Why have a rooster? new Pg 10 video pg 13

[confusedturtle]

I dont want to give up my RSL roo, he is so sweet and Im sure he would be a great protector for my flock. Im going to do my best to keep him but if we cant then I will make sure he goes to a great home. I have a few farms in the area that I am sure would happily take him. The next place we move to I will make sure the area allows chickens, hens & roos

 

[Indiana farm chick]

My little RIR bantam rooster is such fun to watch with my Jersey giant hens--he struts around like he could accomplish something without a ladder! One thing he does that I love is if he finds a worm or some other treat, he will make a certain noise. The girls will come running and he will gallantly point out the goody and let them have it. I have had roosters that really ruined the feathers on my hens neck and back, but they were Jersey giants. I really like the combination of standard hens and a bantam rooster. The girls get the benefits of a rooster without being bothered too much. Of course, I won't get many chicks this way!

 

[Cetawin]

Oh get your girls saddles protect their backs. Great things

 

[alpacatex08]

I love my roosters; they are the guardians of the girls and show them where to find their bugs/scraps/scratch, and the girls follow them around for protection. Each rooster has his own little harem; they generally get along with each other and they all roost together in the coops at night. They call out alarms and send the girls running to the coops for protection if something seems amiss in the pastures. I would not be without them. My roos rule.

 

[GardenGal]

That is a wonderful story, what an incredible roo Lancelot is. He should be knighted.

I'm sure you know way more than a newbie like me, I'm curious to know why you let your chickens free range when coyotes are such a problem in your area?

 

[speckledhen]

Cetawin made a cross country move with her birds from Oregon to KY awhile back and hasn't been able to get pens erected yet. She is working on the materials right now, but her DH isn't in town to help at the moment.

I have free ranged my flocks for five years in the mountains of N. GA, even had a fox den on my property at one point. We have every predator you can imagine, including coyotes, foxes, bears, weasels, possums, coons, bobcats, hawks, roaming dogs and probably even cougars if you believe eyewitness accounts. So far, probably due to my awesome roosters, we haven't lost any to predators yet. Though we have 2 of our over 5 acres perimeter fenced, livestock fencing won't keep reliably keep out most of those (well, probably any--just makes it harder for dogs to race across the place and grab a chicken as they go and keeps my birds on my property).

I don't intend to lock my birds in pens forever, even if we begin to have a predator loss here and there. To us, the benefits of a free range flock outweigh the risks. I didn't get chickens to keep them in pens as I feel that is not as healthy for them. We are home all the time they are out, however-they stay in the pens when we're gone, and we are in and out of the coops all day long as well, so there is a big human presence. That is not 100% safe, either, since the Cochin that the coyote took from Cetawin's flock waited and watched people milling around for a long time before she struck that day.

 

[GardenGal]

Thanks, SpeckledHen. I've been reading on this site since last winter, and have really learned how much I don't know! We have coyotes in our area, and raccoons, so I'm going with the permanent pen and tractor concept, but I'd love to have them running around by me

Hoping one of my six is a roo now! Pretty awesome how chickens work together in a crisis. (Mine work together to cause trouble at this point, but maybe that's their adolescence

 

[Cetawin]

Speckledhen is correct and I do love letting them be chickens. I had not had a coyote within several miles of me but this female built a den near me after her mate was killed. Right across the road no less.

 

[speckledhen]

My friend, you must have been typing really fast, LOL!


Yes, I was there the weekend she lost that Cochin. The coyote could see the top floor of her house and her coop from the den, she was that close.

 

[marilyn15]

I really liked your response to why free range with predators around. I consider myself still a newbie, and have fought with myself back and forth about free ranging. I am an avid animal lover and hate to see any animal in a cage, but understand fully why the chickens in many cases have to be in a coop/yard. We have a large coop and large secure yard for them to run in, like you we are in and out of our coop and in our backyard where it is all the time. We have fairly large backyard and when we know we will be out there with them we let them free range also. Unfortunately last year we lost 9 hens to predators, fortunately we learned a hard lesson, and know we have to keep a watchful eye and be out there or aware at all times. We have woods behind us, and believe our main predators are coons, coyotes and the occassional fox. Thanks for your response. I do not want to lose anymore but also enjoy them when they are free ranging and hope our rooster helps keep our hens safe.


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