The Rooster Thread!

[chickmom3941]

No point to this picture, just bragging on my boy (at 3 1/2, now a mature gentleman) ... okay, but he ain't "gentle"
View attachment 1087312

Oh, he's gorgeous! Australorp? Jersey Giant? Other?

 

[Mace Gill]

Oh, he's gorgeous! Australorp? Jersey Giant? Other?

Australorp! He's a royal pain in the butt, aggressive as heck, but he LOVES and PROTECTS his girls! Could go on and on about it

 

[chickmom3941]

Lol - well, at least he protects the hens - that's what they're supposed to do. We have two Australorp hens in our flock, and one of them is definitely the most dominant hen we have - she seems to think she's queen of the hens! She's submissive only to the rooster (who is a Partridge Plymouth Rock). Maybe Australorps are just naturally a little aggressive?

 

[Mace Gill]

Lol - well, at least he protects the hens - that's what they're supposed to do. We have two Australorp hens in our flock, and one of them is definitely the most dominant hen we have - she seems to think she's queen of the hens! She's submissive only to the rooster (who is a Partridge Plymouth Rock). Maybe Australorps are just naturally a little aggressive?

I dunno ... my hens are mostly sweet ... the more gentle ones got along good when I introduced small Jersey Giant pullets ... a year later and everyone is very well integrated

 

[chickmom3941]

I dunno ... my hens are mostly sweet ... the more gentle ones got along good when I introduced small Jersey Giant pullets ... a year later and everyone is very well integrated

That's good! Are all your hens either Australorps or Jersey Giants?

 

[Mace Gill]

That's good! Are all your hens either Australorps or Jersey Giants?

One aussie roo, seven aussie hens, two JG hens, and now ... seven chicks (some of them have to be crosses)

 

[scoopsmom]

I was just wondering if anyone here has a bantam rooster mixed in with standard size hens? Scoops is my fluffy bantam Cochin and he's had a rough start to life. He's small but tough. When he was only like 6 months old he threw himself in front of the dog to protect his ladies, which resulted in him going into shock and going limp. Naturally I had to bring him in the house and nurse him back to health so he's very attached to me. Lately he's even been crowing at me when I call him up by the house. Unfortunately his little incident with the dog has left him somewhat handicapped. He can't scratch like the other chickens so he uses his beak instead and I noticed he doesn't have very good balance. He stumbles sometimes. For all these reasons I feel like my dominant hen (who's not a bantam) bullies him a little bit by stealing his treats when I give them some and really she's just a jerk to him sometimes. I've thumped her before but she doesn't really care that much. It's not really severe I just want him to be free to eat in peace!

 

[ChuSayBok]

This was Javier, my winner of the mother of the year award. Little Javi was the first roo I've known of (I live under a rock and haven't read most of this thread yet, so maybe there are more stories like his) that raised chicks.

It started with him trying to get cozy with Magnificent the psycho ninja hen who had 10 babies. She wouldn't let him play, but she let him help her guard the brood. The babies would hop on his back and try to eat when he was eating. He didn't like this at first and would peck at them and shake them off. Eventually he just embraced his new role of not-the-mama and they would generally split the chicks between them while foraging; farther and farther away from home. This made me quite nervous.

Being Mag's first brood, she went back into egg-laying mode pretty quickly. One day she used Javi for a mother's day out program, the next she was having a fling with the bravo roo, by the end of the week she was fully back in the alpha's harem. Javi adopted all 10 of the chicks, and each day led them into the woods and safely back out again, save one, who had ADD and would get fixated on something while the rest of the group traveled on. He was smaller than many of the hens, and the older hens would pick on him worse than the roosters did sometimes, so he became very good at making himself invisible. I overestimated his ability and underestimated the potential dark side of my others. The other roos usually left him alone because he wasn't a threat. One day my son found him in the open coop dead due to injuries inflicted by at least one other of the flock, most likely one of the roosters. I don't know if he came back to eat, was running away, or what. I kicked myself repeatedly for not paying closer attention and being there to protect him. I think he managed to procreate and make a couple of chicks, which are now half grown and thoroughly cherished.

 

[ChuSayBok]

My roosters name is Knucklehead,I call him Knuck for short,he is a fine roo,he takes good care of his ladies.Not very human friendly though!What breed is he I want to know,I don't know much on breeds.View attachment 1069810

We had a buff orp that was the same way; named him Angry Orange; would constantly try to flog us (especially my son, but that's b/c my son 'egged' him on by pretending to kick and mock rooster dancing at him.) Rehomed him and last I heard he was the happy husband of 6 hens with no competition, and the lady that got him babied him and he was never bad with her. Maybe he was just bitter because we allowed other roosters into the flock and he was the first. Or maybe it was the taunts. Knucklehead is a great name.

 

[ChuSayBok]

TheTwoRoos ... I don't know the answer to that, but I do know this:
I'm not handy with a camera, but pretty handy with words. I've started a blog all about my angry rooster and really enjoy the emotional journey of writing about it.

You CLEARLY love your boys and should DEFINATELY start a photo blog about it. You have stories to tell and could tell it with your photos.

Couldn't resist going to your site, better than goats on youtube. I clearly don't have time for this...