Do hens need a rooster to lay eggs?

Some of the questions I get asked the most are about having roosters and eggs. People always want to know if I have roosters and can hens lay eggs without them? I really do understand not wanting roosters, they're loud and sometimes mean. They're also unnecessary if all you want your hens for is to produce eating eggs.

Now obviously if you want them to produce hatching eggs then you'll need a rooster to fertilize those eggs. Well, he actually fertilizes the hen but that's a story for further down in this post. For now, let's stick with egg production.

Do your roosters need their own pen?

Anybody that has raised a mixed flock of chickens will tell you that the roosters can be quite a problem for the hens some times! It's kind of an art to get your ratio of roosters to hens just perfect. Too many roosters and they're rough on the hens & they fight, but too few roosters and not all the eggs will be fertilized.

If you're hatching or buying straight run chicks you can easily end up with too many roosters. Straight run is supposed to be exactly how the chicks hatch, which is usually pretty close to 50/50 ratio. You will most likely end up with more roosters than you'd like. 

Why you need a rooster in your flock

I have roosters in my flock. I always have. I like them actually, although many people prefer to just raise hens. Of course you don't need a rooster in your flock for your hens to lay eggs, but there are many reasons why you might want one.

Then again, there are a few reasons why you might not want one. Like the crowing.

Many people don't like the crowing much. Rooster crowing doesn't bother me, it's not that loud after all. Except for the crowing contests, but that's a different story. Plus, I'm out in farm country so nobody really cares about crowing out here. Most of the neighbors aren't even close enough to hear it! Of course if you live in town you may not even be allowed to have a rooster.

If you are allowed to have a rooster where you live you've probably contemplated whether you need one in your flock or not. Trust me, you do! I like to think of my rooster as the coop boss. He takes care of things for me because I can't spend my whole day out there. He has 4 main tasks that he performs for me.

How to add a rooster to the flock

I have always had roosters in my flock of chickens, but many people start out with just hens. Since you don't need a rooster for the hens to lay eggs, and many people get chickens just for the eggs, this makes a lot of sense.

Often the decision to add a rooster is made after the flock of hens has been established. One reason you may decide to add a rooster to an established flock of hens, is to protect the hens. A rooster will alert the hens of any danger approaching, giving them a chance to hide. A rooster will often confront a predator to protect his flock of hens, thus sacrificing himself for them. 

Also, by adding a rooster to the flock, the hens eggs will then be fertilized. You'll need fertilized eggs if you want to hatch chicks. 

If you decide to add a rooster into an already established flock, things can get a little tricky. The head hen doesn't always adapt well to the sudden drop in her ranking. Some hens don't appreciate a rooster trying to ahem...'romance' them. It can just generally upset the pecking order.

To avoid upsetting the hens too much, a gradual introduction is the best approach. Allowing them to acclimate to each other slowly can reduce squabbles and make the whole process go more smoothly. I choose one of these two methods each time that I want to introduce a new rooster to my flock. 

How to remove rooster spurs (the easy way)

As far as chickens go, my least favorite part of the rooster is the spur. I bet you're not surprised at all by that little confession. Spurs are actually quite useful though, as they are a roosters main line of defense against predators. However when they're used against people or are hurting the hens, then it's time to remove your roosters spurs!

Spurs are actually an outgrowth of bone covered by a sheath of horn. A spur grows from the base outwards. Like an animals toenail, there is only a blood supply at the base and the tip can be easily trimmed. Spurs continuously grow and can get quite long. 

To control the length of a roosters spurs you can either trim each spur, or remove them. When you remove a spur you leave the base and only take off the hard outer covering. Removing spurs on a rooster is fairly easy to do. It requires very few tools and only takes a few seconds to remove each spur. In fact it's so easy to do, I once did it by accident!

Rehoming a rooster....the why's and how's

So you need to get rid of a rooster, right? It's a very common issue actually. It's not about what you need to do, it's about why you need to do it and how you go about it. You don't want your rooster to end up in the wrong hands, but we might not agree on whose hands those are! First, let's talk about the 'why' in re-homing your rooster, then we'll talk about how you can rehome the rooster.

1) I'm not allowed to have roosters
2) I have too many roosters
3) He beats up other roosters, flogs my child, and chases the dog.
4) He gets beat up by the other roosters

That's pretty easy, right? Now let's get onto the 'how', however many of these solutions depend on the 'why' for their answer. 

The training of the roo....How to raise a friendly rooster

I think everyone has a mean rooster story or two to tell. It seems that some roosters can be downright evil. Others though can be real sweethearts. Unfortunately, roosters are one of those animals that you only really get 1 chance to raise them right. Luckily, it's pretty easy to train a rooster to be nice if you start early. 

If raised wrong, you can end up with a cranky, mean, vengeful beast...but if done right, you can end up with a powder puff! Rooster training is best started young, like 1 day old if you can! 

Usually that's not so terribly tough since most of us have a hard time keeping our hands off the chicks anyway! It's important to handle him daily. It doesn't have to be the same person, several people can get in on it. Even the kids.

Actually, the more people that chip in and help train the rooster the better! That way the rooster is used to lots of different people, to just one favorite person.

The crowing contest, crowing at night and other facts about roosters

First let me say that if you don't have roosters you'll probably be amused by this post. If you do have roosters, you'll be happy that someone else is sympathetic to your plight! lol I think just about everyone who met a rooster for the first time was surprised to hear him crow in the middle of the day because as city slickers we are conditioned to think roosters only crow at sun-up. 

Every day.

Coffee commercials start with a sunrise and rooster crow. Farm movies do the same. When you don't actually live on a farm, you tend to believe these stereotypes.  Then you get your first rooster and cold hard reality sets in. The crow A LOT....and all day long!

Chicken walks on a leash

Since it's a boring rainy Sunday here I thought that I would post something to make you smile and shake your head at how odd I really am! lol Snowflake is a 1 year old Silkie Rooster that has been training to walk on a leash. He's been working on it for several weeks now.

Phase 1 was simply to get him used to the harness. Then we added the leash. Now he's walking with it. We're working on getting him to follow a bit better, but I think he's making great progress! We'd love for him to attend swaps and shows with us....but for now he's still in training. A few more weeks and he'll be a pro. Way to go Snowflake!

Update: After quite a bit of trial and error, we have figured out how to make the leash training much easier! Check it our new improved method here: How to train a chicken to walk on a leash. 

~L

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New roo for the Silkie pen

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to add to the breeding groups and get things all sorted out for the new breeding season. This year there are 5 Silkie additions. A porcelain pullet, 1 black pullet and 2 lavender splits and this white cockerel. His name is Snowflake. (picture from when he was 10 weeks old)

Award winning chicken photos

I never thought when I started taking photos of the things I see around me that anything would come of it. I see so many pretty, cute, or funny things everyday. It's just natural to want to capture that. To keep it. To share it. Well, that's how it started! Funny how things in life have a way of taking off when you least expect it...isn't it?

Update 2020: I took up photography seriously because of my success luck with my poultry pictures! That lasted about 7 years and now I'm back to focusing on just chickens. If you want to learn how to take great pictures of your chickens check out: How to take better pictures of your chickens for all my best tips and tricks!

Chicken pictures

Let's start with Mr Copper's crowing picture. I thought it was hilarious how every time he crows his eyes bugged out. Did you know, that a rooster cannot crow without extending his neck? It's true. It also makes for a pretty funny 'face' when they crow.

So I decided to try to catch a picture of it for my non-farm friends. I crawled through the grass for over an hour, following him around snapping every crow. This ended up being my favorite. It has won 1 contest, and placed into the finals in another.

Next my egg/candy photo.I have always had people asking me what color eggs my Marans lay. Quite frankly I've seen several color charts and none of them were exactly the same. So it got me thinking "what can I put in a picture with the eggs, that everybody knows the color of?" Hershey's chocolate of course.

Funny thing about this photo...I didn't even realize it had made it into the finals of a photo contest until Katie saw it and emailed me! Thanks Katie!

We won second place for this picture!

Lastly came an email that still has me breaking out into a smile when I think about it. This photo was uploaded into an online gallery. Last week I got an email from Mother Earth news magazine asking me if they could print it in their magazine. Talk about being rendered speechless! It's a picture of our Araucana hen Muff Muff.

 

I'm so excited to see my photo in print! I don't think I'll ever get past the thrill of seeing one of my photos posted/chosen somewhere. It's just so exciting! I'm just glad that people enjoy my photography.

It's one of those few things in life.....when I see something I really like, I want to keep it so I take a picture. Because I take the picture, now I can share it. There aren't many things you can keep and share at the same time....at least that's my philosophy!

~L

Want information on raising chickens sent right to your email weekly?Click right here to join my listand get new posts sent directly to you the day they're published. You'll also get the free download25 Ways to save money raising chickens

Chicken saddles

Well it's finally happened! One of my hens has a bald spot on her back from the rooster. I feel so bad for the poor thing. Not only have her feathers been pulled out but now it's cold enough to snow and she must be freezing!!!! There seems to be only 1 solution to this problem. I bought her a saddle.

No, not like for riding a horse! Although Mr Roo might not pull feathers if he had some stirrups to stick his claws through....but I digress. A chicken saddle is the same basic shape as a horse saddle, but it's made of fabric. 

Sort of like an apron for the chickens back. The feathers get a chance to grow in, and little miss hen stays just a tad warmer till they do. 

Chicken saddles work great in cases of over breeding or feather picking. Pictured above is Princess, a Mille Fluer D'Uccle wearing her saddle.