What breed of roo would you recommend?

[blueclip]

Which roos are generallt good towards humans, yet good at protecting their hens? Please give name of breed and your personal experiences with how they were. Many thanks.

 

[jak2002003]

Hi..

My Japanese Bantam roosters are always super friendly, with people, each other, and even chicks... being very good fathers.

But if you are keeping standard sized chickens they may be too small to mate with the hens!

I had a bunch of standard sized Amber Star chickens. The roosters were super friendly and did not fight with each other.

But I found that breed kind of over friendly.. they would keep trying to get into the house to be with us.. and if I left a window of door open by accident I would walk in to find 10 chickens walking around the living room or sitting on the sofa watching the TV. They would also run up to any visitor and surround them wanting to be petted... and this scared some people when they walked into the garden to be charged by a group of big chickens!

 

[QueenMisha]

Brahmas are amazing. Never met a mean Brahma. My first rooster was a Brahma; lost him to flystrike his first summer though.

Orpingtons are very good boys, especially the Imported English strains. All my Orps are very good boys.

Oriental Gamefowl are amazing - manfighters are almost unheard of and they have been known to attack and kill hawks and other small predators when protecting their hens. I'd especially recommend Shamo and Ga Noi. Those are both very large breeds, although the Shamo is by far into the giant category. I have a Shamo hen and Ga Noi stag who are the same size, both 8-9 pounds. Shamo cocks reach 12 pounds easy.

EEs are generally good roos, I almost never see mean ones. But they do tend to be flighty and aren't the best protectors.

Cochins are excellent boys. I've mostly had experience with Cochin Bantams but I recently acquired a Barred Cochin cockerel and he follows me around all day. Very friendly and sweet.

American Gamefowl/American Pit Games are good birds as well. They can be flighty with people but I've seen mine try to fight turkeys, peafowl, etc. if they accidentally got into "his" run (he has to be kept separate because he is so game he'll try to kill the other roosters/be killed by them).

 

[Michael OShay]

I've raised dozens of breeds over the years and QueenMisha has given you some great suggestions. I would personally recommend getting a rooster of one of the breeds that has a well deserved reputation for being calm and gentle (potential lap pets) such as Brahmas, Orpingtons, Australorps, Cochins, Sussex, or Faverolles. Keep in mind however, that there can always be an exception with any breed. If you want your rooster to breed high egg production into your flock, Australorps are the best layers on this list.