3 choices of roo... which to pick??

[megg902]

I have 14 pullets and what looks to be 3 possible roo's. 1 white leghorn, 1 barred rock and 1 RIR. Any advice on which will make the best combination? My pullets are a mixed age group of 1 leghorn, 1 campine, the rest are barred rocks and rir's. Im only wanting to keep 2 of the 3 roos..... so who needs to go??

My avatar is a pic of my br cockerel. He is pretty sweet so far. The leghorn is a good 2-3 weeks older and is very stand-offish. No aggression as of yet though. And the little rir is the same age as the br but he gets picked on pretty heavy by everyone.

I am perfectly fine with a stand-offish roo, im not interested in a lap rooster. Just want the best boy to take care of my girls and not give me too hard of a time. Any advice would be great!!


Also I accidently posted this in a different section by accident so if someone could tell me how to delete that one I would be more than happy to take it down.

 

[equinelyn]

Just use the "report" button in the lower right hand corner of your post and the moderator will delete a mistake post. I did the same thing lol

 

[kemclaughlin]

I would wait until they are a little older and decide who to keep based on temperament.

 

[megg902]

About how old until you can get a good idea on the temperament? And will i need to seperate them before I can truely tell thier temperament, or will the need to seperate them come around the same time as their personalities are showing?

Just trying to decide if i should go ahead and setup another run and coop for the three boys until i pick who will be staying. Or if they can all make it together. And when i say "they" i mean my whole group of pullets and cockerels.

 

[carrlr]

My initial flock were straight runs and as you could guess the majority were roos. We ended up keeping three that got along just fine. Presumably because they were raised as chicks together.

 

[megg902]

Quote:
thanks so much for that! felt kinda silly reporting myself though, lol.

 

[MommaOrp]

Ok i reared 4 roo's together (1 JG, 2 Black orps and a welsummer) they all squabbled until they'd sorted out the pecking order and then that was that, breeding season this year posed a few more squabbles but then they settled back down again and got along just fine. The welsummer roo got alpha position and then got human aggressive! He is 10 months now and the aggression started in jan this year when he was 5 months, before then he was the sweetest guy. I'd say keep the barred rock and RIR for best combo's but then you might find their personality's change when they reach that sort of age so it's all swings and roundabouts really!

 

[colebarnhart]

Keep the BR and RIR

 

[megg902]

Ok i reared 4 roo's together (1 JG, 2 Black orps and a welsummer) they all squabbled until they'd sorted out the pecking order and then that was that, breeding season this year posed a few more squabbles but then they settled back down again and got along just fine. The welsummer roo got alpha position and then got human aggressive! He is 10 months now and the aggression started in jan this year when he was 5 months, before then he was the sweetest guy. I'd say keep the barred rock and RIR for best combo's but then you might find their personality's change when they reach that sort of age so it's all swings and roundabouts really!

How many hens did you have with them? I just assumed 3 roos to 14 hens was too many?​

 

[speckledhen]

My preference is always for the Barred Rock, second would be the RIR. I don't care for Leghorns at all, not fond of white birds, generally. Once they're close to mating age, from 18-20 weeks old, their personalities should begin to show--hormones make the true temperament show more. A good tempered RIR would win over a human-aggressive BR, but all males equal in that regard, I love a good BR boy.


With RIR male over BR female, the chicks are sexable at hatch (they'd be black sex links). With a BR rooster, all chicks are barred to some degree and not sexable at hatch, unless the chicks are pure BR. Hope this helps. With that many hens, you really only need one rooster.