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my 2 year old daughter loves our lemon pekin rooster and he is a brilliant little roo, he is wary of us and always runs off, I love how he looks after his girls and he is honestly a gentle soulSmall children and roosters don't mix well. I'd never hold my kids prisoner on their own property due to the possibility of an animal attacking them, roosters gotta go. Day old chicks are a great way to add to a flock, that way you (usually) get all females and don't have to deal with this rooster thing again down the road. Chickens in a backyard flock are meant to be enjoyed, not stressed over.
Has anyone every introduced new chicks (6 wk old or so) into an existing flock with a rooster? I'm not sure how my roo with handle it, he is fine with me but does protect his girls.
I, too, have mature roosters over four years old. *I* have established dominance over the roosters so they are respectful to me and visitors. I have had as many as 16 roos/cockerels at a time; only one cockerel had to be permanently culled for meanness. Most of the others were re-homed without my having to warn the new owners of any aggression. (Actually, I had to reassure them there was little reason to fear the birds. My dominant rooster Carl teaches them to respect people. I reinforce that rule if necessary.)
Granted, it's not ideal to have a high rooster/hen ratio, but it's not the "sure fire way to have a rooster kill another rooster" I keep reading or hearing about.
Right now I have two mature roosters and about ten cockerels growing up. I wouldn't want a flock without at least two roosters - one is a backup should something happen to the other. Roosters "manage" their flocks, stopping hen fights, alerting the flock to danger, and sometimes even sacrificing themselves to save the flock from a predator.
I didn't get chickens for eggs, anyway, so my idea of "productivity" doesn't exclude non-layers.. I got my first 8 chickens - supposedly pullet chickes - for bug reduction, free fertilizer and something interesting to watch in the yard. Getting eggs was a bonus. (Now it's a business, albeit a teensy tiny one.)
Some people cannot keep even one rooster due to local restrictions. I feel sorry they never get to enjoy the interactions between the flock members with roosters to rule the roosts.