which rooster to keep?

[Mrs. K]

The first rotten rooster can be the hardest. Once he is gone, you really realize how much he was reducing your enjoyment of the flock. You are not a lone in feeling bad about culling him, but you do not deserve to be beaten up either.

And @ Rebbiereb - what you want is a rooster over a year old. You want one that is so nice, that his owner, just didn't have the heart to cull this rooster. A rooster that is raised up in a multi- generational flock, if you free range, one that has had some free range experience. That is the rooster you want.

Check at the feed store, or your local poultry club. Getting a rooster is pretty easy and cheap.

Do not take one that is aggressive for any reason, they don't change. Do not accept any excuse for his behavior -such as not enough hens, or wearing the wrong clothing, or too quick movements, or handling his girls... those are just excuses people come up with so as not to have to cull, and they are danger signs.

You don't want a friend, you want a bird that does not panic, but just naturally moves away from you. You want a rooster that has his head up when you approach the set up and is the first to see you.

And you want a rooster with good feet and symmetry if you are going to breed him.

Mrs K

 

[Folly's place]

@Mrs. K is so right!
I have a comment about adopting an adult from another flock; it's possible to introduce diseases, sometimes not apparent, to your birds. It's why i much prefer to get chicks and raise my own. After having a bad experience with a rotten rooster, it's much easier to raise a few cockerels, and pick a likely winner out of the group.
Look back at the behaviors your obnoxious twit started to show, so you can learn to evaluate problems before you get injured!
'Friendly' isn't best when it comes to evaluating cockerels!
Mary

 

[cherrybombuk]

This is an interesting roo dilemma. We had 20 roos, out of 30 unsexed Bantam Easter Egger's, last spring (from Crackle Hatchery). Very slowly we adopted them out.

There were many very pretty roos, all colours, but we ended up keeping only two (one was special needs). The one we kept for the hens was a GENTLE Bantam Easter Egger who would not fight the other roos. They were all mean as Hades, to him, to the hens, and to each other.

Some of them lived in a bachelor pad Eglu with run extension and the roo we ended up keeping had to go in with the hens (who were living in a ladies-only chalet and run) because the other roosters were too mean.

He would fly into my arms to try and escape them. They weren't just going to peck him into place, they were ready to kill him. So everybody else got adopted out, and we kept the gentle one and named him Neville. We never regretted it.

Unlike the other roosters, Neville lets the hens eat first and keeps watch over them, jumping up on the roost to keep a lookout, and crowing at the first sign of a hawk in the sky or a strange, potential predator, noise.

I got the idea to keep Neville, not my daughter's fave in terms of colour because I read a post about ideal rooster behaviour (which roosters make good mates for hens). Unfortunately, at one year of age, we are now rehoming him (and having no roos) because my dear SIL can't take the crowing (he works from a home office with a night schedule til dawn which is prime natural crowing time, to warn of predators and to let the world know the sun is rising).

I hope this helps you make a choice. I personally would keep the gentleman every time. A mean roo can flog the heck out of you or otherwise hurt you or a person if you get close to it.

PS. There are good blogs online about aggressive roos. Supposedly, it can be a hormonal thing (it is spring which can cause a shift), and they may always stay mean.

 

[Folly's place]

Last April my EE bantam order from Cackle arrived, with five cockerels and one pullet. Not part of my plan either! All the cockerels were nice birds too. We kept two of them until recently, and only moved them on because they loved our standard hens too much. Our best boy looks just like yours, beautiful!
We have ten Cackle EE bantams coming this week, and hope to have more nice pullets and cockerels. They are in transit right now, hoping for the best.
Mary

 

[MoffatChicken]

Curious what you decided to do and how it worked out? Im having a similar issue