FARM Rooster in puberty

Hfcomms

Hfcomms

EN66iq
Last fall my little flock was down to four hens all four years old so I culled them before winter to start off fresh with chicks this spring. Got started a little late because of the weather up here but got ten chicks the first week of May. I stay small as it’s just me and the dog and even four laying hens give us all we can use. Well, I got eight sexed pullet chicks and two straight run hoping for a rooster. Not only for hen protection but if a hen goes broody I can self sustain.

I noticed one of the chicks getting larger than the others and his wattles growing and turning bright red while the other ones are undeveloped and a dull red at this stage. The other day he started to attempt to crow and it’s too funny. He is like a 12 year old with his voice breaking. He doesn’t know yet how to crow, when to crow or why to crow but every day now sounds more like a rooster instead of a rusty door hinge.

Only had one other rooster which was a mean one and you had to wear long pants in the pen and never turn your back on him but so far this one just avoids me when I go in the pen so, so far and so good. The rest of them are getting their pecking order down and now everyone is twelve weeks old. At 20 to 25 weeks they ‘should’ start laying but I know enough now that they lay when they are good and ready and not before so I‘m not holding my breath.
 
Hfcomms said:
At 20 to 25 weeks they ‘should’ start laying but I know enough now that they lay when they are good and ready and not before so I‘m not holding my breath.
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If you don't have added light provided (must be "warm" light..."cool" white light doesn't work), it could be Spring before they'll start laying.

They'll be 22 weeks in mid-late October. The days are really getting shorter by then in the North. Chickens need about 14 hours of light for optimum egg laying.

Set up a light system before the Equinox, and they'll start laying on time and will lay all winter long.

Summerthyme
 
I've never owned birds myself, but I've been in the ag business for a few years now and have learned much, have heard many tales.

If you got a decent rooster from a straight run, buy a lottery ticket! Lol.
Hope he turns out to be a good 'un.

Had a friend a while back with a small flock. Her rooster died, and one of her hens took the lead.
Started crowing and everything.

Pretty sure they didn't watch TikTok, but it was often played within earshot. :whistle:

Biology is a trip..
 
Hfcomms said:
Last fall my little flock was down to four hens all four years old so I culled them before winter to start off fresh with chicks this spring. Got started a little late because of the weather up here but got ten chicks the first week of May. I stay small as it’s just me and the dog and even four laying hens give us all we can use. Well, I got eight sexed pullet chicks and two straight run hoping for a rooster. Not only for hen protection but if a hen goes broody I can self sustain.

I noticed one of the chicks getting larger than the others and his wattles growing and turning bright red while the other ones are undeveloped and a dull red at this stage. The other day he started to attempt to crow and it’s too funny. He is like a 12 year old with his voice breaking. He doesn’t know yet how to crow, when to crow or why to crow but every day now sounds more like a rooster instead of a rusty door hinge.

Only had one other rooster which was a mean one and you had to wear long pants in the pen and never turn your back on him but so far this one just avoids me when I go in the pen so, so far and so good. The rest of them are getting their pecking order down and now everyone is twelve weeks old. At 20 to 25 weeks they ‘should’ start laying but I know enough now that they lay when they are good and ready and not before so I‘m not holding my breath.
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Cough cough Kalmbach Feed cough cough...

Just sayin'.

:whistle:
 
We found that handling the chicks and babies tends to result in less nasty roosters, though it doesn't always work. Some of the issues are genetic and environmental. Also, for some reason, it has always seemed to me that, to some degree, the smaller the rooster, the more vicious they can be. I love banties, but banty roos can be a pain, often literally. The sweetest rooster I ever had (and we made a serious pet out of him) was a giant buff orphington that was among the first chickens we got when we moved to Ireland. He was about 2 1/2 feet tall (I'm 4'8") and would hug me when he saw me. He loved to sit on laps (like a lot of large dogs, he thought he was a tiny lap chicken), and he was very mild-mannered. His hen was a bit fiestier than he was but still pretty sweet most of the time.

Over the years we've had roos of many different personalities, but I can say pretty much that they all had one, including the big guy. My other favorite was Saladin of the Nine Wives. We had a fox get our former roo, and my Middle Ages group was doing a demo at a small fair here in Ireland. An elderly farmer had him in a cage, and I offered to him, and the old man said, "But you need to get him some hens." I explained we had lost our Rooster that morning and that he would have nine wives when he got home. The old man was then overheard telling anyone who would listen, "He's gonna have nine wives!" and giggling.

He was a giant, probably failed fighting cockeral, and I told him, use those talons in defense of your hens, and you're fine. If you ever point them at me, you are in the stew pot! He lived five or six years, and I looked outside one morning as I watched him sacrifice himself for his hens when a fox tried to grab one (this was back when we let the chickens run loose).

We've never had another one quite like him - I think he got the superior intelligence as well as the looks they try for in fighting chickens, but he wasn't aggressive enough (thank goodness) for the fighting field. I could be wrong; the old man may have just had too many roosters, but a giant multicolored bird with wicked talons is something I remember from my childhood as our neighbor raised them for the so-called sport (which I don't care for). Thankfully, Saladin had a much happier life.
 
crossbowboy said:
I've never owned birds myself, but I've been in the ag business for a few years now and have learned much, have heard many tales.

If you got a decent rooster from a straight run, buy a lottery ticket! Lol.
Hope he turns out to be a good 'un.

Had a friend a while back with a small flock. Her rooster died, and one of her hens took the lead.
Started crowing and everything.

Pretty sure they didn't watch TikTok, but it was often played within earshot. :whistle:

Biology is a trip..
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My grandmother used to say, "A whistling woman and a crowing hen, always come to some bad end." ROFL
 
summerthyme said:
If you don't have added light provided (must be "warm" light..."cool" white light doesn't work), it could be Spring before they'll start laying.

They'll be 22 weeks in mid-late October. The days are really getting shorter by then in the North. Chickens need about 14 hours of light for optimum egg laying.

Set up a light system before the Equinox, and they'll start laying on time and will lay all winter long.

Summerthyme
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Yep…I’ve kept mine laying all winter but I don’t want to wear them out either. I set my light on a timer in fall and keep them at 13 or 14 hours of light a day. Sixteen hours and they’ll lay well all winter but they need additional calories to maintain themselves in the cold so I don’t want to run them 16 hours. I’ve found if I make sure they get 13 to 14 hours a day I can get an egg every other day out of younger ones and that is enough.
 
Kathy in FL said:
I watched my grandmother wring the neck of one of those and make dumplings to go with him when he attacked me when I was a kid. I don't know which hurt worse. That roosters' spurs in my shoulders or him trying to peck through the top of my skull or the broom where Memaw missed the first time she swung.
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Sorry to laugh, but been there. I once had a roo so mean, I moved (to the city from the farm I was on) to get away from him
 
Had someone give us 3 Roos after Easter gifts went wrong…LOL…they battled for dominance in the flock…n tried to dominate the boys…I hear oh hell no…n what sounded like a thump…another beller…another thump…n laughter from hubby n the youngest two…then a string of jumbled bellerin m a different whack…thump…THUMP…oldest drop kicked the blasted thing twice…came after him a third time…so he grabbed a mater stake n dropped into a batters stance n sent it soarin…to which it didn’t get back up…hubby’s total comment….I’m skinnin that stupid bird…other two were smart…lived another 6 or so yrs…
 
I've had mean bantam roosters (leg shredders) and one totally miserable a-hole of a Buff Orpington who all met their maker early but otherwise, most of them have been decent citizens.

The best roosters I've ever owned (mellow and easy on the hens) have been Cuckoo Marans. Any extra rooster chicks you can cull at hatch (distinctive coloring) or they mature fast, so reach decent eating size in about 12-14 weeks. They don't have to age into "tough, stringy and old' to have a useful size to them.
 
My neighbor had a mean rooster. Rhode Island Blue. He would attack him every time he turned his back. He would drop kick the bird 20 feet or so but it would keep coming back. Finally he just snatched him up, hog tied him around the legs and attached him to his belt. He went about his chores with this crazy bird hanging upside down at his waist and at the end of the day he cut him loose. He went back to the coop and never became aggressive again. Lost his life defending the flock from a female bald eagle. He found a pile of feathers neatly pulled out and nothing else left.
 
When I was about 8 years old I got treed by a mad rooster. I was at camp and made the mistake of walking near the free ranging hens and this old boy decided I was a threat to his girls and chased me up a big oak tree. I stayed there until a counselor came by with a 2x4 and chased that mean rooster away. I avoided those hens for the rest of my days at camp.
Being a city boy I had no idea that roosters could be so mean.
 
We use lights on our birds, who have to live a lot indoors due to frequent "bird flu" orders from the government here. We do have an outside run and house for them (so they are safe from foxes but outside); however, it hasn't been used in a couple of years.

We try to turn the grow lights off during January, unless the hens start molting early, in which case we turn them off when that happens. Chickens are originally tropical birds, so they probably lay all year, but most birds take a month off when their feathers start falling out (molting).
 
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