Thanks for your comments. So far he seems pretty easy going but that may be because he is still so young. Other roosters I've known seemed to become more ornery over time. He is noisy. Good thing we live way out in the country. Apparently he thinks the proper response to just about anything is a session of very loud crowing. I expect he is a mix of some kind. The guy who gave him to dh said he was an Americauna but he doesn't look much like the pictures I've seen of those. I asked dh to see if he could find out more about him from that fellow.

Hi Organic Flutterby, Once a roster mates with a hen they do lay fertile eggs for as long as 10 to 14 days. I cage breed seramas (for color)and may time I pair a roster with as many as 30 hens. Each hen has her one cage and the roster is moved three times a day from cage to cage. It is funny, after the first 2 or 3 days of moving the roster around-he will jump out onto my hand so he can go to the next. They are so smart-more than we think. Some hens love to 'get down and broody' and will set on rocks if you let them let along infertile eggs. If you get a hen that wants to set and have no rosters-get some fertile eggs (try some golden pheasants eggs) from a friends flock or google 'Fertile eggs for Sale' you'll get all kinds of results. Then switch the eggs-let the new eggs sit out for 4-6 hour first so they won't be too cold and run the hen off the nest. I use this method years ago to add new kinds of birds to my flock (good for bringing new blood lines in also). Good luck. Keep on Chick'en. For pics of my Feathered Friends visit: www.virgilwalters.com

There have been a few threads about aggressive roosters. One woman said the same things your sharing about your bird. It seemed destined for the soup pot. One one day while she was out in the yard, she saw a hawk come down to snatch a hen. This rooster flew up and met it in midair with its claws bared and drove the thing off. No more soup pot for this brave defender of the flock! Velvet Sparrow has an extremely informative (and humorous!) site. She addresses the issue of chicken aggression. I'm sure other knowledgable posters will chime in, but I think anyone who has chickens would enjoying reading her thoughts and suggestions about maintaining flock harmony. You have a very nice site as well! Velvet Sparrow's Chicken Information Page-Behavior & Psychology jackshenhouse.com/VSChickBehavior.htm

Hi all, I have a back yard flock of currently 8 hens and three 6 month old pullets. I had to chime in with a story from just a few months ago when the pullet's mother flew to the rescue. This past summer my old 5 year old cornish game hen went broody for the second time in her life. Some of our small flock was getting old so we went to the neighbor who raises banties and got some eggs for her to sit on. By the time the eggs hatched our plymouth rock hen also thought she was the mother so they took care of the chicks. 8 with one and three with the other. One summer morning when the chicks were about 8 weeks old I was in the garden working and my son was feeding the chickens on the lawn. That was when I heard the squawk of death. I stood up and looked in the direction of the chickens. But I had to look through an enormous cherry tomato vine so all I could see was what looked like two chickens fighting. I hollered to my 8 year old and asked what was going on. He yelled back "its a hawk" That old Cornish game hen fought off that hawk and no babies were lost. But the hawk now knew our location and that we had free range babies. (they are locked up at night, too many raccoons) He kept returning and I learned to recognize the squawk of death (and several other clucks she would use with her babies). She chased it off every time. If that hawk landed on the ground, Fourteen (the hen was named by a three year old) would leave her cover and attack it. She never lost one of her babies. Now, that plymouth rock hen lost interest in her three babies at about 12 weeks and they were still small. They became lost and confused and would try to follow hens that weren't interested in them. We lost two of those babies. I assume it was the hawk although I didn't see it happen. So I guess the moral of the story is that a hen can be very defensive too. We have even had a small, docile silkie mother hen chase off cats when her babies were in danger. That batch of babies was four years ago and we didn't lose a single baby then either. Have a great day.