Depending on where you are, it can be notoriously hard to re-home roosters. And there’s a good chance that if you “get rid of them to good homes” that home may end up being a stock pot or freezer. I recently lucked out in adopting a Rooster that was literally just spared the knife, when the owner remembered I’m trying to start up a meat bird breeding group he gave him a few days reprieve on a whim and potential promise of even more dinners to come from his offspring. He’s an excellent rooster, but no one else in our area had any interest in another rooster, as they aren’t needed for eggs and most people are split 50/50 if they are even beneficial (protection/natural behavior) for the average laying flock.
Adding a new Rooster
- Thread starter J99
- Start date
Depending on where you are, it can be notoriously hard to re-home roosters. And there’s a good chance that if you “get rid of them to good homes” that home may end up being a stock pot or freezer. I recently lucked out in adopting a Rooster that was literally just spared the knife, when the owner remembered I’m trying to start up a meat bird breeding group he gave him a few days reprieve on a whim and potential promise of even more dinners to come from his offspring. He’s an excellent rooster, but no one else in our area had any interest in another rooster, as they aren’t needed for eggs and most people are split 50/50 if they are even beneficial (protection/natural behavior) for the average laying flock.
- Thread starter
- #22
Roosters? Me too! I’ve got 77 chickens at the moment, and more eggs in an incubator. I’ve got 6 Mature Roosters (1 year old), a 25 week old cockerel (my adoptee), 13 cockerels in a growout pen for freezer camp, 12 pullets from the same hatch in another pen, waiting to integrate with a Mature Rooster. My 20 mature hens (10 of which are borrowed because I have too many roosters!) are split between 3 of my Roosters 10/6/4 based on temperament. And 21 are 5 or 6 week old chicks.
3 of my Mature roosters live together in a Bachelor pen, down from 14. These three get on fine together, but it took a lot of selection to get a peaceful group. It is possible, but not easy, and some just can’t get along. I am working towards a few different breeds and breeding groups, which is why I have so many boys. And I still want to keep a few more of the 13 cockerels in the grow out pen.
Hatching=lots of males, lots of males=conflict. If I could afford it I would just purchase another 20-30 (desired breeds) point of lay pullets for peace and happiness of my boys.
You have a really nice set up there from the looks of it... but you might want to wait and see what your current boys temperament levels out at, some guys are ok together, others aren’t. And there really isn’t ever a guarantee with groups of intact males.
- Thread starter
- #24
And that’s ok too!
You just may want to avoid doing too much breeding and hatching though if that’s the case. It’s quite easy to hatch, but much harder to re-home the boys, so a hen sets on say 6 eggs assume 3-4 boys which you will need to find places for, and figure it out beforehand, to avoid issues with conflict. Remember, although they are awesome and I wouldn’t want to have a flock without them, Roosters aren’t really necessary for a flock, and can pose a lot of challenges.- Thread starter
- #26
I bout 10 “blue layer” chicks and only 3 came with the appropriate equipment for laying eggs! Murphy’s law!- Thread starter
- #28
That's a great run...but I do not think the enclosed coop part is 300 sqft.
- Thread starter
- #30
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