Rooster Salute

[gee-dub]

The neighbors on the bordering property have been building what I though was a storage shed. Turns out it is a decent sized hen house. The rooster was introduced a few days ago and has since decided that he needs to announce my appearance any time I walk from the shop to the house. He doesn't do it when I am heading to the shop (toward him) but does it every time I come into sight going to the house. I'm a good 250' from where he is and am surprised he can even notice me. I just walked back and forth on purpose three times to show the wife. We were laughing out loud each time. It is like flipping a rooster-switch.

[Chet]

Maybe he is celebrating when you leave thinking is going to be quieter because you are out of the shop.

[wtnhighlander]

@gee-dub, my neighbor started keeping chickens a couple years ago, and for a few months had four (that's right, four!) roosters. It was like the world's most annoying alarm clock going off constantly, as each one had to out-crow his rivals.

I'm glad he switched to turkeys...but you should hear them fire up when the county EMA runs the weekly tornado siren tests!

[Coop]

Thanksgiving dinner! 

[Von]

Sounds like your wife has trained him to warn her when you are coming back to the house :-)

[Tom King]

I wonder if they know you don't need a rooster to produce eggs.

[Coop]

They know it’s more fun if he’s there to help

[JohnG]

We tried keeping a rooster with our hens a few times, but every time they became very problematic. So unless the goal is to produce chicks to sell or to replenish the flock, their benefits don’t outweigh their problems. 

[Mark J]

16 hours ago, Tom King said:

I wonder if they know you don't need a rooster to produce eggs.

I always wondered about that.  Those egg production facilities would need a lot of roosters.

[gee-dub]

I may be thinking too much but there is a new Tractor Supply being built a couple miles away.  They sell chicks . . . hmmm.  I am just hoping to start buying my eggs over the fence instead of at the store

[Tom King]

Some roosters can get pretty mean too.  There is no need to keep a rooster unless you want to sell or raise chicks or like an alarm just before first light, and chicks are so cheap to buy it's hardly worth the trouble.

When we first built this little house in the woods, we had a big problem with ticks.  We bought a bunch of Bantam chickens and turned them loose.  They did take care of the ticks, but the trouble was that they multiplied, including roosters.  I don't know how many roosters there were roosting in the trees, but there was no sleeping late any morning.  We were glad when the number of Foxes and other predators built up in number and took care of the Bantam chickens.

Now, Pam keeps about 15 hens of different breeds.  We get eggs of many colors.  It wouldn't work to have a rooster unless we didn't want the separate breeds.  About a year ago a Fox dug a tunnel under the hen house to get to the chickens.  I don't think he had ever seen a concrete floor before.

Decades before I understood how secure a hen house needs to be, we heard a ruckus and I went out to the hen house to find a possum sitting up on the roosts with the chickens eating an egg.  I went back to the house and got a baseball bat, not wanting to scare the chickens with a gun.  I hit it in the head with the bat I thought hard enough to kill it and decided to leave it on the floor until the morning.  Next morning it was gone, but we never saw it again.  Our chicken setup is very secure against all predators now, and even has a standing seam metal roof.