2/6 chicks that I bought are roosters. What now?

[cityturncountry]

I got my first chicks on March 24th. 3 barred rocks and 3 buff Orpington. Well 2 of the buff Orpington look like they already have wattles. I bought them all as pullets so you can imagine my shock, I was expecting 1 because of the accuracy rate but not 2! How do I handle this? Can 2 roosters grow up together and be fine or will I have some issues between them? I don't want to give them away because I've grown to love them all but I've read horror stories of flocks with more than one rooster.

 

[the1913trio]

I would first post some pics of the possible roos in question on this site and get other people's opinions as to whether or not they think these two are probably cockerels. Are they acting "rooster-like" too?

Generally I hear that 8 to 12 hens per rooster is typically needed so that the girls don't get raped a bit excessively everyday and beat up from over mating, and to also keep the boys from going after each other pretty ruthlessly for the ladies. I understand how you feel attached to these guys being that they are your first set of chicks and you saw them as little bitty babies and raised them up. We had an accidental roo named "Buffy", and despite our wishes did in fact become a rooster, a pain in the butt, he crowed, and we ate him for dinner.

Lots of people will take excess cockerels and cull them either when they are still young so they stop taking up space and causing trouble, or raise them till they are big enough to eat. It is hard to do the first time, but when it is over you realize it wasn't so bad...because these cute little balls of fluff grow into noisy, crowing, aggressive, and not-so-friendly roosters progressively as their hormones kick in. It is just the way it is. Other folks will give them away on craigslist, but being that one roo is needed for 8-12 hens when you do the math it means that probably the CL person is going to be cooking rooster for dinner when they get the bird.

Look into either "taking care" of one of the roos yourself, or finding another place for them. Also know that when a rooster is over-harassing the ladies the girls typically lay fewer eggs or not many at all due to the stress of the constant fighting and sexcapades. It is one of those not-so-fun things about chicken keeping having to deal with excess or unwanted cockerels. But being that most of us aren't vegetarians I always remember that all those pounds of Tyson chicken bought at the store were once cute little fluff balls too, and it is part of the whole cycle of keeping chickens/livestock.

 

[cityturncountry]

This app won't let me upload any photos but since my original post I an even more certain that they are roos. Their combs are undeniable. Which makes me sad because now I will have to get rid of them. Keeping one rooster won't bother me because I have kids that I get up at the crack of dawn for and my husband wakes up extremely early for work as well. I'm getting anothe dozen chicks here as soon as they hatch, very excited for that bunch. So all in all I'll have about 14 hens (expecting 1-2 eggs not being chicks) and 1 rooster. There will be about a 7-8 week age difference so I'm hoping that doesn't put a hurdle into my plans. We got them all into their coop for the first time tonight.