Barred Rocks & Reds: Boys or girls??

[lauranickerson]

You don't choose the best rooster until they are almost 11 months of age. With hatchery stock, you can choose a wee bit earlier as they mature much faster.

The best rooster is one who is shapely, long bodied, full breasted and most of all is not human aggressive. The problem with many roosters from hatchery stock is the way hatcheries flock breed. The put 100 roosters in a pen with 1000 hens and collect eggs. That's the way they breed. The problem is that the most aggressive roosters "win" the breeding battles and thus their DNA gets passed on to the next generation when the hatcheries do this all over again, and again.

Hope that makes sense.

Yeah that makes sense. I realize I still have to wait a while, but the mean ones are probably going into the freezer a little sooner than 11 mo., because they were already taking themselves out of the running for being mean, plus I don't feel like feeding them for that long when they aren't sticking around anyways. Haha.

I'm just torn between whether to keep a BR or a Red (if they are even called BR...

). I want good laying chicks in the future, and it wouldn't hurt for them to be pretty, too.

Maybe having so many roosters will justify my wanting to order more layers..where I can actually choose the sex. haha.

 

[randys]

I have 2 BR pullets and 2 RIR pullets 9 weeks old, no red combs and no red wattles.

 

[rookiefarmers]

They are not pure bred barred rocks if they are black sex links. If it were me and I planned to breed them at all I would not pick a sex link. Good luck!