The Truth About Roosters
They start off so sweet eating from you hand then they become teenagers and the testosterone starts to flow and before you know it their fighting every chance they get.
That sweet fellow who ate from your hand now gives you the sidelong stare, the shuffle towards you and before you know it hes flying at you claws first.
Not every rooster will attack you, there are the ones who look after their flock and are not worried about you in the slightest and see you as the treat bringer.
Rooster Jobs:
1: First and foremost crowing to wake everyone no matter the time of day or night, yes i said night ours will crow through the night as well as the day, especially when its a full or close to full moon as its so light out.
2: Looking after their hens, making sure they are safe and letting them know when to hide from danger.
3: Finding their hens tasty treats to eat & offering them the best pick from the feed bowl.
4: Fertilising eggs, now if you want chicks then this is a pretty big job and they have no trouble for filling their duties, at the expense of the hen feathers.
The inexperienced rooster will grab onto the hens comb when mounting, hopefully that does not happen for long and they learn to grab hold of their neck feathers. Grabbing the comb will cause injuries to your hens.
Mounting can become a problem for the hen who is the favourite of your rooster, their nails can quickly leave your pour hen with little to no feathers on her back and wings & in some cases tear into her skin. In cases like these removing the rooster or hen can make her life a whole lot better.
My lead hen Eagle Girl is Barneys favourite hen & as a consequence she looses feathers very quickly & avoids Barney at all costs. My solution is the hens get to free range while the roosters stay in their yards & only get to free range 1 to 2 afternoons a week with the hens. This has made it a whole lot better on my hens.
Now for those unruly teenage roosters who over night turn into the rooster from hell & make it their mission everyday to fly at, chase or corner you, these guys are not a enjoyable part of chicken keeping. Now there are ways sometimes of dominating or calming a rooster who for some reason got it into their head that your the enemy but a lot of times they just don't work. I can't recommend any of those solutions as i have not tried them myself. For us we had one such rooster & he became our first homegrown dispatch & roast dinner.
Now lots of people say they want to grow & eat their own meat & i for one am all for it. Knowing how your animal lived their life & how they die is a very big part of living a homestead life.
It is easy to say, but it is a whole other thing to be able to kill your own animals that you raised.
We love them, care for them & when it comes time they will feed us. Killing an animal is very hard to do & in my opinion it should be, as they are not just food they are living animals who's life will be no longer after the deed has been performed. When taking a life i fully believe in making it as stress free as possible for the animal & thanking them for their life to nourish our bodies.
My best piece of advice is, never under any circumstances trust a rooster.
My friend has an attack rooster and he crows at 3am! He terrorised me when I was farm sitting, I quickly learnt never turn my back on that one, his claws manage to tear through jeans.
ReplyDeleteYour Barney is a very handsome boy. One day I hope to keep chickens but no roosters!
Kerrie, if only we could get them to attack on command LOL
DeleteAndrew got his leg pierced by our Plymouthrock rooster, rakes and buckets are a good defence i find and never turn your back on them.
If you dont want chicks then there is no need for a rooster. i do love to hear them crowing no matter what time it is.