So Rooster for protection good?

[Nystra]

Ok so now after my first mishap of chicks and the wrong light.. Lost 4/5chicks in under a hour

Ive got 8 girls ages 1week-3weeks and healthy! And I've been noticing that Friends whom have chickens have been loosing alot of their flocks to foxes.. None of them have a rooster. Now if i get a rooster will he be relatively good protection? If i let my girls out in the day only when I'm home! and lock them up in the coop at night. If a fox got in or near them would a big boy be good to keep them safe? or safer? And can you have more than one Rooster? or will they bicker and hurt one another?

 

[WyandotteTX]

No, the fox will just eat the rooster first. Roosters as protection is kind of a myth in my opinion.

 

[Chicken Boo]

I have my first rooster for that reason. I had lost a few girls due to predation. Monarch is growing into the job. At first he was only interested in finding food for the girls and climbing on their backs. I noticed that after a few months, he crows whenever anyone comes down the driveway. When it is time to go back into the coop and someone is straggling, he will chase them in. And he doesn't tolerate any bickering among the girls. I have not seen him deal with a cat, dog, fox, etc. but I have a feeling he would try to deal.

 

[teach1rusl]

I tried a rooster. He was quite protective, although I never saw him challenge my dogs or cats. So I suspect that he wouldn't actually stand up to a fox or anything, although I'm sure he would have sounded an alarm and gathered the girls. However, my lead hen pretty much does the same job (now that he's gone). She will send the alarm call if a hawk is anywhere nearby, and the girls will huddle in close to the house, or will go into the (covered) run. She also eats very few treats when I pass them out, allowing the others to do most of the eating. So she's pretty "roo-like" in those mannerisms.

I think really aggressive roos would challenge others, but that may include you...lol.

 

[Nystra]

Quote:
Maybe I'll get lucky and one of my girls will be big and bad ;P

and Yes the aggression towards me is wat worries me... I'm thinking i'll try finding a young (like weeks old) rooster. handle him every single day multiple times a day (atleast once a hour hahahaha) I handle my girls a few times a day others are slower to like me than others. I've got a Brahma thats jst a doll. Might as well try my luck. heck if it works it works GREAT! if not well then darn woulda happened anyways

Does anyone have any stories where their rooster actually proved a good protector?

 

[Kev]

Super handling a male chick just gives you a way higher chance of a rooster that attacks YOU.

We had game chickens from stock that was actually used in the pit(we didn't engage in that, just got them from relatives who did). Very aggressive, wild, wary etc etc. The roosters would knee jerk attack you if you grabbed a hen and it squawked(which they ALWAYS did, extremely loudly and non-ceasing). Not much help against dogs intent on having fun killing or coyotes intent on catching. If there's any rooster that would have actually defended against something trying to catch a hen it would have been those roosters. Nope.. still had massacres if a dog or coyote managed to get the back part of property where they mostly stayed in.

These hens *were* absolutely great in teaching cats that chicks were off limits. Roosters didn't care if a baby chick was caught.. but a mother game hen.. that cat is guaranteed to never ever look at a chick again... lol They can teach a puppy or a small dog that they are off limits too.. unless the dog is too pugnacious like a terrier with very high prey drive, that will just excite him into "prey battle mode" that many terrier owners are very familiar with. So even with these mother hens, there are limits as to what they can do.

I agree, roosters as defense is largely a myth.. at best they are good for alerting to danger and getting the hens to hide.. beyond that, useless. If dogs can get in your yard, you are going to lose a lot of chickens- no roosters or 100 mean roosters, zero difference. Best defense is a secure perimeter fence plus a secure coop.

 

[magsrags]

Quote:
no........no.........no.

 

[Nystra]

Awww.. ok so boys are useless.. big surprise there

well thank you for the help.. basically the boys r for show? and alot of noise... a alarm in the AM couldnt hurt

But wat i dont understand is why would handling the chick make it aggressive?? I'll have to do more research on the roosters they are much different than the hens it must seem?

 

[tammyd57]

Quote:
If you handle a rooster a lot when he is young, it teaches him that he is at least equal to you or even above you in the pecking order. That makes it okay in his mind to attack you, flogging and spurring.

A rooster is only good as protection as far as sounding an alarm to get everyone under cover when there is a predator. Sometimes a particularly brave rooster will sacrifice himself for his girls, by facing the predator and getting killed, thus keeping the predator busy while everyone else runs and hides.

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
If you handle a rooster a lot when he is young, it teaches him that he is at least equal to you or even above you in the pecking order. That makes it okay in his mind to attack you, flogging and spurring.

A rooster is only good as protection as far as sounding an alarm to get everyone under cover when there is a predator. Sometimes a particularly brave rooster will sacrifice himself for his girls, by facing the predator and getting killed, thus keeping the predator busy while everyone else runs and hides.

You know, I've been hearing that lately that handling a bird a lot makes him aggressive to you. But in all of my years people I knew always said the opposite, even myself when we had a human aggressive bird we would handle him more to gentle him down. I believe that attacking people is a sign of fearfulness, or distrust, which is why the cocks even attack predators at times.

That is one of the reasons I always suggested to handle the birds, at least 5 minutes a day when I hear of someone with a aggressive rooster. In my experience fighting with them only made it worse, but that could be because I have games and they couldn't be knocked out of it, they either were mean by fear (and calm when handled often) or mean by bloodline and should be culled. I do not count a cock hitting you because of the hen screaming as being aggressive, but protective, just like you would probably smack some guy around if he came in your house and grabbed your wife to take her somewhere. But- if the hens are scared they need more handling too, if it doesn't work they should be culled since the temperament is probably genetic. Any of my birds on the yard my 2 year old cousin can come out here and pick them up without a worry or having to chase them too much.

-Daniel.