Which roo should I keep? Welsummer or splash Orpington

[Laceylatti]

Truthfully, I would recommend no roosters. Roosters take experience, and even then, they are a crapshoot. Wait a year, then add a rooster if you think you really want one. Even one rooster with 3 hens is apt to cause a lot of problems.

A lot will depend on your space and set up. Often times people new to chickens have too small of set up, because often times prefab set ups say they can have up to 6 chickens, when they really can barely hold 3 standard birds. Roosters need more room then hens. Measure your set up, and post some pictures.

And if you have small children, then I strongly recommend not keeping any of the roosters, as children tend to be attacked first, then women and finally even men will be attacked by an aggressive rooster. Inexperienced people often do not pick up on the cues a rooster is giving, and the attack comes out of no where. People often under estimate the violence of a rooster attack if they have never seen one.

Mrs K

Mrs. K,
Respectfully, whether I should keep a rooster or not was not my question. I was also not asking about coops, or how Roosters are with children.
Here is a picture of my coop to reduce your concern.
Also, I do not have children, and my husband is fixed.

 

[Mrs. K]

I did not mean to offend, young children are very vulnerable to an attacking rooster, and often times inexperienced people do not pick up on the signs until after the attack. I would feel badly if a child was attacked, mine, yours, or anyone else.

I do not see the coop, but MANY pre-fab coops say they are big enough for 6 hens. When a new person says they are new to this, and have 6 pullets in a coop for 6, I am afraid that they have gone down that path. Roosters do take more room than hens, and most problems with roosters come from either over crowding or genetics.

Oh there is the coop, and it is a nice set up. I personally would not keep a rooster with three hens, but pick the one you like the most. Roosters are a crapshoot, some work and some don't.

Mrs K

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Mrs. K,
Respectfully, whether I should keep a rooster or not was not my question. I was also not asking about coops, or how Roosters are with children.
Here is a picture of my coop to reduce your concern.
Also, I do not have children, and my husband is fixed.

This had me LOLing.

I found this thread searching for Welsummers and saw you were from Charlotte. We moved from Charlotte to raw land in the mountains a few years ago to build a homestead. Yes, we’re a cliché—Southpark to the boondocks—but we’ve earned our stripes.

We finally got to start a chicken flock this winter with day-old chicks, including 1 intentional cockerel. When he turned cranky at 12-13 weeks and our 2nd round of chicks in the brooder included a not-intentional cockerel, I got obsessed with rooster behavior so I could start over-planning our next move.

I’ve read a lot of Mrs. K’s posts and am sure this perspective comes from a deep well of experience, but I connect more with Shadrach and centrarchid when it comes to roosters. This thread in particular is neat: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cooperative-behavior.1288804/

Life might’ve been temporarily easier if we culled our Brahma cockerel and let the pullets grow a year before having to deal with the shenanigans of a [gigantic] cockerel. But we’re out here to learn, and frankly, we already know how to process poultry. In contrast, learning what makes chickens tick has been surprisingly gratifying.

After a bunch of research, we built him a chill-out cabin adjacent to the ladies, where he’s been sleeping at night for some time, and we adjusted our behavior around him. Without going into the nitty gritty, we combined a bunch of approaches (“be firm and consistent,” “act like a chicken,” “don’t act like a chicken”) with sheer kindness.

I’m so grateful we decided to stick it out. He’s awesome. He went from drawing pullet blood to tidbitting and learning to dance for the ladies. He’s always corralled them from threats but is starting to get it down to a science. Yesterday a hawk somehow got near their enclosure, and he put all the ladies in the coop and stood at the door yelling at the hawk until I ran out to help him scare it off.

The only constant with anything is change, so before anyone chimes in with negative feedback, I’m aware of the need to flow with the ups and downs of rooster keeping. They’re feathered bulls, but I firmly believe not all angry juvenile cockerels have to be culled. Animal behavior is frequently the result of less-than conscious behavior on the part of the keeper. Learning why roosters are who they are goes a long way.

You may have already made your rooster-related decisions, but in case it’s helpful at all, I’ll say that if you’re happy with your roosters and your roosters grew up happy with each other, you could make separate housing for them, away from hens, and see if they work out together as adults. Having the right space and friends to live with is key, but you don’t have to have a breeding plan or any specific purpose to give roosters a very lovely life.