Which breed of rooster will protect my hens best?

[blucoondawg]

I think most severe attacks on dogs are done by a pack of raccoons rather than the lone raccoon. My old dog was nearly 100lbs and he came home with cuts head to toe, his yellow/white fur red. Raccoons make a nasty pack.

Raccoons are not naturally pack animals, they don't have a pack mentality like canines, usually if you encounter a group of raccoons it is a sow with little ones. All it takes is 1 large coon to do serious damage to a dog though not likely to kill a large dog, we coon hunt with hounds and they occassionally get in fights with the big coons and they will get bitten and cut up a little maybe have their ears torn on the ends and get a little bloody but that's about the extent of it, even a smaller coon can do this sort of damage to a young inexperienced dog but it will take a large 35+ pound coon to do real damage to a older dog.

 

[TBorron98]

I have 3 white leghorn roosters and 3 bantams roosters. 2 leghorns are very mean to anything. During the day some of my Leghorn hens fly out there pin and the 2 mean leghorns roosters follow. Lately the most massive coyotes I've seen in years have been getting closer to the house. Are dogs sometimes don't see them and I've found a hole the coyotes tried digging by the chicken coop, trying to get in. Today one if my mean Leghorns got into a fight with coyote and got his tail completely ripped off. I had my doubts about them but I now realize how wrong I was. Leghorns are in my opinion one if the best protectors. My bantam roosters are also very protective and treat my hens amazingly. They don't eat before my hens and they protect my baby chicks all the time. When I'm trying to catch a hen and she's screaming out they all run at me.they go into the nesting boxes and crow and carry on until and hen comes and sits to lay eggs. My leghorns don't really ever worn my hens but my bantams always do. I think I have a great duo of these roosters.

 

[akvagabond]

As to not start another thread. This one was very informative. But which breed if not just the rooster are aware of birds of prey. Being from Alaska and living right on the waters edge I typically have three or more eagles within a mile at all times. I will free range them only when I am around, but even then it is impressive to see an eagle come in like a fighter pilot to eat. Eagles are very smart and don't come from where you think they will. As you look to the open sky they will zoom through the brush and weeds like a laser!! I am interested in sky worthy breeds. Or would a guinea or other bird be a better idea to add to the flock!

 

[chiknhurder]

Your best protection from a rooster is in early warning of danger. To expect them to fight off predators is unreasonable although it can happen. Like people, some will fight and some won't.

 

[akvanness]

What is a RSL?

 

[blucoondawg]

red sex link

 

[Nocila]

While I'd never put one in my pen (I don't need extra protection, because I use my dog as a guardian), I would believe an Asil rooster (also spelled Aseel) would be a good guardian for your hens. You can only get one, and he should probably be your only rooster, but they should be able to kill/maim just about anything (excluding things like dogs/bears) that tries to get into your coop. Asils are fighting birds, and even the hens are horribly aggressive, and, in my experience, rather intelligent. I've got an Asil hen that has managed to draw blood, and she's broody at the moment. I tried to use a piece of straw to distract her so I could grab her and put some eggs under her, but she ended up pecking my hand instead of the straw. With our Asil, as long as you don't try to mess with her, she ignores you, so you shouldn't have to worry about her attacking you just for going in the coop...

In all honesty, if you want a good attack bird, I'd go with an Asil hen, as they know how to fight, but shouldn't hurt your other hens (unless they try to move in on the Asil's nest.) Asils were bred to fight, so they are very good at protection, but that also means that you need to be able to deal with their aggressiveness.

In my experience, the Rhode Island Red roosters tend to survive best (after the Asils). I can't say that my RIR was a good guardian, but he survived every attack we had on our coop. The one unfortunate thing with our RIR though, was he was a bit too harsh on my hens, especially when there was another rooster in the coop. We had multiple hens end up with dislocated legs, and ended up having to put the rooster down to avoid having him hurt any more of my hens.

In the end, if you want to put a bird in with your chickens to keep your hens safe, I'd get an Asil hen. She won't attack your other hens (as long as they stay away from her nest when she's broody), and she's aggressive enough that, should something like a weasel or a raccoon get in, she'd probably attack the intruder, especially if there is a light in the coop so she can see the attacker.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

RIRs do a good job

 

[chickienuggers]

We had a Rhode Island Red and he was very protective of the flock but he was really hard on the hens when he was mounting them....they all ended up almost bloody from feathers being pulled out.... the snowshoe bantam rooster was protective also in spite of being so small, but he was a drama queen and was so afraid of us that he didn't check out what was going on if a human was involved. Now we have a Barred Rock rooster and he is very protective of the girls already...he hasn't even gotten his crow on yet and he already comes to see what we are doing when we are near the girls.... he is not aggressive with us, he has the seet disposition of a barred rock... we will see how he treats them when he gets old enough to mount them...

 

[jenngriffin5178]

Quick question. We are new to having chickens. We have our older group (1 rooster, 3 hens) & this summer added a 2nd group (1 rooster, 7 hens). Something kidnapped our older rooster (think maybe an owl?) the older rooster watched over his 3 hens, the younger rooster kept to his 7 hens. My question is, since the older, alpha rooster is no longer, will the young rooster (6 months) take over protecting the other 3 hens? Or should we look into getting another rooster that is older & knows what he is doing? Would really appreciate any advice. Our chickens are our kids! We don't like leaving them unattended by us or one of the dogs since this happened.