Rooster Chat

[cabinchicky]

chickyfuzz is the Speckled Sussex roo as curious as the hens? I have 3 SS hens and they stick their beaks into every thing. We go out to coop or run and they are right there doing the What are ya doing? Hey do you have treats?

 

[Folly's place]

I love my SS hens, and have had mixed results with the boys over the years. Of six I've wanted to keep, three were very nice, and three were human aggressive jerks. They were all hatchery birds, from three different sources, so no SQ bred individuals. All beautiful! Mary

 

[MaraC]

I am quite new to chickens and in the beginning of November I had purchased 15, 12 week old pullets. I think there are about 4 or 5 young roosters. 1 of the 15 was lost to a hawk so there are maybe 9 or 10 hens with the4 maybe 5 roosters(3 buff orpingtons and 2 barred rocks). The rest are 2 wyandottes, 1 speckled Sussex, 1 rode island red and 5 Easter eggers. I suppose I should rehome some of them. What do you think?

 

[wamtazlady]

I am quite new to chickens and in the beginning of November I had purchased 15, 12 week old pullets. I think there are about 4 or 5 young roosters. 1 of the 15 was lost to a hawk so there are maybe 9 or 10 hens with the4 maybe 5 roosters(3 buff orpingtons and 2 barred rocks). The rest are 2 wyandottes, 1 speckled Sussex, 1 rode island red and 5 Easter eggers. I suppose I should rehome some of them. What do you think?

I'm a bit confused. Did you buy sexed pullets or straight run chicks? Pullets have been vent sexed as day old chicks. The vent sexing is normally about 90% accurate.

Maybe we are having some trouble with terminology. Pullets are girls and cockerels are boys under a year old. Once they are a year old they become hens and roosters.

If you do have that many cockerels then you probably should start looking for homes for some of them. The suggested ratio is 10 pullets to every cockerel. Too many cockerels for so few pullets will lead to stress in your coop. The girls will be overused and lose feathers on the backs. You might not get the number of eggs you should get. Stressed pullets and hens do not lay well.

Some people do have a higher ratio than suggested. I have 2 cockerels with my 14 pullets. It's worked out well with no over use of the pullets and no fighting between the cockerels. One of the cockerels is from a really laid back breed so that might help. I did rehome a 3rd cockerel when they were 6 months old.

 

[MaraC]

I absolutely asked for 12 week old pullets, they did know that we were new to chickens. we had also been over charged by $200 for the 15 of them and I had to have them refund me the money. But about a week or so ago we started to wonder if we had a rooster or 2 or young cockerel. (not good with terms) However today there are 2 that have now found there voices and another 2 possibly 3 that also look like they will turn out to be roosters as well. the farm where I had purchased them I am sure will not want to hear about it, 5 out of 15 birds is a big mistake on top of charging me upwards of 30 a bird.

It is quite sad as they are very friendly and I have no idea how to go about trying to find new homes for them. I am going to try to keep 1 but it sounds like keeping anymore than that would not be a good idea. Do people place ads in the news paper or is there a forum for that?

 

[wamtazlady]

Craigslist seems to be the best way to dispose of unwanted roosters and cockerels. Just don't ask too many questions about what they plan on doing with the birds unless you are okay with knowing they might become chicken soup. If you are squeamish about those things you could set up a separate coop and pen as a bachelor pad.

I ended up with 2 cockerels from my straight run birds that I did not want. After doing some reading and with my boy friend's help I did my first session of processing them for consumption. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be and we had some wonderful chicken soup. The cockerel I kept turned into a person attacking monster and had to be put down several months later. The lesson I learned is to not keep the prettiest one. Keep the one with the best personality.

 

[wamtazlady]

I just thought of something else. You paid top dollar for those pullets you wanted. You should be able to take those cockerels back to where you purchased them and have them replaced with pullets. At thirty dollars a bird you should get exactly what you paid for.

 

[MaraC]

I know.... Thanks for giving me so much info. 2 will go to my brothers friend who will process them. I'll wait to be sure about the others. I want to try to find an honest person in the area to get pullets from. I had to drive 1 1/2 hour just to get these and I don't want to take a chance again.

 

[Outpost JWB]

I'd much rather find my rooster is going to be chicken soup than to become a fighting rooster. Went one time to a chicken swap and seen men picking out roosters. They loaded 6 roosters in their van. Laughing the whole time. Only took me a second to realize what the demise of those roosters would be. Sad.

On the question of how many? I have over 10, but less than 15......pretty sure. We have over 100 chickens in all though.

 

[MaraC]

I had purchased 15 and so far there are 6 roosters. I did hear about what you mentioned and decided I would rather that not be the way they should go. In fact yesterday someone said we could put them in the auction at the poultry congress. They say all the birds go , but I the ones I saw were roosters and I figure the same thing would probably happen.