5 Roosters, who has to go?

[Blue Raptor]

We got 8 chicks which were our very first group of chickens. However we ended up with 5 roosters and are struggling with who to get rid of. Our daughter gets very emotional when we discuss needing to remove some of the roosters! Oh, I will not kill any of them myself nor have it done for me and have them returned to eat. I just can't do it!

Welcome to BYC!!

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Welcome to the coop! I use the Forums and Articles tabs at the top of the page to do research. You can get lost for hours. It's nice to know you are minutes away from getting help with questions and emergencies!

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. Good luck in resolving your rooster problem.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[chixluv]

We got 8 chicks which were our very first group of chickens. However we ended up with 5 roosters and are struggling with who to get rid of. Our daughter gets very emotional when we discuss needing to remove some of the roosters! Oh, I will not kill any of them myself nor have it done for me and have them returned to eat. I just can't do it!

Welcome! Once you have time to observe the temperament of the roosters for awhile it will become clear which one to keep. Even keeping one will necessitate the addition of more hens to avoid over mating of the three you have. Unless you can house and free range them separately, you may need to have a gentle discussion with your daughter regarding the need to remove some of them.

At one point in our chicken journey we incubated six eggs and the only three that hatched were all Cuckoo Marans cockerels. We already had eight hens. We could not allow them to free range together once the roosters got older because they were too rambunctious and would harass the girls to a point that they would just go back into the run and stay (the roosters stayed in a smaller separate coop). We gave one of the three to some friends who keep chickens, and would then try to alternate days with the two remaining ones and let one rooster out at a time to determine which one we wanted to keep because we figured that letting them out together was causing the aggression due to competition. But both were so aggressive that the girls still made a beeline for their run whenever only one was out. So, we didn't want to give them away to perpetrate their aggression on someone else's girls, nor were we willing to allow either one to continue to stress our girls. Therefore, we came to the difficult decision to process them, which was our first experience into that realm. We eventually got a Cream Crested Legbar at about the age of 2.5 months and he recently started mating and is showing himself a gentleman and the ladies can free range in relative peace.

I wish you well on your deliberations, I know it is not easy.

 

[007Sean]

Howdy, and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!