Woman killed by pet rooster who pecked at her as she collected eggs from garden
Bumblepuff
Veteran Member
China Connection
TB Fanatic
I've only got five left alive. Four of them are game rosters that fight. Spurs everywhere.
Rape alley in my chuck houses. Really fertile eggs.
Rape alley in my chuck houses. Really fertile eggs.
Doc1
Has No Life - Lives on TB
From Wiki:
Diane Sawyer (/ˈsɔːjər/; born December 22, 1945) is an American television journalist.
Sawyer has been the anchor of ABC News's nightly flagship program ABC World News, a co-anchor of ABC News's morning news program Good Morning America and Primetime newsmagazine. Early in her career, she was a member of U.S. President Richard Nixon's White House staff and closely associated with the president himself.
I never knew she had anything to do with chickens!
Best
Doc
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
Someone showed me how to do this years ago, and it does work. My roosters don't protect the hens, the livestock guardian dog does. All they have to do is alert her if there's a threat she didn't see (she doesn't watch for aerial threats as well as they do).
Kathleen
I just don't bother removing spurs. For one thing, it takes a couple years for them to grow them big and sharp enough to csuse damage. Inbreeding problems in chickens are concerning enough that keeping a breeding roo for more than 2 years is asking for problems.
But roosters are pretty much a dime a dozen (unless you are a show breeder of some rare breed). Many of them (most in our experience) are either non-aggressive by nature or are easily trainable. Any roo that continues to attack people who are simply doing routine chores (I make some exceptions if he goes after someone who has picked up a hen or is otherwise disturbing his flock) is soup.
Bantams tend to be the worst, but because of their size, their aggression tends to be more comical than dangerous. Obviously, if you have small children, whose vulnerable faces are closer to the ground, you need to take that into account.
In 35 years of keeping chickens of various breeds, I've only had two mean roos. One was a Buff Orpington which had aggressive tendencies (it does seem more dominant in some breeds) but who was teased by the menfolk who thought it was funny to see him try to get them through the chicken wire, and ended up in the soup pot after blindsiding me when I was bent over reaching into a nest... a quarter inch higher and I'd have lost an eye. The other was a Cochin bantam, who never did learn, and finally met his demise when the guy who delivered our bagged feed booted him out of the way a little too hard (this was a regular occurrence between them, but he accidently flipped him into a wall the last time, and broke his neck!)
Summerthyme
But roosters are pretty much a dime a dozen (unless you are a show breeder of some rare breed). Many of them (most in our experience) are either non-aggressive by nature or are easily trainable. Any roo that continues to attack people who are simply doing routine chores (I make some exceptions if he goes after someone who has picked up a hen or is otherwise disturbing his flock) is soup.
Bantams tend to be the worst, but because of their size, their aggression tends to be more comical than dangerous. Obviously, if you have small children, whose vulnerable faces are closer to the ground, you need to take that into account.
In 35 years of keeping chickens of various breeds, I've only had two mean roos. One was a Buff Orpington which had aggressive tendencies (it does seem more dominant in some breeds) but who was teased by the menfolk who thought it was funny to see him try to get them through the chicken wire, and ended up in the soup pot after blindsiding me when I was bent over reaching into a nest... a quarter inch higher and I'd have lost an eye. The other was a Cochin bantam, who never did learn, and finally met his demise when the guy who delivered our bagged feed booted him out of the way a little too hard (this was a regular occurrence between them, but he accidently flipped him into a wall the last time, and broke his neck!)
Summerthyme
why doesn't any man need more than one rooster?
A cock a dude'll do.
(reddit joke)
I didn't see your response until now. The "two year rule" is, of course, if you are actually using him for breeding and propagating the flock. Inbreeding depression shows up in reduced hatchability, weak chicks, and-in those who survive- l9wer production.
If you only want a roo for flock protection, you can keep them as long as you want. I had to butcher a 5 year old Welp's Sliw White broiler roo at 5 years because he was getting too big and heavy, and was spending modt of his time sitting down. He dressed at 14#! I guess he had reason for his legs not holding him! But he was always a perfect gentleman, and I had others I was able to rotate for reproduction, so he stayed.
Summerthyme
I only keep roosters until I'm sure I won't be incubating a batch of fall chicks. It's hard enough to keep the hens alive over the winter up here without a rooster in the coop stirring things up, ripping out the hen's feathers, and eating his weight every day. Sympathy and roosters don't belong in the same sentence together. They are "expendable". 
China Connection
TB Fanatic
Ah, having rosters is better than having a load of lesbians hens pretending to have a roster.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Nature's Way, if there are no males one hen will often grow a comb and start to crow, she will act as a protector to "her" flock; we had one doing this but we gave them to a roo and her comb is receding and she is acting more like a hen.
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
I'm planning to finally get some of those Slow Whites next year! I figured I'd get straight run, and just keep half a dozen hens and a rooster through the winter (although I need to get a second chest freezer before I do any butchering -- the freezer I have is rather small). I'll still have my small flock of Icelandics for yard chickens (they are good at keeping bugs down, especially ticks), but they are hiding their eggs so -- even though they are good layers -- I'm buying eggs. Need some tamer birds to keep in the coop for house eggs, and a bit of meat.
Kathleen
They're really nice birds. I prefer the CornishX for meat, but if we didn't have customers for the CornishX, and had to use 25 meat chickens ourselves, I'd probably stop buying them and just keep Slow Whites for eggs and meat. The biggest dfference is breast size... the Slow White carcass at the same weight as a CornishX is probably 6" longer, so the breasts are significantly thinner. Very tasty meat, though, and I think, a little firmer. Not tough (butchered at the appropriate sge, of course), but probably more like the old fashioned types.
Summerthyme
Summerthyme
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
I don't like raising the CornishX -- last time we raised them when my two older girls were still at home, they begged me not to raise them again, LOL! (They'd been helping to butcher CornishX since they were little -- it was the bare breasts with blisters, the sparse feathers, the crud, the general ugliness of the poor things that bothered them.) But if we haven't gone home to the Lord by then, I may get a few CornishX at the feed store early next spring, so I can have them butchered before the weather gets hot. I wouldn't want to try to raise them in the summer here.
Kathleen
Since we switched to raising the CornishX on pasture, we've eliminated almost all those problems. We use an old junk horse trailer for shelter. Hubby rigged it up with a float bucket waterer, which connects either to hoses and a barn faucet, or if we're pasturing them more than 250' away from the barn, a water tank on wheels. We use 180 feet of electronettig and a solar fencer. This is plenty for up to 125 birds, moving it once a week to clean ground.
They eat grass and bugs, as well as free choice (for 12 hours... fast them the other 12, or they'll est themselves to death) grain. This year, i designed and made clear vinyl "tents" to slide over the hangers hubby built to hang the feeders... it worked like a charm, not only keeping the grain dry, but completely stopping the English Sparrows from raiding the grain. (For sone reason, they always fly into the top of the feeders to feed, not eating from the trough part... dunno why.
No breast blisters, no filthy feathers (although they do get a bit grass stained!) and out of over 500 birds in the past 3 years, only one cripple, which we think was an injury.. got trampled as a fairly young chick. They move around a lot more, chasing crickets and other insects, than they ever did being raised in a pen.
But yes, extreme heat is a problem. I made a shade "tent" out of a stock panel bent in a semi-circle and covered it with sone bargain light gray knit fabric I had around... it definitely helped. But two years ago, we had two birds die of hesrt attzcks ehile we were loading them to take to be butchered... we beheaded them and hung them on a fencepost to bleed out and sent them home with our Amish hired man as a "bonus".
If you like breast meat, they can't be beat... our birds average 1 3/4 to 2# of boneless breast off a 5-6# bird.
We've had really good luck with Welp's strain of CornishX. We often have ZERO death loss after the first 24 hours, and last year, I ordered 115 birds. They shipped 119, and we butchered 118. The single loss was DOA in the box.
And the one year they were delivered 2 days late and we lost over 40 in the first 6 hours, they sent a complete replacement order the following week.
My sole complaint about Welp Hatchery is they must ship the CornishX from a separate farm... you can't mix them with either layers or Slow Whites when you order.
Summerthyme
They eat grass and bugs, as well as free choice (for 12 hours... fast them the other 12, or they'll est themselves to death) grain. This year, i designed and made clear vinyl "tents" to slide over the hangers hubby built to hang the feeders... it worked like a charm, not only keeping the grain dry, but completely stopping the English Sparrows from raiding the grain. (For sone reason, they always fly into the top of the feeders to feed, not eating from the trough part... dunno why.
No breast blisters, no filthy feathers (although they do get a bit grass stained!) and out of over 500 birds in the past 3 years, only one cripple, which we think was an injury.. got trampled as a fairly young chick. They move around a lot more, chasing crickets and other insects, than they ever did being raised in a pen.
But yes, extreme heat is a problem. I made a shade "tent" out of a stock panel bent in a semi-circle and covered it with sone bargain light gray knit fabric I had around... it definitely helped. But two years ago, we had two birds die of hesrt attzcks ehile we were loading them to take to be butchered... we beheaded them and hung them on a fencepost to bleed out and sent them home with our Amish hired man as a "bonus".
If you like breast meat, they can't be beat... our birds average 1 3/4 to 2# of boneless breast off a 5-6# bird.
We've had really good luck with Welp's strain of CornishX. We often have ZERO death loss after the first 24 hours, and last year, I ordered 115 birds. They shipped 119, and we butchered 118. The single loss was DOA in the box.
And the one year they were delivered 2 days late and we lost over 40 in the first 6 hours, they sent a complete replacement order the following week.
My sole complaint about Welp Hatchery is they must ship the CornishX from a separate farm... you can't mix them with either layers or Slow Whites when you order.
Summerthyme
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
I'll have to see what I can figure out on a smaller scale, because for the two of us, we only need a couple dozen at most. Last time I raised CornishX I kept them in the greenhouse, but we were still in eastern Oregon at a high elevation and didn't have the heat to worry about. I can get them locally, thankfully, and won't have to order them.
Kathleen
Michiana MaJo
Deceased
Would someone please answer a question by this dumb cluck......if a rooster isn't necessary for a hen to produce eggs, what use if the rooster?
If you only want eggs for eating, roosters aren't necessary. Millions of male chicks from commercial egg laying breeds (primarily Leghorns) are killed as soon as they're hatched.
But for a small farm flock, they help protect the hens, preserve a natural social structure, and -of course- breed the hens so the eggs are fertile and can be hatched if desired.
Summerthyme
But for a small farm flock, they help protect the hens, preserve a natural social structure, and -of course- breed the hens so the eggs are fertile and can be hatched if desired.
Summerthyme
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
This, and the roosters of many breeds are also very pretty. I like looking at mine as they strut around the yard, and would have at least one even if I didn't want to breed. (However, I don't live in town where the crowing would annoy the neighbors.)
Kathleen
My closest neighbor is an older gentleman who keeps his place very nice (much nicer than my place) and doesn't have any animals, not even a cat. He's put up a LARGE statue of a very pretty rooster near the dead-end road we share, and the way the road lies, as I go around the corner by his place, I'm going up hill a bit, and see that rooster without the pipe that supports it, as if it was a real rooster just over the crest of the hill, but very large! He only put it up a few weeks ago, and it still startles me every time I go by until I remember that it's a statue and not a real rooster -- the thing must stand close to eight feet tall, including the pipe support, and the rooster is most of that! I kind of envy him that thing! I'll have to talk to him one of these days and see what motivated that -- maybe it was a gift.
tortminder
Contributing Member
A bad combination of toxic masculinity and an aggressive pecker!