What Would You Pay For A Nice Cochin Roo?

Hey all,

To cut a very long story short, I bought eleven straight run chicks back in December. They grew up in the house, moved outside, and live with a sweet Silkie roo who adopted them and raised them in my bedroom.
Seven of these chicks turned out to be roos, and it's not at all fair for the hens to have that many roos. All the roos are super sweet and get along great, most are crowing, and all are VERY large.
These are giant cochins, and I do not and WILL NOT sell for meat. Period. These are my babies, and I am only selling for the good of my hens. So, I am about to post two of my roos up for sale. I am keeping three (Not all will live with the hens, I have other hens that they'll move in with) and two others I'm holding out a very slight strand of hope for.
So, how much would you pay for one of these boys? I'm wondering a fair price. Again, these are just pets or breeders. They are VERY sweet boys, and super tame. They are not hatchery chicks, they came from a breeder.
All that being said, I'm just wondering what they're worth. I don't wanna sell them super cheep, but don't wanna charge way too much just because they're worth way more to me.
On a happier note, one of my four Cochin hens did an egg squat today!!!
Here's a pic of the two boys, one has pretty gold hackles

Oh, and they've been free ranging ever since they were old enough to. They're just up today cause it's raining
They're super healthy, and have been medicated for everything :-D

It's going to depend on your local market. In many places you can't give them away. To complicate matters this time of year there are many, many others like you trying to rehome their cockerels, not wanting them to be butchered. Try listing them for $10 and see how it goes. You may have to consider building a bachelor pad to keep them in while waiting for suitable buyers.

Cochins are pretty hard to find around here, and I usually see cockerels listed for around 20 bucks, with no info on their past or medication. I would pay that much if I wanted a roo, but I'm not sure about anyone else :-/

If you can get $20 you're doing well. I breed Faverolles (not hatchery) - good ones are rare anywhere - and I would be lucky to get even $5. I don't bother to try to sell them.

What are you medicating them for?

I medicate for Cocci, respiratory diseases, worms, and mites.
I sold a mean rooster for $20 to a guy who wanted to work on taming him, so figured I could get more for the friendly boys. Chickens are going for a lot around here, there's not many breeders.

Why for respiratory illnesses?

You're lucky. I end up having to process pullets as well as cockerels each year.

I medicate for respiratory illness because I have had several get respiratory problems from a type of mushroom that grows around here. At least, that's what my research saidit was. Since I started medicating I've not had any problems
I raise Cochins, Polish, Silkies, and Seramas, and sell chicks for decent prices with no problem. Roos are always harder thought, lol

Sounds like you know your local market much better than we do, so price however you feel led. Here, I probably literally could not give them away.

donrae said:

Here, I probably literally could not give them away.

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Stinks, doesn't it?

I had bantam blue Faverolles for while. The number of breeders with them can be counted on one hand. Yet I couldn't give away the pullets let alone the cockerels. I ended up passing them on to someone else who would try to maintain the color so it wouldn't become extinct.

Now I only have LF salmons. No one wants cockerels, so they all go to the freezer. People only want the pullets if they can get them cheap (as in $5). So now they also go to the freezer too. It really is too bad. While not all of the birds I hatch are as nice as my breeders (I had a poultry judge drooling over this hen), they would have made good backyard layers.