just wondering,, what the JOB of your rooster is? just to fertilize the hens? is it an early warning system? How about defense? Ive heard of rooster sacrificing themselves to a coon or dog, just to save the hens/chicks.

Im making plans for next spring,, how many eggs to let the girls sit on. I let them do 2 doz this year,, only hatched 2 , and 6 (out of each doz). By thos results, I need to let them sit on 4 doz if I wish to double the results. But with a rooster this year, IM wondering if Ill get better results, since a coon would come in and steal an egg a night from the first doz eggs.

Any stories from your roosters?

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), November 07, 2002

Answers

My rooster keeps the girls home a little better than when I do not have one.

The roosters often stand at the henhouse door at sundown, before they all sleep. We lost a pretty little banty rooster that way: the predator took the first bird it reached.

And, last but FAR from least, when my best laying hen ever was killed, I took her last 3 eggs and hatched out 3 chicks. I did the same when the red-tailed hawk killed my daughters pet silkie. It eased her heart a little bit.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), November 07, 2002.

My roosters are mainly for my entertainment; sort of like running,pecking lawn ornaments. Since all but three are bantams they are very colorful and also so dang pompous, strutting their stuff all over the yard. :)

I would only 'need' one or two for reproduction purposes but I have 10 and they all get along. Once I sold the other 14 big roosters it has been fairly peaceful. Mine take the highest roosts while the hens are on the lower ones but I did notice that a rooster will stand in front of the nest box when the hen goes in to lay. When she starts clucking he starts crowing like he had some big part in the production of that egg. It's pretty funny to watch.

-- Kathy (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), November 07, 2002.

The last job my roosters did was become food for some stray hunting dogs. That was a couple weeks ago .It may have kept one of my goats from getting bit worse than she did..

The roosters look out for hawks. They show hens places to lay eggs, they sit in the nest boxes and make some sounds to encourage a hen to come in and lay . .They scout out places for food and call the hens over to eat when they find some . While the hens are eating what the rooster found , a good rooster won't eat , he'll look for more food for the hens and chicks, and keep scouting for food until the hens are satisfied.Then they'll take dust baths while the rooster seems to keep his guard up and is the more alert one.. Not all roosters are good ones . Some harass the hens and chase the hens and rape them . Roosters like this get eatin . They are actually bad for egg production as they make the hens upset.

I've heard having a rooster around stimulates egg production in hens.I don't remember where I heard or read this .I don't know if it's true .

I had one nice rooster a Susex I think it was called.He was always the first to give alert of a hawk flying over .And the hens like him alot . A neighbor had given me some fighting game roosters and hens because his family who owned them were moving out of state. These roosters were trained to fight and had their combs cut and all. One of the roosters I had to kill cause it was insane and it hit my shoe with it's spur and cut the leather on my shoe. It attacked people.One became tame as far as it wouldn't look to fight another rooster. The 3rd one had killed the Susex rooster that was a favorite of the hens.

A couple of days latter I came out and saw the end of a battle of about 4 or 5 hens and they were all fighting the game rooster that killed the Susex rooster . The hens killed that fighting game rooster .It was the first time I saw hens gather together to kill a rooster .

-- Steve (unreal@home.com), November 08, 2002.

I don't have an answer, I need an answer. My neighbor has 2 roosters and a hen. The hen is missing. We don't know what happen to her, that is one question. The other question is: Where do roosters sleep? Do they need cozy beds? It is cold here in Texas and I see this rooster walking around the neighborhood and I went by where he lives and I don't see a house for him or anything. I feed the rooster, I think his owner does feed him; but he always comes around my house and I feed him chicken scratchs I buy. If he comes looking for food to my house, Do that means his owner do not feed him? Thank you. Aida Morales

-- aida morales (a.morales@attbi.com), December 01, 2002.

I have 2 roosters in with about 12 hens! 1 rooster is a black rock and the other is a red o.e.g game! the game was pecking on my black rooster one day and so i went up to it and slapped it in the head this kept on until the rooster learned if he pecks he will get slapped! so from then on this has been one of the nicest roosters i have ever to own!

If your wondering what my point is, its that just because games got a bad reputations dont mean the cant learn a lesson!

-- Byron Joseph Fairchild (byron@netburner.net), December 31, 2002.

my rooters are very hyper in the yard i use mine for lawn orderments too.and my rooters are mean to a rodeisland rooster i guess it is just normal.

-- michael scott osborne (gamerooster001@prodigy.net), July 10, 2003.

This is not an answer, but from what i see here lots of people have multiple Roosters. I was always told having more then one will end up in them killing each other. I need to get a rooster because a beautiful baby hen came running into my back yard and we gave her a home. Now today she was attacked by a cat, they will be poisoned. So when i get a rooster is it possible that i can get two and they wont kill one another? And also can they fight off cats? I was thinking two because two Roosters should be able to put a beating on a cat. Thank you in advace for your answers.

-- Tony Cordero (t0newy0rk@aol.com), December 12, 2003.

I am suprised that some people are incapable of having "game roosters" in their yard. Most chickens will sleep in high places due to their predatorial instincts. 2 roosters will try to kill each other off first before teaming on a cat if they are the territorial type. If you want to have more roosters that are the territorial type then build more pens and kept them separate or large cages. Enough for now, good day folks!

Oh yeah, don't email.

-- wonderer (noemailspls@nepls.com), February 10, 2004.

Yes, you can have more than one rooster at a time. You need about one rooster for every dozen or less hens if you want to be sure that all eggs are fertilized. Any more hens than that and eggs that are incubated may not all hatch, but some will rot instead. Only important if you want to hatch chicks.

I am actually looking for info on the stimulation of egg production aspect of roosters. We have 25 Buff Orpington hens that arrived as chicks last spring. They came into lay in the late summer and increased in production to peak out at 21 eggs a day in mid Nov, then the shorter daylight hours gradually brought them down to average an egg or two a day through Dec.

It was slowly increasing (actually it was pretty rapid I thought as the daylight hours only increase a minute a day) after the winter solstace. We got a few 3 or 4 egg days.

Then we located and brought home the first of two Buff Orpington roosters we planned on. Almost immediately the increase of eggs was discernable. We joked that the rooster must be laying several a day. By the end of the first week of Feb we got our first dozen-egg day again.

My dad, yesterday, said that roosters will encourage egg lay, so I'm on a hunt to back up this statement.

Some roosters are simply more aggressive than others and will attack you. These are usualy the wilder breeds or the white leghorns and banties. Though we have had roosters of all breeds be aggressive. They are not crazy, they are simply acting out their nature to protect their flock. Those get eaten and you keep the more docile personalities, otherwise you end up with a lots of scratch marks all over your legs in the summer.

BTW - I've not had Buff Orpingtons before and I just love them. They are the nicest birds! This spring/summer should be their top production as a unit, so it will be nice to see what they end up producing. We free range ours in the fields, supplimenting them during the winter with cracked corn. They have a house, and also a yard with a 10 foot high fence for confining when necessary. The height was necessary because we also have guineas that we had to train to the yard and house. They can really fly well and they learn to ignore those clipped wings. lol

-- valerie (wgoinghome@aol.com), February 13, 2004.

we have 1 rooters with 6 hen and he does not crow at all is this something that some rooters do he is 1 year old thank you.

-- (sterlin161@aol.com), November 28, 2004.

consider yourself lucky ,, ,, but it may just take him a little longer than some

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), November 28, 2004.