Topic of the Week - Adding a Rooster to the Flock

[MartinsPoultry]

I go for temperament, looks and dual purpose. Right now I am balancing between a few breeds one right now is my favorite by how he acts and loves to get pet and feeds from my hand or my fiances.
He is an English Orpington only 6-7 months old and has the manners of a well groomed gentleman, dances lightly for the girls, doesn't dominant when breeding but does breed the girls he will walk up to them do a little dance and cluck girls instantly lay for him, feeds them before himself and roars when a predator and patrols the yard.

My other roosters in the flock are a bit dumbfounded when it comes to hens, specially my silkie from tsc.
I have come to the decision on rehoming him he is to rough on my younger and older hens to the point i had to separate him in a timeout coop because he hurt one of my younger pbrs by beating her with his wings until she laid down after dragging him 3 feet. I cannot stand seeing a hen try to escape and still get beat up upon by a male.

My last rooster in my hen flock is a pbr, after being separated for over a month calmed down and never tries to mate from what i have seen, he is the bottom of the totem pole. He is a sweet heart to people which is a winning factor, but i don't think he knows how to woo the girls just yet.

 

[Mrs HenCluck]

I had mentioned to my dad I was thinking of getting a rooster, the next day he called me to tell me my cousin wanted to give me two. One she raised from an egg and the other Chucky was an old rescued rooster, I don't know where he came from but she had him for over a year, I knew her birds are healthy so I didn't keep them separate from the girls. They divided my girls into two flocks, each rooster pulls the feathers of the other roosters hens. I have threatened to pluck them but they ignore me

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm not very scientific about it. Our first rooster came with the dozen or so hens a friend gave us to get us started. She had several, and she pointed to a big black cockerel and said he was getting beat up by some of the other roosters and asked if we wanted him. He was one of the best roosters we've ever had and I was devastated a couple years later when I found him dead in the run. We've had good 'uns and not so good 'uns in the years since. Some were chicks we raised, one was hatched here, who was a good rooster ... until he wasn't. We lost a good one to a hawk, and got a replacement from a neighbor. She suggested we go pick one out from among 15 she had, before they butchered them for the freezer. Instead I asked her to pick one out for me. I didn't care what he looked like, I said, I just wanted one that wouldn't attack me. And that's how I ended up with Rojo Magnifico. He's exactly what's needed and the girls love him.

 

[BDutch]

Had a cockerel a couple of times that fertilised some eggs for offspring. Never had a real rooster because they all had to go in spring when the sun starts to shine early in the morning.
The noise they made bothered me and two of our neighbours.

My Naine the Tournaisis cockerel who gave 5 chicks as offspring.

The last cockerel we had was a bantam RIR . He was sweat and had a less annoying crow that didn’t wake me if I kept the window, closest to the house shut. So I really wanted to keep him. But keeping a good relation with my neighbours is more important. The neighbours didn’t mind that he stayed a few more weeks until I could rehome him. If they would complain to the authorities, I would have to rehome him anyway bc I live within a small city and there is just a small distance to my neighbours property.

My not so good looking but friendly bantam RIR cockerel.

Added photo’s

 

[gimmie birdies]

Here is the rooster I got on Friday. He is scared of the hens, still. I hope he figures it out. I am setting shipped in a week and a half or so. I wanted to set some of mine too.
I also hatched out in Dec.
They are now 5 weeks old. Here they are a a few days old. I have about 5 roosters. I plan on keeping some.
"Frosty" Blue Isbar

Mosaic below

Maran

Crested legbar. (He was the last to hatch, he is fine though.)

I think I heard him crow at 5 weeks. It wasn't much of a crow.
Lots of roosters to pic through.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

This might be a good place to ask. I have a mixed flock.. some silkies some large hens some medium and some small, my silkie rooster doesn’t seem to be fertilizing the eggs as wanted so if my second attempt of incubating in the spring fails I might replace him. What kind of rooster would be best? I have 13 hens currently and my smallest three are a silkie, buff chantecler (she’s young but hasn’t been growing much) and a prairie bluebell with my biggest being a black copper maran (planning to add a jersey giant) I might end up not being able to get rid of my current rooster so I might end up just adding a second rooster if they’ll get along but incase I’m not too attached and he’s still not fertilizing eggs id like to know

 

[gimmie birdies]

It is good you are asking. If you have small hens, I would get a small or a med. sized rooster. When I had small hens, I got an Isbar rooster. They are med. sized. What I like about Isbars, is they are a med. sized chicken with a large egg.

 

[BDutch]

This might be a good place to ask. I have a mixed flock.. some silkies some large hens some medium and some small, my silkie rooster doesn’t seem to be fertilizing the eggs as wanted so if my second attempt of incubating in the spring fails I might replace him. What kind of rooster would be best? I have 13 hens currently and my smallest three are a silkie, buff chantecler (she’s young but hasn’t been growing much) and a prairie bluebell with my biggest being a black copper maran (planning to add a jersey giant) I might end up not being able to get rid of my current rooster so I might end up just adding a second rooster if they’ll get along but incase I’m not too attached and he’s still not fertilizing eggs id like to know

A flock with such differences in size from bantam silkie to jersey giant is complicated. A good size rooster is a bit bigger a the hens. Same size is no problem. But a big rooster is too much of a burden for small hens. They might get injured. Can you deprecate your flock in two coops/runs?

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

A flock with such differences in size from bantam silkie to jersey giant is complicated. A good size rooster is a bit bigger a the hens. Same size is no problem. But a big rooster is too much of a burden for small hens. They might get injured. Can you deprecate your flock in two coops/runs?

All my flock free ranges. Do you think having two roosters one small one medium for the different hens would work? I’m still not 100% sure Kia is unable he might just be too cold or it’s too cold in general for eggs to hatch, but I also can’t have a sterile rooster hanging around if it will prevent me from having another rooster… it’s especially confusing because all my hens backs or heads are missing feathers but all ten eggs in the incubator are (as far as I can tell) not fertile, it’s hard to tell with the dark speckles ones

 

[BDutch]

Best time to hatch with a broody is in spring. The chicks don’t need much warmth from the broody for a long time and its easier for the hen too. Its also the most natural time of the year for birds to have offspring and a great time for foraging.

I don’t have enough experience with roosters to give a proper advice on the flock and two different size roosters. I know most things about roosters reading other peoples experiences.
@Shadrach can you give a tip?