memes

Be careful.

Roosters can be great. They can also be territorial and outright dangerous. Sometimes the same rooster will be all of that. And, if it goes bad, they are impossible to place. Rooster rescues take in all they can, but there's a limit to how many any given place can house, and roosters are very prone to needing rescues between their own natures, laws, and humans not knowing what they're getting into.

That being said, if you have a lot of space, plenty of time, and are aware of their needs, a rooster with your flock is a truly wonderful thing. Ours has fought off a dog three times a coyote (or maybe coydog, hard to be sure) once, and in one of those cases literally broke his spur off in the dog's ass. He even tried to fight off a hawk that got one of our hens, though he didn't manage to succeed.

But chickens are highly social. You need multiple unless you're able to have them with you inside and have the time to serve the role of flock for them. A rooster without a flock is going to be prone to stress. A stressed rooster is prone to being territorial. A territorial rooster is prone to fuckery. And that fuckery can include trying to break a spur off in your ass.

Legit, I love our rooster. But I would not take another one on in the future. It's a ton of work when he's got a hair up his ass, which is 9/10 days here lately. If I were less disabled, and could expand the flock enough to keep them all happy, that would change though. If the world was perfect and I could handle the work involved, I'd have a dozen girls and when this big dummy eventually dies, I'd want another. I just can't ever recommend it without the caveats being covered