Feeding & nurturing a rooster with your hens & chicks in your backyard seems quite interesting right? A roster looks cool & nice. It seems quite pleasant to see a colorful rooster strutting around your farm all day long. A rooster as a pet can be a very nice guy or very arrogant guy.
It depends on so many things like the characteristics, environment, rooster breed etc. of the rooster. There are both positive & negative sides of keeping a rooster as a pet. If you are someone who has got a rooster from hatching & planning to have it as a pet or if you are thinking why should I keep the rooster & these thoughts are hitting your brain then this article is definitely for you. So, let’s jump into the pros & cons of keeping a rooster as your pet.
Why do you need to keep a rooster?
If you want your hens to breed naturally & you have no problem in eating fertilized eggs then surely you can have a rooster as your pet. Your hens will enjoy mating with him & your rooster will protect her hens & find food for the flocks.
You might see a very happy & joyous environment in your coop. But remember to keep only 1 rooster per 10-12 hens or your hens might get injured because of over mating with the rooster. However, your hens can breed & give you nutritious eggs by breeding in a stimulated way. It is not a must for the hens to have a rooster for breeding & laying eggs.
4 Reasons to Keep a Rooster in Your Yard
1.A Partner for your hens
Keeping a rooster as a pet is a great option for breeding your hens & getting fertilized eggs. A rooster will mate your hens more often & you will be able to hatch chickens in a natural way. It will keep your rooster’s natural cycle active. Also, he will find food for the hens & call them whenever he will find any source of food.
2. A morning Alarm Clock
A rooster starts to crow at the dawn. So, if you like to have an alarm clock which will wake you up in the early morning & enjoy sunrise then definitely keep a rooster as your pet. He will wake you up every morning by crowing & even if you try, you will not be able to sleep listening to his nice crowing voice.
3. A Bodyguard of the flock
A rooster is very protective to his flocks. He will protect all his hens whenever he feels any risk or danger around. Whenever an owl, an eagle, a hawk or even a low flying plane is overhead your rooster will start squawking & alert all the hens & hide with them in a safe place.
We had a rooster in our backyards & whenever any dog entered inside he always took the first attempt to fight with the dog & tried hard to protect his hens. He protects the flock from any perceived & actual danger & serves the flock as a guard as well as a defender.
4. A strict & disciplined Guy
Roosters naturally have a pecking order in them & they always keep the pecking order in check. When you will introduce a new chick to your existing flock some hens can be really dominating with your chicken & can treat you chicken roughly. You might face a great amount of chicken fighting in your coop.
The process of integrating your chickens in the coop becomes very smooth when you have a rooster in your flock. Your rooster is the boss of his flock. That means he will have the most dominance over the hens & the chickens. Your rooster is most likely to set the pecking order in the flock.
When you introduce a new chicken in the coop your rooster will initially keep the chick in his haze & make his existence easy in the flock & no hens will try to dominate the chick. So, the environment of your farm stays stable &as the pecking order is set, there will be no fighting between your hens & chickens.
And 5 Cons of keeping a rooster
1. Disturbance for your neighbors
Roosters are very loud & they don’t give a hearty wake up call for the morning. You may like the sound of a crowing roster but your neighbors may not.
Consider the environment & people living around you. A rooster will crow every morning as it’s his task to provide his surroundings an alarm when the sun is about to rise. If you don’t like the sound of a rooster crowing then simply don’t keep a rooster in your chicken farm.
But if you don’t have any problem with crowing then consider the choice of your neighbors. We all belong to a social community & it’s our responsibility to make sure that people living around us don’t face any trouble because of our any activity. So, ask them if they have any problem with the crowing of your rooster.
If your neighbors don’t prefer then try to stop your rooster from crowing & if you can’t do that then don’t keep a rooster. Remember that keeping a rooster is not necessary for breeding, hatching & laying eggs.
2. Quarrel in the coop
Don’t keep more than one rooster for your chicken coop. They pecking order of roosters is often respected & maintained. But if it’s not maintained then roosters get aggressive & it becomes more likely to have a fight between them.
While fighting roosters might hurt each other. So, its better to keep only one rooster in the flock. And if you notice that your only rooster is aggressive & hurting other hens & chicks then remove him immediately.
3. Less Hens means More Injury
If you have less than ten hens in the flock then don’t keep any rooster. If you have at least eight hens then you might think of keeping a rooster but if less than that then please don’t!
Your rooster will mate his girls more often & if the number of hens is less than required, he will end up overmating your hens& it will result in an injurious condition for them. Your hens might get hurt by the spurs & beak of your rooster so remove your rooster spurs on a regular basis. If the size of your flock is small then avoid keeping any rooster.
4. Their Aggression Might Harm You
Some roosters are very aggressive & they might attack you by assuming you as a potential threat for them. If you have got an aggressive rooster by hatching then it’s your bad luck. When you are buying chickens ask for the chicken breeds.
To know more about aggressive & gentle chicken breeds follow ways to entertaining backyard chickens and buy the toys like Precision Pet Chicken Treat Ball, chicken wire chick-n-veggie ball or Lixit Chicken Toy chart by Henderson. If you have got a very aggressive rooster then you might get attacked & your hens & chicks might get injured. Sometimes you might need to keep a stick around you to fend your rooster when he becomes way too aggressive.
5. They eat a lot
Your roster will eat the large share of the food you provide for your flock & they won’t lay you eggs either!! Rather, if your hen gets that portion of food then they can lay you more nutritious eggs. Moreover, your hens don’t need a rooster to lay eggs. So, think twice before you opt for keeping a rooster in the flock.
Final words
If we consider everything, it is clear that keeping a rooster has more cons than pros. Still, if you want to keep a rooster in the flock just makes sure that he is not aggressive & he doesn’t hurt the hens & chicks. To control your rooster, you must give him a feel of adoring & make him realize that you are the boss and he needs to obey you. After reading the article it solely depends on you whether you want to have a rooster or not considering the pros & cons of keeping a rooster. Hope the article helped you to make a great decision!
