Am I a rooster?

... the addiction sets in...

First read the breed standard
There is a standard of perfection and each registred breed and variety is listed
You may be able to google for your breeds standard
You don't want to keep breeding a cock bird(or hen) that has a bunch of disqualifications
Even if you are not showing,keeping the breed pure and free from faults should be a goal-especially with RARE breeds
which Sandhill carrys alot of

KEEP 2 Cock birds
Especially with a rare breed
If you have quite a few hens keep 3 cock birds
Then split them into families
one family gets ....say blue leg bands
family 2 gets reds
Then you try to only breed the blues with the blues and reds with the reds for a year or 2,band the offspring with a different color
This will cut down on inbreeding and you can then cross the two families ...so you will only be breeding distant cousins with each other

If you find someone with a spare cockbird of the same variety you have see if they'll trade to get different blood in there

I've delt with some really old bloodlines that have been inbreed for .....20 or 30 years(One for 100 years)
Low egg laying
a lot of infertile eggs
and diminished size of the birds
also the health become poor
They may look great but are more suseptible to disease

That is a lot of good information, thank you.

crestedchik, that is fabulous info, thanks!

I'm thinking about getting another rooster again, but I was so sad to have to put down the other one.

How do all of you approach your roosters to keep them from attacking you?

You can smack them, or give them a firm shake, or whatever, but even if they respect you, they will attack almost any other person who enters their area, especially *smaller* persons. That's if it's a really violent rooster. Some are good with kids. I really think it's individual temperament.

My little bantum roosters have never been aggressive with people. They are very frightened
of people. I've never kept any fullsize roosters.

Tam

Old,
How is the chicks coming along?
Love reading & seeing pictures of your brood.

Hi Christmas

My brood is down by quite a few males, who...shall we say...are in cockerel heaven.

The rest are doing just great and am waiting for the first egg as they are now due. I go out there every evening and tell the ladies to focus on their task...and I tell the only rooster, Beauregard, that it is job to keep the ladies happy and motivated (and I remind him how lucky he is!). Beauregard is a very sweet rooster and likes to be picked up and fed granola bars. With 14 hens he needs his moxie I suppose.

They are a spoiled bunch for sure. I never realized what personalities these birdies have. And funny? Just watching them for a while beats most TV programs.

Now if they would only do the "egg thing" my motivation to continue spoiling them would be justified.

Thank you for asking about them Xmass!

Thanks for the date.
I love reading about Beauregard & the girls.
Hope you get eggs,soon.

So the chicken in the photo is a rooster, then. I like the late-blooming roosters. I have one I call Screamer (the barred rock in the photo). We're still not sure if it's a boy or a girl, and Screamer doesn't seem to know, either.

I have a hen (I'm sure she's a hen 'cause I've seen her lay eggs) that crows like a rooster.
Any else found that? She's a big black cochin.

I have a buff orp hen that started doing that after we got rid of the rooster. It's a really dreadful sound. Now we have roosters again, she doesn't do it much.

Yes - its a really terrible crow. I still have my little bantum rooster. They've been staying in
different stalls at night - and I only hear her crow in the morning before I let them out. Maybe
I should put her with the rooster?

Tam

Well, my neighbors are probably happy that I am down to just one crowing bird. Anything that had the energy or desire to crow became stewpotted. The only one that survived was my most 'roostery' looking bird who at least was visibly male. I don't get how some cockerels all from the same batch of chicks could look so different as far as development. The only reason that Beauregard survived was because he took it upon himself to guard the henhouse and in every way acted the part a rooster ought to play. And for a rooster, he is a pretty sweet bird at the same time. If any hens were crowing, that was probably a bad career choice....oops.

LOL My little rooster is the whimpiest thing you'd ever want to see. He is very afraid of
everything & would never "stand guard" at the hen house. But he performs an important
service and never bothers anyone. (I've heard friends whose roosters attacked people.)

Tam

Oldseed it looks like a hen to me but dont really listen to me because iam only new to this

I know this is blurry but I think you get the idea - I have 12 chickens. I count 11 here. I just
planted grass seed over the septic clean out yesterday. Guess where the girls are in the pic?