm biased in the other direction. I know roosters can be difficult but they are so full of personality and I love mine more than my girls. I took on 3 unwanted buff orpington roos, all brothers, so I am expanding my flock to accommodate. One is submissive, and the other 2 are more dominant. I now have 17 hens. I've kept the 3 brothers together away from the hens so far until my newer girls can get big enough to handle them (the youngest are 7-15 wks, the rest of the flock is over 2 years). They will all have more than enough space to work their stuff out (they "free range" in the horse pasture). I'm not much help yet, as I'm still waiting to see how this all works out too. But just thought I'd let you know what I'm doing in a similar situation.

 

[lovincolorado]

so far, all my chickens have been raised together (born april 2012). i wonder what would happen to add new chickens, particularly with this roo. I think my other sebright roo may be closer to SOP. I have not shown them (yet). I have been scoping out shows to see sebrights, and have been surprised at some of the dull birds shown. They seem under represented.

 

[gryeyes]

Had two Silver Sebright Roos I had to rehome but it was due to their crowing. Really kinda sad because they were over two years old when I moved here with my whole flock and I loved them. They loved their Silver sebright hen (who is still here) and several of my bantam hens amongst the larger hens in the flock. (Got a few "cobrights" - sebright /bantam cochin chicks, too.)

George was the obnoxious one (but I still loved him - I got him trained not to flog ME but male friends who visited thought it was a hoot to make him attack their ankles). He was "off" SOP but his brother Alex was perfect. Qh well. both had to go.

Alice's eggs are never fertile now. :-(

So, get some SS hens for those boys!