Pros and Cons of keeping a roo

[Mrs. K]

If it is working for you, that is great. We all tend to give advice from the point of view of our own coop.

I will point out that the OP is in SW Michigan, which can have considerable winter I assume.

"Southwest Michigan experiences heavy lake-effect snowfall, particularly in areas like Berrien and Van Buren Counties, with an average of 80 inches of snowfall annually.Cass County sees an average of 60 inches of snow." Google

So if that door is open on that coop in a snow storm, the coop will be filled with snow. If that door is closed during bad weather over a couple of days, that is going to be tight with 5 birds in there.

Mrs K

 

[NatJ]

So if that door is open on that coop in a snow storm, the coop will be filled with snow. If that door is closed during bad weather over a couple of days, that is going to be tight with 5 birds in there.

I completely agree about it being tight if the birds are shut in.

I don't know whether an open door will mean the coop gets full of snow. That would depend largely on how protected the run is, or is not, during the winter. The direction of wind will also have an effect, and the direction that the coop door faces. That is a detail that can be made better or worse by other aspects of the whole coop/run setup, so probably worth considering well before bad weather hits.

 

[Mrs. K]

Well, I apologize, if I have derailed this conversation as to the size of the coop. The OP was asking about keeping a cockerel, not the size of the coop.

 

[Mrs. K]

I don't know whether an open door will mean the coop gets full of snow. That would depend largely on how protected the run is, or is not, during the winter. The direction of wind will also have an effect, and the direction that the coop door faces.

I would think that snow falling straight down, without a wind, would block that door. Maybe elevating the coop would help with deep snow.

And part of my viewpoint is my own experience with 9 -15 inches of snow at one time. Wind is crazy - and while there is prevalent wind, sometimes it comes weird. Most of the time, my coop door blows clear, my run door not so much, and they are on the same side. One is more protected and snow piles there. But we have had storms where it did not fall that way.

Definitely wind patterns should be considered in the placement of the coop. But they are not fool proof.

I seldom shut my pop up door. I do have weather shelters in my run. Most of the time my birds are outside. However in a raging blizzard, even with the pop up open, they tend to stay in the coop, until it stops. Down here in western SD, it is generally less than 36 hours. Up there, I would expect it to last longer.

Mrs K

 

[Raubkatze]

I definitely foresee a second Nestera in my future. lol

They completely defy all the guidance here at BYC (which I greatly respect), and my birds love theirs. However, I can see that adding new pullets as time goes by will be tricky in the coop, until the new ones start laying. So probably just getting a second when we do that and let them choose.

Love the low maintenance!

For what it’s worth, I have started to regard our 8’ X 15’ run, which is completely covered with hardware cloth as an open-air coop, half of which is covered with a tarp, and the Nestera is simply the bedroom.

I guess I always thought most people considered their coop to just be the bedroom. I was told, very aggressively, on a different group that I needed to have a coop basically the size of my entire run after the math was done mathing to accommodate the chickens that I have. Kudos to those that can provide a coop that large, but that is just not my reality, and I don't know many people who can do that.

 

[Raubkatze]

If it is working for you, that is great. We all tend to give advice from the point of view of our own coop.

I will point out that the OP is in SW Michigan, which can have considerable winter I assume.

"Southwest Michigan experiences heavy lake-effect snowfall, particularly in areas like Berrien and Van Buren Counties, with an average of 80 inches of snowfall annually.Cass County sees an average of 60 inches of snow." Google

So if that door is open on that coop in a snow storm, the coop will be filled with snow. If that door is closed during bad weather over a couple of days, that is going to be tight with 5 birds in there.

Mrs K

We rarely get that amount of snow any more. We are currently in a drought, despite having gotten some snow and a pretty wet spring so far. I think this past winter we got a total of 27 inches of snow. During the winter we plan to have a tarp along the side of the run that faces the way the wind blows the most. Two of the sides are protected by a building, and one of the sides has the door on it and will have to stay open for access. We also plan to upgrade the roof for snow load before this coming winter. Even during a thunderstorm that had 80 mph winds and it looked like somebody was literally dumping bucket after bucket of water out of the sky my run stayed mostly dry, and I am hoping the same will go for when it snows.

 

[21hens-incharge]

As to keeping a rooster....

I have 1 rooster and over 20 hens. While mine is a super chill dude he still has a couple favorite hens who are currently bare backed.

The hens do not require a rooster for anything except fertilizing eggs.

Some are nice birds and many are total jerks. Whether to keep one or not is a personal choice.
My advice is to be prepared to immediately separate him if things go south.

 

[NatJ]

I guess I always thought most people considered their coop to just be the bedroom. I was told, very aggressively, on a different group that I needed to have a coop basically the size of my entire run after the math was done mathing to accommodate the chickens that I have. Kudos to those that can provide a coop that large, but that is just not my reality, and I don't know many people who can do that.

I grew up in Alaska. The family chickens at the time had to stay indoors for months at a time during the winter.

We started with a chicken house just under 4 x 8 feet. That one could hold 7 chickens all winter (works out to about 4 square feet per chicken.)

We later upgraded to a bigger one, 12 x 12 feet. We figured 4 square feet per standard chicken, 3 square feet per light-breed chicken, and 2 square feet per bantam. They were fine all winter.

But I did notice: the bigger the coop, the more space the chickens have, even with the "same" amount of space per chicken. There is just plain more space for them to get away from any particular other individual, or spread their wings and flap, or whatever else they may want to do, when there are lots of chickens in a big space instead of few chickens in a small space.

At a later point, I had chickens in a much warmer climate. They didn't really have a "coop" at all, just perches in a roofed run (windbreak on several sides depending on the season.) That would not have worked where I used to live in Alaska, but was fine in a climate that got occasional snow instead of 6+ months of the stuff.


Climate definitely makes a big difference in how the chickens can use the space!

 

[SamLockwood]

Sorry to make another post about my rooster so soon, but I had a rather traumatic morning.

My roo tried to mount two of my favorite girls this morning, and much chaos ensued. They are only 9.5 weeks old, so nobody is laying yet, or even anywhere near laying age. One of the girls he would not stop harassing. I had to physically get him to leave her alone. Obviously, I cannot stand out in the run all day, so now I am worried about my ladies.

So, help me decide one way or another if he gets to stick around or not. This is not my first time having chickens, but this is my first time having a rooster with my hens. I do not plan to hatch my own eggs; we plan to eat them all. Does having a rooster help flock happiness? Will he protect them once they start to free range? Or are they more trouble than benefit? I feel so bad, I raised him since he was a day old, but I will not have him harming my girls either.

This, unfortuantely, rather normal behavior for a cockerel even in situations where they have more space than you can provide for them. At that age he's likely not trying to mate with them but establish dominance.

In a "natural" setting there's adult birds to keep them in check. When I introduced my cockerels to the my flock of then 9-month old hens they too acted like little jerks, but the adults wouldn't put up with it. The ladies literally beat manners into them.

Later on when the boys grew up and I had cockerels grow up in the flock, the adult roosters tended to nip certain cockerel behaviors in the bud. Immature pullets tend to be way too passive with cockerels and the boys run riot like a feathered version of "Lord of the Flies."

Honestly, when people ask me about becoming first-time rooster owners my standard answer is "don't." Roosters can be a handful, especially in their adolescent years, and if you get upset when hens act like tiny velociraptors roosters can make your head explode.

If you're not planning on breeding or free-ranging them, and you're keeping them in that small an enclosure, I'd lean towards re-homing or culling him.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

that I needed to have a coop basically the size of my entire run after the math was done mathing to accommodate the chickens that I have

Craziness! My coop is 8x10 and comfortably holds 20 hens and a very gentlemanly rooster. My "run" is a re-purposed garden probably 50x200 or bigger. I never heard anything like this and if I did ... I wouldn't pay any attention to it.