5 Cockerels...culled down to 2...first experience

[Acre4Me]

We've just culled our male chickens down to 2. We had 5 due to straight runs, in a flock with 12 females. All are 17 weeks old.

2 Dark Brown Leghorns - culled due to aggressive behavior towards the entire flock. They exhibited good protective behavior, but were massive jerks overall to all flock members, and were shunning some of the flock to the point those 4 shunned birds were nearly always in the coop and I needed to provide them water and food in the coop (despite 2 locations in the run for food and water). One had been somewhat aggressive to us, and we figured we didn't need to test out whether he would get more or less aggressive.

1 EE male: ordered EE sexed females, so we never wanted this one in the flock. In addition, this one exhibited ZERO protective behavior up to this point.

We are keeping:

1 Black Australorp - I ordered this sexed male, so this one was wanted. Seem to be attentive, but not aggressive. Hopefully this remains true.

1 Black Jersey Giant - he is huge and very docile. Interestingly, this was the only bird to not get picked on by the DBLs above (that we culled)...would literally stand his height, which was almost 2x the size of the DBL, and stare him down...it was interesting to watch. He also has a deep bass crow, which is interesting to hear.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Your leghorns just got their hormones faster than the slower maturing breeds... making them seem like the giant jerks of the bunch.

What is your reason for keeping a boy? That may help decide which one you wanna keep.

What they are exhibiting at THIS point is NOT protective behavior... that will come later, in my experience.

 

[Folly's place]

So far, so good. It's early to be sure about behavior, and two cock birds will be too many in this flock, but it's a good start.
Either bird should be possible to rehome, as long as no human aggression appears, so getting down to one of them should be possible when necessary. Or, more pullets?
All things being equal, which bird will fit best with your future breeding plans? Also, really large JGs often can't manage roosting high up, which may be a problem, depending on your coop and roosts.
Pictures! It's fun to see pictures!
Mary

 

[Acre4Me]

Your leghorns just got their hormones faster than the slower maturing breeds... making them seem like the giant jerks of the bunch.

What is your reason for keeping a boy? That may help decide which one you wanna keep.

What they are exhibiting at THIS point is NOT protective behavior... that will come later, in my experience.

We are keeping a boy to get fertile eggs for possible future hatching, and to have the experience of having a male, and possibly to show for the 4-H kid.

One Leghorn male did seem to exhibit basic protective behavior - with coming towards the fence (when we were on other side) and being very attentive to our every move while making various clucking noises, also found him actually "marching" it seemed, inside and outside of coop on a few occasions when everyone was in the coop and/or roosting. But that is where it ended...he was first to food or treats and would run the rest off, picking fights all the time, even with pullets just walking past, and would seek out various flock mates to fight with (male or female).

 

[Acre4Me]

So far, so good. It's early to be sure about behavior, and two cock birds will be too many in this flock, but it's a good start.
Either bird should be possible to rehome, as long as no human aggression appears, so getting down to one of them should be possible when necessary. Or, more pullets?
All things being equal, which bird will fit best with your future breeding plans? Also, really large JGs often can't manage roosting high up, which may be a problem, depending on your coop and roosts.
Pictures! It's fun to see pictures!
Mary

We have 12 pullets, and 2 males now. I agree that I either need to add more birds (and I think I might), or get rid of 1 male. The BJG is pretty big and I don't expect him to be a very effective mating male - maybe with the BA or one other BJG female - as these are the largest in the flock. I wanted the BA male, and hoping he develops into a good flock leader. The BJG is fairly docile, but also seems to be a slower maturing bird (along with being very large). My 11yo wants to get some blue egg layers, and has asked for cream legbars. I think, that Aracaunas also produce blue...so I'll have to look into that. EE's not laying yet, so not sure what they'll produce, but hatchery said that they set pink/green eggs, so figuring blue is out of the running for our current EEs. If I add more birds, it will be no more than 6 birds, likely 2-4.

 

[Folly's place]

JGs are meant to grow slowly to very large sizes, so slow growth is normal for them. My few hatchery JGs tended to vary a lot in size, and I didn't care, didn't keep a cockerel, and was very happy with the two smallest hens that I kept. they were the only ones who could fly to the four foot high roosts, matured at about seven or eight pounds apiece (midgets!) and lived to ten years of age.
Probably your Australorp fits the program better, but either will be nice!
I don't think that the Leghorn cockerel who spent time following you was being good; he should have been avoiding you and being attentive to his flockmates instead!
Mary

 

[bobbi-j]

JGs are meant to grow slowly to very large sizes, so slow growth is normal for them. My few hatchery JGs tended to vary a lot in size, and I didn't care, didn't keep a cockerel, and was very happy with the two smallest hens that I kept. they were the only ones who could fly to the four foot high roosts, matured at about seven or eight pounds apiece (midgets!) and lived to ten years of age.
Probably your Australorp fits the program better, but either will be nice!
I don't think that the Leghorn cockerel who spent time following you was being good; he should have been avoiding you and being attentive to his flockmates instead!
Mary

Agreed.