Rooster is a good dad?

RiDaGeckoGuy

Songster
Jul 13, 2023
1,035
1,015
201
Pittsburgh county, OK
I was stunned to see what my rooster did when he saw his chicks he didn’t show aggression he just walked them towards the rest of the flock and layed down next to them to snuggle. I have 3 adult roosters two in my run and one that just showed up one day and lives in my yard now and all three love baby chicks, Hei Hei the second most dominant maran rooster likes to cuddle his olive egger babies, and Foggy my alpha lavender Orpington rooster protects the chicks and makes sure they stay with the rest of the flock, and Pëpè Le Pew the stray rooster I take care of loves to watch the chicks when they slip through little gaps in the run and he had always been scared of me until I grabbed a chick that wandered off and he charged out of the bushes and attacked me. So does anyone else have good dad roosters
 
Whether those chicks are genetically his or not, a normal rooster considers the chicks to be his genetic link to the future. His instinct is to help his offspring make it so they can reproduce his qualities. I'm not stunned when I see something like what you posted, it is what I'd expect. Some roosters are more hands-on with helping the hen with her chicks but it is unusual for me to see a rooster even threaten young chicks, let alone actually harm one. If a rooster doesn't help Mama with the chicks at least he should not harm them.

Immature cockerels are not mature roosters, they can be a danger to chicks. Each flock should have one dominant rooster, these I trust. Some flocks have subordinate roosters that are great but I trust subordinate ones a little less than the dominant one.

You can always find an exception to anything on here. You may read about some really horrible roosters on here. Some of those stories are true. Often when you read one of those stories they have very little room. Lack of space brings out the worst in chickens. And sometimes people assume it is the rooster when it may really be one of the hens or something else. When a cockerel matures enough to be seen as a threat to a rooster's dominance the rooster's attitude can really change.

Not all roosters are normal or good. But I find the other hens are usually a lot more dangerous to chicks.
 
Whether those chicks are genetically his or not, a normal rooster considers the chicks to be his genetic link to the future. His instinct is to help his offspring make it so they can reproduce his qualities. I'm not stunned when I see something like what you posted, it is what I'd expect. Some roosters are more hands-on with helping the hen with her chicks but it is unusual for me to see a rooster even threaten young chicks, let alone actually harm one. If a rooster doesn't help Mama with the chicks at least he should not harm them.

Immature cockerels are not mature roosters, they can be a danger to chicks. Each flock should have one dominant rooster, these I trust. Some flocks have subordinate roosters that are great but I trust subordinate ones a little less than the dominant one.

You can always find an exception to anything on here. You may read about some really horrible roosters on here. Some of those stories are true. Often when you read one of those stories they have very little room. Lack of space brings out the worst in chickens. And sometimes people assume it is the rooster when it may really be one of the hens or something else. When a cockerel matures enough to be seen as a threat to a rooster's dominance the rooster's attitude can really change.

Not all roosters are normal or good. But I find the other hens are usually a lot more dangerous to chicks.
Yea I feel like for some reason hens are more likely to hurt the chicks then roosters. It's very strange, but some breeds in general are better around chicks. For example, I have a broody serama hen whose eggs should be hatching any day now. I will leave her in the serama flock with the other 5 hens and 2 roosters because I know they will not hurt the chicks. However if one of my large fowl hatched out chicks in the main coop I would remove mom and babies from the flock. Those larger more aggressive breeds hunt and eat small animals like mice, so I just don't really trust them around newborn chicks.
 
Those larger more aggressive breeds hunt and eat small animals like mice, so I just don't really trust them around newborn chicks.
I have never seen that behavior toward chicks with my chickens but they do eat mice, frogs, snakes, and such. It's not just the large fowl chickens either that eats those things and more though what they hunt depends on the size of the chicken. The other chickens eating chicks is not on my radar.
 
I have never seen that behavior toward chicks with my chickens but they do eat mice, frogs, snakes, and such. It's not just the large fowl chickens either that eats those things and more though what they hunt depends on the size of the chicken. The other chickens eating chicks is not on my radar.
Yea I've never had it happen but I've heard about it happening to other people. Some hens are also just bad mothers and will kill their own chicks. Luckily all my broody hens have been good moms
 
A lot depends on the flock. Flocks that chicks are added to every year are different than a flock that has been static for years.

Once, I had chicks peeping, and peeping, peeping all day. And my rooster, all of a sudden could not take it any more, jumped up and down in one place, and yelled. You could almost see the newspaper he was reading? Those chicks were silent and ran for mamma.

I laughed til I almost fell down.
 
A lot depends on the flock. Flocks that chicks are added to every year are different than a flock that has been static for years.

Once, I had chicks peeping, and peeping, peeping all day. And my rooster, all of a sudden could not take it any more, jumped up and down in one place, and yelled. You could almost see the newspaper he was reading? Those chicks were silent and ran for mamma.

I laughed til I almost fell down.
My rooster turned a year old April 3rd so he hasn’t seen any chicks in a long time
 
Whether those chicks are genetically his or not, a normal rooster considers the chicks to be his genetic link to the future. His instinct is to help his offspring make it so they can reproduce his qualities. I'm not stunned when I see something like what you posted, it is what I'd expect. Some roosters are more hands-on with helping the hen with her chicks but it is unusual for me to see a rooster even threaten young chicks, let alone actually harm one. If a rooster doesn't help Mama with the chicks at least he should not harm them.

Immature cockerels are not mature roosters, they can be a danger to chicks. Each flock should have one dominant rooster, these I trust. Some flocks have subordinate roosters that are great but I trust subordinate ones a little less than the dominant one.

You can always find an exception to anything on here. You may read about some really horrible roosters on here. Some of those stories are true. Often when you read one of those stories they have very little room. Lack of space brings out the worst in chickens. And sometimes people assume it is the rooster when it may really be one of the hens or something else. When a cockerel matures enough to be seen as a threat to a rooster's dominance the rooster's attitude can really change.

Not all roosters are normal or good. But I find the other hens are usually a lot more dangerous to chicks.
Most the first two batches were his and only like five this batch were because I have only one hen that likes my subordinate rooster and other than the maran eggs that my hen has only her eggs have leg feathers and usually have his gold leakage, which makes them olive eggers. But I trust my subordinate rooster more because he loves pets and to be held and he loves other roosters and other hens and everything (but my dog) he loves, but my alpha rooster hates everything that’s not the subordinate rooster Hei Hei or a hen and always kicks everything where I have to have a shield and a stick every where I go. All my roosters watch over them and snuggle them though I’ve even seen them climbing on their dads backs and cleaning through their feathers.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom