In the years of research prior to when I started out with chickens, I read countless horror stories about roosters. People unable to gather eggs, feed/water their flock, or even use their own yard because of a territorial rooster. I saw photos of injuries from people taking a rooster spur to the leg, sometimes requiring stitches. I was absolutely determined that I’d never own one.
I initially started my hens out in a chicken tractor and allowed them to free range most of the day, digging in the dirt, eating bugs to their heart’s content. I’d occasionally even get one that’d hop up on a windowsill to peek inside.
However, we soon discovered that there were nesting red-tail hawks to the rear of our property that would occasionally pick off an unsuspecting hen. It was pretty devastating for me to lose my babies that I’d raised from tiny chicks.
After putting a lot of thought into it, I reached out to my super supportive chicken breeder (my husband calls her my chicken dealer for supporting the chicken addiction). “I can’t believe I’m even asking this but…. do you have any adult roosters available?”
She did.
So I high tailed it up to her farm and purchased a full grown rooster. He’s a handsome boy – a black copper marans with spectacular colors. He unfortunately had a tiny bit of white in his tail so he wouldn’t work for her breeding program, but he had such a good temperament that she kept him around in a pen with other culls for just this kind of situation.
I introduced him to the hens as soon as I got him home and he was instantly on duty. We decided to name him Cluckles because why not give him a funny name?
This rooster is nothing like what I read in those horror stories. This is what a rooster should be. He is protective of his hens, constantly scanning the ground and air for potential predators and sounding the alarm if they need to take cover. He is not territorial towards any humans or our dogs (we do ensure they are kept separated by leashes or the chickens in their enclosure just as an added precaution). He literally will not eat any treats until the ladies have had their fill. He searches for bugs and will call to the hens and gesture to the bug with his beak. He will even try to offer me bugs to eat, looking at me questioningly, wondering why I don’t just dig in already.
Now that I’ve experienced what a good rooster is like, I never want to be without one!