AIBU to want a cock

[pumpernickel10]

The title says it all, we have a small holding and have some chickens and I'd like a cockerel but are they troublesome and very noisy?

Tabu there is a chicken keepers topic

I didn't know sorry :(

OO OO OOO
THE FUNKY CHICKEN

If you were my neighbour I would kill you

(giggle from someone who already has chickens - but no cock)

A cockerel will 'control' your girls in the sense of sitting on them and doing the deed. Some can be very randy and the poor girls may be bonked relentlessly. But that said, even with hens there will be one bossy madam who wears the codpiece.

YES they are very noisy and they will not simply cock-a-doodle-do in the morning but, if they hear anything they don't like - a lot of the day.

If you are rural and away from people then it's fine - but be prepared that once bought, they are hard to rehome if your neighbours do not like them.

So a cock is a good thing - but think before you have one.

Awww I'm only kidding with you
Get one
(as long as you're not my neighbour)

We are sort of rural but as a friend said they can be bullies
I think I'll sit on it for a while

You really mustn't sit on a cock.

(rolls on floor)

hully loving your songs on the threads right now :)

You filthy lot ;)

Why do you want one? For breeding?

I was thinking of breeding sue

Sometimes on Freecycle you can borrow a cock!

Ryan Giggs has one going spare

Raising chicks is quite hard too. Also, what would you do with the male chicks? They would grow up to be cockerels too. Some people cull them - which is why I couldn't raise chicks. But you have to have specialist equipment as well......

Borrow a cock? Wonder how DH will feel ;)

Great point pink and DH said the same and no way I'd want to cull them so it's no cockerel for me.

We've had a cock.

He was very noisy from about 4am each morning. Luckily our neighbours didn't seem to mind. Also, he became quite aggressive as he got older. I stopped locking him up each evening, as he used to charge and attack whoever let him out the next morning. So he had to take his chances, and eventually the fox got him.

He was a lovely old bird though. RIP Captain Flack.

I am chicken sitting at the moment and every morning and night the bloody cockerel attacks me. Pecks violently at my legs and then my arms when I am feeding them. The girls used to be lovely but now it is difficult to spend time with them as Mr Bloody Nasty is always lurking ready to peck. And the lots of the girls have bald backs.

What punk said. If you breed or hatch eggs, you're going to end up with at least 50% cocks. For me it always seemed more like 70% for some reason . They cannot be kept together when mature and nobody will want them. You could kill and eat them but if you don't want to do that, IMHO you shouldn't be breeding.

Gah, x posted. Buy sexed day old chicks instead then if you want babies. Though you may end up with a sneaky cock there too. Damn the sneaky cocks

Oh THAT cock, though you meant something else

(ah a sneaky cock - always the worst kind, Sue)

We tried to hatch 6 eggs, only two were successul and they were both cocks. They were OK together but we got rid of the alpha cock as he was making the girls' lives a misery. The remaining cock has now taken over and he is getting just as bad. He is very protective of the girls and I know of one who saw off a stoat/weasel but was so badly injured he had to be pts. In hindsight I think you are better off without.

What you really want is for a neighbour about 3 miles away to get one, so you hear the lovely cock-a-doodling sound waaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance.