All turned out to be Roosters - Need Help

[ecorso]

Of my first 6 “pullets”, I ended up with 6 roos and one hen. Lol. I have a bunch of different breeds too. When you are familiar with the breeds, it becomes obvious which are cockerels by the first month. They stand up so much straighter and the thin pointy saddle feathers start to be distinguishable from the rounded ends of hens back feathers. Saddle feathers are not the tail feathers. They hang down on either side of the butt. If all the feathers on their backs are rounded at their tips, they are pullets. If there are some skinny, pointed feathers, they will grow longer and eventually hang down just in front of the tail. Those are the saddle feathers. We have had as many as a dozen roosters at a time. As long as they were kept separate from the hens, they were content. They buddied up in twos and hung out together, free range, like best buds. When I wanted fertilized eggs, I would let one at a time have a date night with the gals once every week or two. They were outgoing and enjoyed the company of humans. They always left two roosters at a time guarding the hen run and took turns doing so. If you end up with all roosters, I would not add hens. They will be happier without competing for the girls’ attention. If you have some roosters and some hens, you may need to give them time apart or the girls’ backs may start to lose feathers form over use/breeding. From the first two pics you posted, I saw one I would call a cockerel in the second pic. I could not see enough in the latter videos.

 

[fjwallace]

I hope someone can help me here. My GF got 6 broiler baby chicks 4 months ago, just as pets. She also thought about potential benefit of getting eggs from them at that time. She never had chickens as pets before in her life. Now, the funny part is that all 6 chickens turned out to be males lol. She doesn't want to give them away as she raised them and is emotionally attached to them. She says that if she gives them away, then her dear chickens will be eaten eventually by whoever takes them.

The issue is that now, I feel that they need hens as well to live a happy social life. I was reading somewhere that there should be one rooster for 8-10 hens. That will be too much for my GF to take care of. Any suggestion on what should she do? She thinks she can accommodate maybe 2 more chickens (hens). But I think these 6 crazy guys will be too much if she brings just 2 hens. What happens if she doesn't bring any hen? Will these 6 males spend a depressed life? or what happens if she brings only 2 hens? I am attaching a pic as well. Thank you for help in advance.

Edit: Correction, they are 3 months old.

 

[fjwallace]

She definitely needs to have enough hens to accommodate that many roosters, as one or two hens will be badly mistreated by that many roosters. I speak from experience as I a battling the same type of situation. I have given roosters away, but then I didn't make pets of them so there was no trauma in my giving them away. I had 67 birds last fall and that was too much for me to take care of. 11 of those were roosters, and they terrorized my chickens even tho I had enough chickens for that many roosters. So I would say that she shouldn't even try to get hens, and I don't think that not having any hens will make the roosters' life sad. However, I am no expert. Just speaking from experience. I know that you can buy pullet run chickens and have a very good chance of getting only hens.

 

[flyingchicken]

I'm still thinking pullets as well. Either way the video of them raiding the flower pots is great! LOL

Hi thanks for checking out the pic and videos. I wish I could have the environment to raise chickens too to see them doing funny stuff...lol. I am getting mix gender identification comments here. I guess perhaps it will be more clear in a month or so?

 

[flyingchicken]

Those look like pullets to me. You should be hearing at least a couple of them trying to crow by now if they are cockerels. Hope she has nests set up for them as I'm pretty sure she'll be getting eggs soon!

Hi thanks. yes, none of the crow though. I will tell her to start building nests for them just in case they turn out to be pullets. Would you know how many nests are needed initially?

 

[Redhead Rae]

Hi thanks. yes, none of the crow though. I will tell her to start building nests for them just in case they turn out to be pullets. Would you know how many nests are needed initially?

They still look like pullets to me..... but I'm still only about 65% on that.

They will make their own nests if you don't make them for them. I would say 2 nest boxes would be good enough for them. If they are about 1ft square, that is a good size for a nest box. You can add anything round (golf balls, smooth rocks, etc) to entice them to lay in the boxes.

 

[flyingchicken]

Of my first 6 “pullets”, I ended up with 6 roos and one hen. Lol. I have a bunch of different breeds too. When you are familiar with the breeds, it becomes obvious which are cockerels by the first month. They stand up so much straighter and the thin pointy saddle feathers start to be distinguishable from the rounded ends of hens back feathers. Saddle feathers are not the tail feathers. They hang down on either side of the butt. If all the feathers on their backs are rounded at their tips, they are pullets. If there are some skinny, pointed feathers, they will grow longer and eventually hang down just in front of the tail. Those are the saddle feathers. We have had as many as a dozen roosters at a time. As long as they were kept separate from the hens, they were content. They buddied up in twos and hung out together, free range, like best buds. When I wanted fertilized eggs, I would let one at a time have a date night with the gals once every week or two. They were outgoing and enjoyed the company of humans. They always left two roosters at a time guarding the hen run and took turns doing so. If you end up with all roosters, I would not add hens. They will be happier without competing for the girls’ attention. If you have some roosters and some hens, you may need to give them time apart or the girls’ backs may start to lose feathers form over use/breeding. From the first two pics you posted, I saw one I would call a cockerel in the second pic. I could not see enough in the latter videos.

Hi thanks for sharing your experience and information! If they all turn out to be roos then I would still feel bad that they won't have any hens around. But that's just thinking from a human perspective. It will also be unfair for the hens if they suffer because of having too many roosters around like you said. I think once it is determined what these chickens are..hens or roosters, then something can be done. Your approach of keeping them separate from hens and allow them to be with hens in a systematic way is also very informative for me, so I got one more option. thanks!

 

[flyingchicken]

They still look like pullets to me..... but I'm still only about 65% on that.

They will make their own nests if you don't make them for them. I would say 2 nest boxes would be good enough for them. If they are about 1ft square, that is a good size for a nest box. You can add anything round (golf balls, smooth rocks, etc) to entice them to lay in the boxes.

Thanks again Redhead Rae! Do you think it will be easier to determine their gender now if somehow I get their individual pictures the way you wanted? or should we wait for a few more weeks?

 

[Redhead Rae]

Thanks again Redhead Rae! Do you think it will be easier to determine their gender now if somehow I get their individual pictures the way you wanted? or should we wait for a few more weeks?

We should be able to give you pretty definite answers once we get the individual pictures. Taken from the angle of the photos I showed you, if they aren't fuzzy or blurry we should be able to get a good look at the saddle and hackle feathers, which should be coming in on birds 14-15 weeks.

 

[flyingchicken]

She definitely needs to have enough hens to accommodate that many roosters, as one or two hens will be badly mistreated by that many roosters. I speak from experience as I a battling the same type of situation. I have given roosters away, but then I didn't make pets of them so there was no trauma in my giving them away. I had 67 birds last fall and that was too much for me to take care of. 11 of those were roosters, and they terrorized my chickens even tho I had enough chickens for that many roosters. So I would say that she shouldn't even try to get hens, and I don't think that not having any hens will make the roosters' life sad. However, I am no expert. Just speaking from experience. I know that you can buy pullet run chickens and have a very good chance of getting only hens.

Hi thanks for sharing your experience fjwallace! Yeah, many other people are also saying here that having no hens won't make their life sad...so that gives some relief if that's the case. I think she should have bought just 2-3 baby chicks and then the things would have been more manageable I guess....