The Good Rooster Thread

[Hayduke27]

I just recently got my first flock of chickens, and one of my 13 chickens ended up being a rooster. I had no intention of keeping a rooster, but it's been amazing watching him grow and take his role as the leader of the flock. He is absolutely the peacemaker, and comes running to break up any tussles the hens may get into. He is always the first chicken to explore new areas or new items in the chicken run. It's also pretty cool how he keeps his eye out and sounds a warning if large birds fly overhead.

Upon seeing these behaviors in my rooster, I searched around on BYC and found several great stories of roosters doing amazing things to protect the hens. I've read stories of roosters putting themselves between the hens and danger, and even of them giving their lives defending the flock.

As much as the roosters get a bad rap for their moodiness, noisiness, and aggression, I thought it was a great time to start a thread for people to share some stories about roosters being good and doing amazing things. Plus, I love to hear these kinds of stories.

So welcome to the Good Rooster Thread, and please post away! No story is too great or small!!!

 

[Thebazilly]

I've got a good rooster! Not fantastic, but he's not bad at all. Wilhelm is very handsome, his crowing isn't too loud, and he's never aggressive with people. He keeps an eye on the hens all the time-- especially if I pick one of them up. And he likes to announce when someone gets home. As soon as a car pulls into the driveway, he starts crowing away.

Wilhelm needs some work in the 'giving food to the ladies' department, but he's a great roo overall. Got him by accident, too, and I liked him too much to kill him. I'm glad he turned out so well-behaved.

 

[Chicky2013]

I'm also happy to say my rooster Shinobie is such a good boy. He was from my first flock of chicks who were given to me by my uncle (along with a chook who raised them). Since he was 8 weeks old, he stood out as being the friendly one who would follow you for food so i picked him out of the 5 other roos in the bunch to keep. Well, we got rid of 3 roos then kept another roo (Rocky) but i had to get rid of him after he was being too rough with the hens, plus he kept fighting over the hens with Shinobie who always left him covered in blood. I wasn't too impressed seeing them fight but i couldn't help but be amazed with how quick Shinobie was...hence the name. Shinobie's feather colours are really cool (he's black with tints of blue/ green and bit of white tailfeathers and dark brown/black wings)
Now he's about 3 years old, high alert and aware of anything that goes on, always calls his hens over when he finds something nice for them to eat. He will walk up to you if he sees you in the yard, seeing if you got food. You can hand feed him and pat his chest. He has never attacked myself or anyone els including my cat and dog. Havn't seen him put himself between danger and his hens before but i recon if the time came, he'd do it. I have seen him get in the way of fighting hens and thought it was funny. He keeps the flock in line and happy he does his job very well.

 

[Hayduke27]

My roosters are both growing up, and have very different personalities. My bantam is still a peckerhead, and does not really do any caring for the hens other than the occasional warning call when a large bird flies over (or small bird, usually just a dove). He occasionally tries to pick on the hens, but most of them won't put up with it. Just yesterday I saw one clobber him into the ground with a flying kick, then she followed him around for 30 minutes taking everything in which he had any interest away. If she saw him pause to look at something, she run over and push him away, take his item. He doesn't normally get picked on, so this was kind of interesting.

My good rooster is still the keeper of the flock. He is 100% the alpha bird, but for the most part is very gentle and generous with the ladies (except for a couple of mornings he woke up in a bad mood, I've seen him hand out a couple of butt-kickings). He breaks up fights, is the last to run when danger approaches, and is the first to re-emerge from hiding to see if the coast is clear. I haven't yet seen him bring food to any hens, as he is a bit of a piggy still. Pig or not, he's a good rooster, and he has really opened my eyes to just how cool roosters can be!