What defines a good rooster?

[Kessel23]

This might be slightly irrelevant but I find leghorn roosters to be extremely human aggressive, out of around 15 leghorn roosters I can only recall 2 or 3 of them being nice to me. I have a leghorn rooster right now who tried to attack me but I kicked him and sent him flying, he avoids me now but will go after my little brothers and strangers.

I have had lots of roosters over the years and the only aggressive ones that I can remember besides leghorns are Cornish Cross and a Golden Campine, One year 2 Cornish X roosters somehow snuck past my dad on butcher date and 1 of them became human aggressive, the other stayed friendly, in the end both became coyote food. The Campine would attack very small kids, which is bad, but I would not let my dad cull him because he was my favorite. In the end the Campine also became coyote food.

So pretty much my point is you might not think he is a decent rooster in a few more weeks or months, be careful and be ready for if/when he decided to attack.

 

[HuskerHens18]

Are yours close to the hens, like they can see and hear them and they are still ok?

Because if necessary I might have the option of keeping a 2-3 roosters in a cock-flock with a family member who has no hens.. and just borrow them from time to time for breeding. Not ideal as it is imposing on someone else, but if it's best..

Yes, I have 3 coops side by side. So they'd always hear each other, they do see each other from time to time while free ranging and nothing has happened.
I noticed my rooster flock does not travel far, usually only twenty or so yards from the coop if even that.
Every rooster is different, so you might have to just observe them for a few weeks and see how they act.

 

[llombardo]

I've done my research on leghorn, that is why I chose him to go to the rescue over the other one if issues begin. So far he really prefers not to be near me. I did notice tonite that he is the one that gets them all to roost. One of the girls came down to come by me and he gave it a minute and came down shortly after. Once I left he got them all back to roost(I'm learning how to be really sneaky to catch them doing stuff. I have to do more observing.

 

[Alaskan]

I have a good Leghorn rooster.

 

[llombardo]

I have a good Leghorn rooster.

I feel like this guy can be decent. I guess only time will tell.

 

[BoyTheRooster]

We've got a leghorn rooster from some neighbours who's in with our girls atm, he's very flighty and a bit of a wimp. Our top hen gave him some scars when we first put him in the run, so he gives her and the other top hens a wide berth
But he hasn't attacked us so we're keeping him for now

 

[bablessing1]

That is one handsome rooster!

Thanks, we think so too!

 

[CannedMonster]

Love this thread
I have a young bantam Dark Brahma roo, Hector. He’s currently with 4 LF hens.
He’s respectful of us humans and moves away from us. Keeps the girls together and keeps watch.
He’s never been aggressive (does anyone know what the “wing flapping” is?).
Hector:
View attachment 1393985

I also have 7 chicks right now that are almost 8 weeks old.
So far I can tell that 3 of them are cockerels without a doubt.

One is a bantam mottled cochin I named Frodo. He’s got a great personality and has already been crowing (started at 4 weeks!).
He’s extremely watchful and let’s me pick him up (just for transport not cuddling) without running from me.
Frodo:

I have two NN cockerels.
One is an absolute jerk!
He’s been like that since less than 2 weeks old. As soon as I would put my hand in the brooder, he would run up and try to bite me. I would push/smack him back so that he would fall down. He’s aggressive with the others a lot but not to the point where I felt I had to separate him.
He has, however, pecked Hector’s wattles through the fence and they regularly have staring contests.
I’ve taken to calling him Conan because he’s a bird barbarian
I don’t plan on keeping him and he’s destined for freezer camp unless I can find someone who actually wants an aggressive dominant NN cockerel lol.
Conan the Barbarian Bird:

The other NN cockerel is less dominant and not aggressive towards me.
I will see how this guy turns out. He’s a fine looking specimen and it would be nice to hatch a few NN once in a while.
I don’t have a name for this guy yet.

 

[CannedMonster]

I guess Hector’s photo didn’t load properly. I’ll try again.

 

[lilmillefleur]

Conan reminds me of a vulture with his black feathers and naked neck. I actually quite like his looks Too bad he's a jerk.