- Joined
- May 27, 2012
- Messages
- 5,192
- Location
- Bellmere, QLD
- Website
- www.selfsufficientme.com
- Climate
- Sub-Tropical
Mark submitted a new Article:
Top 6 Reasons for Keeping a Rooster in Your Flock
Read more about this article here...
Top 6 Reasons for Keeping a Rooster in Your Flock
Many people only ever hear of the disadvantages and problems a rooster can cause especially in an urban environment where loud noises like crowing can be a worry; but, there are several reasons why keeping a rooster is a good idea if local council laws in your area permit.
1. Protection - Roosters are very protective of their flock (remember those old cartoons with the big rooster beating up the naughty cat or dog trying to get the hens) well, it's not so dramatic as that, however a rooster can be quite aggressive when riled up.
Recently, our rooster lost a good chunk of his tail feathers whilst attacking a large goanna trying to steal some eggs. If you live in an area with birds of prey and you free-range your flock roosters are extremely handy at spotting attack from the air and will warn the flock and even find a place hide everyone (like back in the coop) until the threat is over.
If you're worried about your rooster being aggressive towards you or other family members, it does help greatly if you raise your rooster yourself from chick. That way, your rooster will be more likely human friendly and won't pose a problem or scare the kids. Our current rooster is very family friendly - he's a good boy who does a top job protecting the flock without terrifying the family during egg collection.
Having said that, roosters generally aren't "dangerous" and the spurs on their feet may cause a small scratch at worse on a person if it really got to that stage and a rooster had a free shot. Realistically, roosters are no match for a human and won't attack front on and if they do it's usually from behind and merely a kick with a swoosh from the wings to give a nice fright but that's about it...
2. Food gathering - Roosters inherently look to find food for the flock and this is particularly evident in a free-ranging environment where the area is left to grow a little wild with a good variety of plants.
On our property, we have a species of native clumping grass which produces a seed head full of long thorns and at the base of these thorns small berries are formed. The hens love the berries but can't reach the fruit; however, the rooster has a larger beak and is able to pick the berries out from between the thorns and then throw them on the ground for the hens to get.
It seems to me that besides protection the other main job of a rooster is finding food and he rarely eats first, in fact, he will often go without and happily call the...
Read more about this article here...