What to do about the roos?!? LOTS of ?'s.

[sevenofus]

Hello,

We know very little about chickens in general but have been reading and trying to soak in so much on this site! We had a nice year with our 5 hens. We love getting the fresh eggs daily and our small children couldn't get enough of carrying one of our two silkies around in a basket. We couldn't figure out why one silkie didn't get along with the other chickens until the day it started crowing! Jump to about 10 weeks ago when our silkie hen hatched 4 eggs that belonged to one of the RIR (so RIR x w/ Silkie). Everyone excpet my husband was very excited. Now it is obvious even to me that 3 out of the 4 are boys!! I'm so sad about that! Our silkie roo has found a new home as he was always very aggressive (which from what I gather is out of character) and we also don't want more chickens.

Here are my questions. 1) Is there any advantage to having roosters? 2) They are free range during the day and sleep in a secure pen with our goats at night, can the roos sleep with the hens?? 3) Are most roosters aggressive? Two of my little ones aren't big animal people and are therefore easily intimidated, which is a visious circle. 4) Until reading this site, I always thought "you" only ate non fertilized eggs. We collect our eggs daily but obviously an unknown number would be fertilized if we keep the roos. I need more convincing that it's really o.k. OR the reasons why some people don't.

Thanks so much for your time!

 

[LarryPQ]

Quote:
Yes--lots of them-disadvantages also. This is a great debate, so I will leave it at that. I LOVE my roos.

2) They are free range during the day and sleep in a secure pen with our goats at night, can the roos sleep with the hens??

Yup--Your roos will actually be putting the hens to bed at night. My young roos go in first, and the older roos stay out until every last girl is tucked in.

3) Are most roosters aggressive?

No-- Only Soup pot roosters are agressive. The roosters running around can all lap chickens.

Two of my little ones aren't big animal people and are therefore easily intimidated, which is a visious circle.

Everything depends on how you handle your birds. & kids for that matter.

A young bird, used to being handled by small kids is less likely to become agressive later. Indeed, they quickly learn small children usually have food stuck to them, somewhere.

4)

Until reading this site, I always thought "you" only ate non fertilized eggs. We collect our eggs daily but obviously an unknown number would be fertilized if we keep the roos. I need more convincing that it's really o.k. OR the reasons why some people don't.

A fertilized egg has the potential for life. It does not mean you are actually eating/stopping/hurting a life. Several things need to happen: chemical changes, an increase of heat over an extended period of time, and increased humidity----for that potential to become life. It is not the same as eating meat, which would be the ending of a life.​

 

[iheartchkns]

My three grown roosters were all aggressive, but the one has mellowed, now that he's almost two years old. He doesn't try to attack me anymore.

Advantages -- My one remaining rooster is very sweet to the two hens he hangs out with. He waits patiently as he lets them eat first, kind of acts like their bodyguard. He and the two hens roost together at night, too. Very cute.

We eat all of the eggs the hens lay. You really can't tell if they're fertilized or not, and you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at a fertilized and non-fertilized egg yolk, unless the fertilized one had started to develop into a chick. If you are removing the eggs daily and refrigerating them, a chick will not be developing in them.

Disadvantage -- THEY'RE LOUD VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING. (caps intended) If you have more than one rooster, they will banter back and forth with their crowing. Just one, you may not notice the crowing quite as much. I, fortunately, can sleep through the noise. If you have the coop farther from the house, that will help, too.