A common question my wife and I get is, “Do you need a rooster for hens to lay eggs?”. This is a great question, and albeit an important one, the answer you get from us is going to depend on your goals.
A hen will lay eggs without a rooster present. However, if your goal is to produce more chickens, you will need a rooster to fertilize the eggs.
In this article, we will go over the pros and cons of having a rooster. What you need to consider before you add or take one away from your flock. Trust me, you want to consider these tips before making your decision, or you could be facing unforeseen problems and cause stress in your flock.
What are the benefits of having a rooster?
A Rooster is a Guardian of Your Flock
Your rooster is always on guard, and always has his hens best interest at heart. He will protect them by ensuring they are together and will physically fight a predator if one is to attack the flock. Although, depending on the predator, he may or may not win that fight, but he will go out trying.
Your hens typically don’t care about flock preservation and more about self-preservation, and preservation of their chicks. While a rooster has his entire flocks wellbeing in mind.
A rooster will signal to the flock by making a screeching sound if there is a danger present—usually, a hawk, eagle, or some other land animal that raises his concern. He will notify the flock to run and take cover.
A rooster will also look out for your hens in other ways; he will scratch and peck to find delicious treats for your hens, calling them over when he has found something delicious for them to eat.
Roosters Bring Order to the Flock
It’s common for your hens to fight each other to establish their own pecking order. A rooster will break up a hen fight and reduce aggression in the flock.
Flock order is an excellent thing as it will ensure your hens aren’t stressed so they can focus on doing their jobs, scratching, pecking, and laying eggs.
You Will Get Baby Chicks
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, if you don’t have a rooster, all you will get is eggs. If you want little baby chickens to warm your heart and to expand your flock, you’ll need a rooster to fertilize the eggs.
It’s essential to ensure that you have a good gene diversity in your flock to ensure you are creating healthy and strong baby chicks.
If you do want to hatch your eggs and keep your hen from going broody, we highly recommend using an incubator.
Roosters are Fun to Watch
One of my favorite things to do with my wife is to watch one of our roosters named Britches. This rooster is full of personality and makes my son run for the hills by chasing him. I feel like a terrible person by saying that, but it’s funny to see my son grow up and learn what pecking order means the hard way.
Hopefully, you’ll think of roosters as being entertaining as a pro vs some who think roosters with too much personality as a con. This preference is up to your tolerance of behavior.
Reduced Flock Stress
A natural order of chickens is to have one rooster with several hens, and it’s even a possibility for one rooster to take care of up to twenty hens.
If no rooster exist, hens can tell that the natural order isn’t ordered at all.
Introducing a rooster in time can bring back that order to your flock, it will help reduce stress, albeit, stress, in the beginning, is very common when introducing a new rooster.
What Are the Downsides of Having a Rooster?
Roosters Can Stress Your Hens
Adding a new addition of a rooster to your flock can stress your hens, and a stressed hen will often stop producing eggs.
This stress will usually subside with time but can be a worrisome period while your hens adapt to their new head of the flock.
After the new pecking order is established everything will settle down and go back to normal.
Roosters Might Not Be Allowed
Another thing you have to consider if a rooster is right for you is your location. If you live in an area that prohibits loud and disturbing noises it could become a problem.
Why are roosters not allowed in some areas? The most common reason for roosters not being allowed in certain areas is because of crowing. Noise ordinance can be in place; it’s up to you to see what your city/town permits. Most likely, if you live in the country, there shouldn’t be any problems with having roosters forage in your flock.
Roosters Can Be Loud
Rooster do what roosters do best, they crow. They will crow in the morning, crow at night, crow when ever they feel like the time is right.
If you have nearby neighbors, this might not be appreciated and could potentially cause conflict. Albeit, most neighbors don’t mind, but you do get a few sticks in the mud on occasion.
The best thing to do in a situation where your neighbors are complaining is to check what the laws are in your area, sometimes they will just have to deal with it, and other times you might have to make changes that can reduce the amount of noise coming from your rooster.
Rooster Aggression
Roosters can get pretty aggressive. Certain breeds are more aggressive than others, but all in all aggressiveness towards your hens can cause stress, and can hurt or even kill other members of the flock.
If you notice a lot of fighting, more so than usual; it may be in your best interest to remove that rooster causing problems from your flock.
You should never tolerate anything out of the ordinary that can endanger your flock’s happiness.
Happy chickens lay happy eggs. Stressed chickens, stop laying eggs. Rooster aggression will certainly lower your hen’s happiness and your egg production levels will go down.
Things to look out for:
- Bloody Chickens
- Missing Feathers
- Lots of fighting
If you notice these type of actions in your rooster you should take corrective action.
How Do I Introduce A Rooster to Our Hens?
If you are ready to introduce a rooster to your hens take these precautionary steps to ensure it’s a safe and smooth transition.
- Make sure the roosters you are introducing are about the same size as your hens, typically you want your girls to be at least 14 weeks of age.
- Clip their flight feathers to ensure they are easier to capture and manage in case something goes wrong.
- Make sure your new rooster is in good health, you don’t want to spread any diseases to your existing flock.
- If you can, vaccinate your rooster. It’s not always possible but will ensure a proper healthy start.
- Separate your rooster from your hens for at least two weeks before you introduce them. This will allow them to introduce themselves vocally and visually and will prevent them from starting fights with each other.
When Should I Introduce a Rooster to My Hens?
This decision in the end is going to be up to you. If you are wanting to expand your flock, or if you are having issues within your flock and want better control now could be a good time.
Just remember that introducing a rooster to your hens will be a stressful time. Although, in the long run, it’s worth it, in the beginning, you may face some difficulties that you will eventually overcome.
Don’t rush the introduction and gradually introduce them to each other.
In Summary
We hope we answered your question about whether or not you need a rooster for a hen to lay eggs.
A few highlights
Pros of having a rooster for your hens
- A rooster will help protect your flock.
- Having a rooster means you can have baby chickens.
- Roosters will help reduce stress in your flock.
Cons of having a rooster for your hens
- It can increase stress in your flock
- Roosters can be loud causing problems if your neighbors complain
- Roosters might not be allowed in your local area, check your local ordinance.
Just remember, having a rooster can be a blessing, then again it can also create problems. Make sure you monitor your flock to make sure everyone is getting along.
So to answer your question: Do you need a rooster for your hens to lay eggs? No.
Have your hens stopped laying eggs?
Thank you all so much for reading our article.
If this article helped you please give us a share, it’ll help us a lot and will make our day!
OhCluck.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
Comments
0 comments