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I swore I'd never put a rooster in with my girls, then my neighbor in Fresno showed me his setup
For two years I was dead set against keeping a rooster. I read all the horror stories about overmating, bare backs, and noise complaints, and I figured my eight hens were just fine on their own. Then last spring my neighbor Rick, who's been keeping birds on his lot in Fresno for about 15 years, invited me over to see his flock. He had eleven hens and one big calm rooster, and the difference from my own yard was night and day. His girls were way less jumpy, they spread out and scratched instead of huddling, and he said the squabbles over pecking order mostly died down once the rooster took over keeping the peace. He runs a ratio of about one rooster to ten hens and he said anything tighter is where the trouble starts. I added a gentle young rooster in June and by about three weeks in my hens had settled down a lot, less fighting at the feeder and way calmer when I walk in. Now I'm eating my words. If you were on the fence about a rooster, what finally tipped you one way or the other?
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jessicamiller12d ago
The part about "squabbles over pecking order mostly died down" is what gets me, because there's a whole side to that nobody talks about. When a rooster takes over the peacekeeping, your hens stop having to sort out every little dispute themselves, so the flock's social ladder gets less steep and the lower girls catch a break. What tipped me was watching a friend's flock where the rooster broke up a feeder fight just by walking over, no drama at all. That told me the calm ones are worth their weight in feed, and it's more about picking the right rooster than about having one at all. Your mileage may vary of course, but that's the piece I wish I'd known two years ago.
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