# Raising Roosters



## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Ok, I've raised 2 or 3 roosters and they've all treated my hens horribly. I've had an australorp and a New Hampshire or RIR (not sure which). They both starved the hens, all of them and hurt or killed one. How can I raise a roo to be nice and do his duties without being so aggressive?


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

I think people cull till they get a good one ??? RIRs tend to be aggressive.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I've never really had a bad bad rooster. When they got their hormones a few needed pinless peepers and a double wrapped foot to slow them down until they behaved. I've also heard that Brahma roos are pretty lay back. But in general, some lose their mind. There's no real way to break them in before they get to the girls.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

x2 what Karen said. I've always had good success with older roosters. The older the roo, the better.


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

I've had difficulty in the past only when introducing a young rooster (cockerel) to a mature flock of hens. They can be a bit too vigorous. Raising cockerels and pullets together is best. I don't like to mix ages of birds. I had a rooster pass on and introduced a new rooster to the flock with no problems. I let the rooster get familiar in a grow off pen and made sure he was healthy for a month. I allow other hens to see him and gradually introduce them by letting him strut around outside their penned yard. 

At night I then set the rooster on the roost in the coop with the hens. The next morning (on a weekend day) I got up early, let them out and observed them to make sure nothing got out of hand. A little squabbling, hens running away from the rooster is normal. A comb may get a cut or scratch as hens become familiar with submitting to the inexperienced rooster mounting them, just so long as no picking and injuries happen.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Ok, karen, what is a pinless peeper and how do you wrap the foot and with what? Mike the 2 roos that we raised together with the pullets and my older girls. Maybe that's why he picked on the older ones.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I have a work friend that may give me her BO roo. I'll rehome or cull the 2 blues if they are mean.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Pinless peepers are like sunglasses that sit on their beak and are held by these prongs in the nostrils. They don't hurt . Look them up on Ebay.

With wrapping a foot, I just wrap the foot thick so it's a bit harder for them to run fast. It helps but it's not a cure. Eventually they calm down.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

nannypattyrn said:


> Ok, karen, what is a pinless peeper and how do you wrap the foot and with what? Mike the 2 roos that we raised together with the pullets and my older girls. Maybe that's why he picked on the older ones.


Roosters can sense whether a hen is fertile/ "productive" or not. Sometimes they will try to eliminate/kill older hens for this reason. 
I had it happen once. I acquired a new rooster and after a day or two, he went after one of my older non productive Barred Rock hens. Once he caught her, he tried ripping off her left wattle. I thought it was a fluke accident and after about 5 days in the hospital cage I released her back into the flock.
Shortly afterwards I heard the hen screaming bloody murder and ran outside and saw that the rooster had pinned her to the ground and was pulling feathers out of her neck and head and pecking her to death. 
Needless to say, the rooster went bye bye. THAT hen was one of my favorites, productive or not.
I've owned quite a few roosters, and he was the only one that was a old hen killer.
Here's photos of the hen after 5 days of treatment, she healed up nicely.


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## chickenmommy (Apr 30, 2013)

Omg that's horrible dawg. I didn't realize that could actually happen.


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## chickenmommy (Apr 30, 2013)

I have three roosters. A frizzle Cochin, a Cochin, and a salmon faverolle. The salmon is so skittish and timid he hasn't ever attempted to mount or crow. My other two are sweet. Easy with the girls, not aggressive towards me, and they make sure the girls eat first. They are both Bantys but they get the job done with my large fowl. I had out 29 eggs in the incubator and 22 were fertile.


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## CanadianBuckeye (Apr 12, 2016)

I won't tolerate a nasty rooster or hen in my flock. I figure there are plenty of nice chickens who need a good home! My Buckeye rooster is fabulous, sweet, very fertile, And the girls love him.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

My RIR roo has been a joy to have around, he watches the ladies and makes sure everyone has food first. That being said, my RIR hen is looking pretty rough, he tends to be a little over vigorous in breeding her and only her. I'm beginning to get really worried and hope that I don't have to separate them and she is the only RIR hen I have.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

The best,friendliest and most docile rooster is the Cochin. I've had several over the years and was never disappointed.The one I have now is a lap rooster and he loves to be loved on.He purrs like a cat.Plus,they're very beautiful birds that come in a few different colors so you can color coordinate him to your flock...


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

zamora said:


> My RIR roo has been a joy to have around, he watches the ladies and makes sure everyone has food first. That being said, my RIR hen is looking pretty rough, he tends to be a little over vigorous in breeding her and only her. I'm beginning to get really worried and hope that I don't have to separate them and she is the only RIR hen I have.


As you probably already know, sometimes a rooster has one or two favorite hens that he'll constantly tread. They can wear a poor hen down real quick. 
Chicken saddles come in handy for the hens. 
I dont recommend separating your rooster unless you plan to do it permanenty. If you seperate him and reintroduce him at a later time, he will run straight to his favorite hen and be even more aggressive possibly causing severe injury.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

chickenqueen said:


> The best,friendliest and most docile rooster is the Cochin. I've had several over the years and was never disappointed.The one I have now is a lap rooster and he loves to be loved on.He purrs like a cat.Plus,they're very beautiful birds that come in a few different colors so you can color coordinate him to your flock...


Sounds like a Delaware roo that a good friend gave me a long time ago. He would sometimes 'set' in a nest box and 'call' the hens to come lay. I had never seen that before until then. The hens truly loved that rooster. Here's a pic of him inside the coop at night. I caught a RIR hen cuddled up to him.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Thx Dawg! If I have to separate the roo it will be to fatten him up for the fry pan!


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

One of the worst things I've seen is people introducing a big breed rooster with smaller breed hens. I don't like mixing some breeds for that reason. 

With any rooster I have I keep the spurs shorter and filed round at the ends to avoid injuries. I have never had to cull a rooster in 30 years of raising birds for being abusive to hens. I sold one who was abusive and it was a Americauna.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

All but 2 of my girls are standard sized. A friend gave me a couple of banties and my bigger roos really couldn't do them "much good"


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

We have multiple roosters, all ages, many breeds, mixed with our flock of hens. Right now we're at an all time low... I think I only have 10 or so out there with my girls. I've had as many as forty or more at once. 

My boys are all absolute dolls but they weren't always that way. When I brought in the Brabanters those roosters would team up in gangs and go after one hen at a time until I got fed up with them and locked them up. Similarly my original Dorking roosters... they broke two hens' legs/hips. I thought the first time was an accident, the second time I witnessed it, suffice to say they all hit the pot pretty fast after that and then I spent months finding a new rooster! (Who is a sweetheart!) But you want to know the funniest part of this? I bought 50 Cornish chicks intending to raise them for meat. Well due to the box being ripped open in transit only six survived, three hens, and three roosters, who spent the first week of their lives in ICU in my living room. I was told Cornish roosters are evil and was still OK with eating them but they are the BEST roosters ever. When my Brabanter males (same age) were trying to gang up on my hens my three Cornish boys also formed an alliance and body blocked them! To this day they protect my hens from the up-and-coming younger roosters if they get out of line and since they're big bulldog-type birds none of them mess with them! Suffice to say they earned their lives and now live happily with my eating egg girls even though I have no breeding purpose for them. 

With all that being said - it can be hard to get the right rooster but you may have luck going to a farm like ours who eats the mean ones. Say what you will but I am a firm believer in temperament being at least partially due to genetics. I didn't get RIR's for years because I heard the roosters were horrible but I wanted to make Sex-Links so Big Red my Heritage RIR came into my life and he's a big feathered puppy dog! My point here is that hatcheries pretty much encourage ill-tempered roosters. Think about it... 500 hens, 100 roosters, all in a building. Who is going to get to fertilize the eggs? The meanest most aggressive SOB there. Big Red was Heritage exhibition stock bred by a breeder. Made a WORLD of difference. Good luck in your search!


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