Unsure about roosters. Looking for advice!

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emulhall

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Aug 25, 2019
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I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, and if I’m wrong just point me in the right direction.

I have one adult hen and four baby chicks. My hen did have a friend who passed and I couldn’t get 6 week olds anywhere, so she’s been VERY spoiled with human attention until her sisters grow up!

But I’m wondering for the future if roosters are a good idea for my family. I live in the suburbs for now, so this is only when I move out and get some land.

I’m a vegetarian and I’m kinda weird about eating fertilized eggs, so I don’t know how I want to go about this. It’s kind of unavoidable, right? Roos are studmuffins after all!

I’m wondering if I could have a roo be with certain girls who I don’t collect from and have my “laying” hens be away from him? I mean all my chickens are purely pets with egg benefits, so it doesn’t REALLY matter if I get less eggs.

Does this sound good? Bad? Absurd? Amazing? Lol, let me know seasoned chicken keepers!!
 
I am guessing you probably saw this article that's being featured right now about roosters. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ths-clearing-up-rooster-misinformation.67911/

I love my boys and my hens love them too. But there have been a few that have gotten to about 3-4 months old and turned into crazed terrors. If you don't want to eat them, I'd recommend having a plan ahead of time on where they will go if they are near killing your hens with attempting to mate or some other flaw that doesn't make them a good fit.

As for the eggs, many grocery store eggs are also fertilized. Can I ask, do you eat those and does it bother you? I know some people are bothered by the idea of what the egg "could have been", but that is true for all eggs in some way.

I will also say that mine don't like being separated from their guys. They flock to and around them and feel better knowing they are there to look out for them. There are some real benefits to having roosters in the flock, I feel, and although we didn't initially intend to keep any boys, we're in agreement at our house that we're so glad to have them. Good luck deciding what is right for you.
 
emulhall said:
I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, and if I’m wrong just point me in the right direction.

I have one adult hen and four baby chicks. My hen did have a friend who passed and I couldn’t get 6 week olds anywhere, so she’s been VERY spoiled with human attention until her sisters grow up!

But I’m wondering for the future if roosters are a good idea for my family. I live in the suburbs for now, so this is only when I move out and get some land.

I’m a vegetarian and I’m kinda weird about eating fertilized eggs, so I don’t know how I want to go about this. It’s kind of unavoidable, right? Roos are studmuffins after all!

I’m wondering if I could have a roo be with certain girls who I don’t collect from and have my “laying” hens be away from him? I mean all my chickens are purely pets with egg benefits, so it doesn’t REALLY matter if I get less eggs.

Does this sound good? Bad? Absurd? Amazing? Lol, let me know seasoned chicken keepers!!
Click to expand...
Your flock will get along just fine without a rooster. Unless you want to hatch your own or feel compelled to rescue a rooster, there's no need to have one. You do need a game plan for how to manage an unruly roo, because there's always that chance. For future reference though, all females are pullets until they are one year old and then they are called hens, and that is especially true if they are only six weeks old. Just so there's no confusion in the future.
 
I think people severely discount the benefits of a Roo in the flock. My Roo hands-down saves my free-ranging hens daily. No question. He is always watching for hawks, dogs, people- whatever and wrangling the ladies so they don't get too far out. Roosters will also save your hens or at least give them a fighting chance as they will charge into danger (and die) to save their hens. They also act completely different than hens and are fun to watch.

Roosters also find food for the hens and call them over to have a snack. It's super nice of them because hens will just scarf up anything- but the Roos let the hens eat first.

Fertilized eggs look just like any other egg up to about 3 days IF they were under a hen. If you leave a fertilized egg in the coop for 10 days and no hen sat on it, it looks exactly like any other egg. MANY organic free-range market eggs are actually fertilized because they keep Roos in the flock.

So the downsides... Do they get unruly? Yep. Some you can tame easily- some you can't tame at all. They also crow... all... day... long. Which once you are used to it, you simply don't hear- but everyone else does lol. They also will of course jump on your hens and if you don't have many hens they will ultimately pull most of the feathers out of their backs from jumping on them. But that's just if you only have a few hens. If you have 3-6 per Roo you will likely be fine.

Anyway- they are worth the hassle in my opinion and add wonderful variety (and natural order) to your flock.
 
I think that having roosters makes the flock complete socially, and enjoy having them here. HOWEVER, we only keep the good guys, do raise chicks, and have plans for excess cockerels and any who develop into idiots. Of course most of the eggs have been fertilized, and you need to look very hard to notice the difference! Only eggs in an incubator, or under a broody hen ever develop at all.
If you don't think that you could ever eliminate a bad actor, then don't get any cockerels.
Mary
 
BaaKaaawk said:
I think people severely discount the benefits of a Roo in the flock. My Roo hands-down saves my free-ranging hens daily. No question. He is always watching for hawks, dogs, people- whatever and wrangling the ladies so they don't get too far out. Roosters will also save your hens or at least give them a fighting chance as they will charge into danger (and die) to save their hens. They also act completely different than hens and are fun to watch.

Roosters also find food for the hens and call them over to have a snack. It's super nice of them because hens will just scarf up anything- but the Roos let the hens eat first.

Fertilized eggs look just like any other egg up to about 3 days IF they were under a hen. If you leave a fertilized egg in the coop for 10 days and no hen sat on it, it looks exactly like any other egg. MANY organic free-range market eggs are actually fertilized because they keep Roos in the flock.

So the downsides... Do they get unruly? Yep. Some you can tame easily- some you can't tame at all. They also crow... all... day... long. Which once you are used to it, you simply don't hear- but everyone else does lol. They also will of course jump on your hens and if you don't have many hens they will ultimately pull most of the feathers out of their backs from jumping on them. But that's just if you only have a few hens. If you have 3-6 per Roo you will likely be fine.

Anyway- they are worth the hassle in my opinion and add wonderful variety (and natural order) to your flock.
Click to expand...
I think these are a great list of pros and cons! I personally love my rooster but his health is deteriorating rapidly. :( I have two cockerals, roughly 10 weeks old, and one lil "Roo Man" started crowing. I try to handle them and be present as much as I can so hopefully they turn out to be sweeties! My old man has long since stopped mounting hens, but for the other two I do have 15 ladies for them to share.
 
Studabird said:
One of my cockerels started crowing this morning and they are 11 weeks. It was sort of adorable! I am looking forward to him and seeing what he turns out to be. I hope to enjoy my young man and thank you to everyone for contributing to the thread.
Click to expand...
Mine was so cute too. It definitely sounded like a young adolescent roo trying to figure stuff out.
 

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