Chicken talk

[Texan]

I have a chicken tractor that I built to hold 12 chickens. I currently have 8 hens of various breeds. I primarily keep them for the eggs. My girls usually produce pretty well. It is the middle of Winter and they were 8/8 today, although 4-5 is a more typical day. A friend has a rooster and she has become tired of dealing with his aggression. She wants to know if we want him. I think he is a barred rock and is about 9 months old. I know he will crow a lot and that doesn't bother me, but I have some questions. We had a chick turn out to be a rooster 3 years ago. He was a beautiful speckled sussex. He became aggressive and attacked Mrs. Texan and she demanded that we get rid of him. We ate him for Thanksgiving.

Will having a rooster increase egg production or quality?

Will the rooster provide added protection for the flock during the day as they free range my fenced back yard? I'd rather lose a rooster than a producing hen.

Are there any benefits to having a rooster that I haven't mentioned?

If I'm not going to get any benefit out of him, I'll let our friend find a home where the rooster won't be eaten. That's what will happen if Mrs. Texan gets attacked too many times.

[Black Orchid]

When I had chooks I always avoided getting a rooster. Apart from their annoyance value I was told that if you have a rooster then hen egg production quite often decreases because the rooster is always hassling the hens and it stresses them out.

I have no idea if this is true or not and never tested the theory. Makes sense though.

[sprintcyclist]

I had chooks a long time ago. Just for the eggs, so we had no rooster.
I wouldn't think a rooster would provide much safety for the hens. A pet dog might.
If they are not being taken so far, not a big problem.

Good luck with it all

[billy the kid]

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ra ... grame%2Bch

Chickenman….he's everywhere...he's everywhere...….

[Texan]

Sounds reasonable. I guess Summer will have to find somewhere else to send her rooster. Thanks for the replies.

[Black Orchid]

You could always keep it til Thanksgiving lol

[sprintcyclist]

Ain't the Americans just such nice people?

[Texan]

You could always keep it til Thanksgiving lol

I actually thought about that. I decided I didn't want to feed a deadbeat until Thanksgiving. I often refer to gathering eggs as "collecting the rent".

Still think Americans are such nice people, Sprint?

[Mortdooley]

We keep ours safe from Hawks with light weight netting from this company. They have a six foot chain link fenced area for a run.

https://www.qcsupply.com/93119-flight-t ... ength.html

It never mattered to our hens if they had a rooster as a motivation to lay eggs. If you don't care about hatching chicks you don't need one and more than one to a flock can be a major problem, ours tend to fight if together. They just don't have enough space to stay away from each other so we have smaller flocks, if we didn't have any roosters we would just have one combined flock. We will not replace any we lose. Everyone for a mile or more knows we have roosters because they love to have crow offs in the middle of the day. I've heard stories of roosters protecting their hens from predators but I have never seen it. We never tried to get a rooster, it just happened. The first one was sold to us as an exotic hen called a showgirl, the next two were hatched when we let a broody hen sit on eggs and the last was a rescue from "camp maytag".

[Texan]

I don't think a rooster would be able to fend off wild predators, but if he will sound a warning and maybe offer himself he will have saved a hen.

I have an enclosure that I mate to the tractor. but I only use it when hawks or bobcats are showing interest. Now that all my hens are full grown I haven't had many issues. I lock them in after dark. We have lots of coyotes in the area.