Breeding for PERSONALITY. AKA Hello SWEET ROO!

[chickengeorgeto]

... Picking the most docile animals is very different than just killing the ones that are overly aggressive - it's much more selective.

Call it what you will but culling or killing the overly aggressive rooster is no different from not breeding him. In either case that animals DNA is lost forever to the future population, its all semantics.

 

[Free Feather]

ChickenGeorge, I thought so. I did not know that then.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I have always been told a hen will stay fertile for around 2 weeks after mating, or more. I know for sure on 2 weeks because I have set eggs from hens that were removed from a roo for 2 weeks, so I would assume they can be fertile as long as 30 as stated before.

 

[MamaKitty913]

First of all, Hi from a fellow rat-lover!
Second, yes your plan is feasible. Many chicken owners, including myself have 'bacholer pens' for boys preparing for butcher. There is normally very little aggresion as long as females are elsewhere.
As you stated this can be costly (for pen materials) time consuming, and takes a lot of space.
There are other ways to deal with excess/aggressive roos and to fatten them quickly, but not everyone has the tools to make the other options feasible.
Bachelor pens are one of the most common and probably easiest way to deal with roosters.

Hi I just found this thread and wanted to add my experience and share cost. I have a "'bacholer pen"' Cost $125.00 I've held my potential soup/breeder boys in here along with my Guineas. The WFBS were the "oldest" and most established but I always disliked the "mean gene" so we butchered them out very scrawny for 8 months didn't feed 3 people. What I've noticed from my Cukoo Maran was a watchfulness, he was supposed to be a girl and I spay and neuter everything after all,

. He was brooded right near us handled multiple times a day, but "she" was the bird who told everyone else it was time for bed, with a particular call. One of the other birds would peep, he'd peck it fluff his feathers settle on the roost and go to sleep, all was quiet. He's still here but doesnt behave well when my grandson swings sticks and yells aroud his girls. His hackles go up he stands tall and his chest goes out and he stands in front of the girls. When it's time for bed he circles the girls in his "second in comand" Black bird (Cochin) is allowed to be with the girls and infact allows Cuckoo to stand gaurd while the girls take turns laying eggs!
He's about 1 week old here

and at 7 months. Picture of the white face black spanish day before they were harvested.
A picture of the second in command roosters with a few of our hens, Buffy had just laid in the back porch again Cuckoo (not shown was in back porch following Buffy). Black bird and Cuckoo have had flock mates taken by coons and an owl they both have improved watching from the sky and don't take the girls by the pond where the flockmates were taken. Black Bird, a hatchery Cochin has never ever been aggressive but doesn't care to be touched. Avoids you like the Matrix! But he's dumb he's no leader so they get along great! What prompted the grow out pen was the WFBS I put them in with the Guineas and what do you know they were bombed by Guineas when they tried to fight, they couldn't fight with Cuckoo or Black Bird, problem solved. Next batch as the males developed "boy traits" about 12 to 14 weeks into the Kennel leaving the nicer calmer birds in another area. EVERY ONE fights a bit then it's over. Little tiffs here and there but no hens less bad behavior from the boys. Also time of year as well as age can affect how "bad" a boy is being. But as they grow up a bit - less like bratty teenagers the Austrolourps, EE, Andalusians, and a couple of Welsummer boys will get a chance to have their own girls.
My point is that you can seperate the boys fairly in-expensively to help assess who I want for soup and prevent fights. But we shouldn't expect more from a chicken especially male chickens than any good chicken can do. They are supposed to defend the flock, make babies, prevent fights amoung the birds they are "in charge" of if Cuckoo got out of hand we stepped up to him told him "NO' and convinced him that we were SAFE bearing food for him and the girls, we let him puff up and laughed him off. Continue trying to convince my GS not to yell and swing sticks where the chickens are and Cuckoo continues to question our judement in this matter...

Meanwhile I grow out the roosters who will make good future generations of meat birds and those who will be Mean Rooster Stew tomorrow.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

@MamaKitty913
You have a good set-up, and beautiful birds!
So you are breeding for a sustainable meat flock?
It sounds like your Cukoo Maran was a good roo. Did you breed him, if so what was the next generation like, as far as personality?

This looks like parts of my property as we work around the chickens

 

[TheChickenQueen]

I just read though this thread.

And I had a lovely young mixed Maran Rooster (Black Copper x Black Tailed Buff is my guess) and two others. He was lovely, he understood that I was the boss, his ladies were mine before they could be his, and I was the bringer of food, water, and yummy scraps. He and the others were around me from day one, when there were issues with me being boss they were quickly settled. But then my little brother (who owned two of the pullets) tried to get his favorite pullet and made the pullets all freak out, the Roo took charge and attacked. Then my brothers were always causing problems(and they were kinda strangers too) they started attacking everyone besides me

I think they thought that they were protecting the girls. But it was disappointing. I wounder if my brother hadn't started anything if they still would have been nice and calm to everyone. Unfortunately I lost him, one of the other roos, and all but one of the pullets to a dog attack. They looked like they had died protecting they're girls. I have some eggs from them in the incubator due to hatch on Christmas, I hope I get some nice boys and pretty pullets out of him </3

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

@Honey Bee

Good luck on you Christmas Hatch. Maybe you'll get another good roo out of them!

Funny how people want to see your flock and they don't know how to behave around chickens LOL! Kids especially, they must look very different to a rooster and move so fast that they seem much more threatening.

I remind my children constantly how big they seem to most animals. My three year old will always tell me how he "will move nicely" around the cat or the chickens!

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Thanks!

People loved to see my birds. But little brothers unsupervised with sticks is never good.

Strangely out of the 8 roosters I have had over the course of time only one turned aggressive. And he was young when he started being mean.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Call it what you will but culling or killing the overly aggressive rooster is no different from not breeding him. In either case that animals DNA is lost forever to the future population, its all semantics.

You're missing what I'm saying.

Picking the least aggressive of a bunch of roosters is different than just getting rid of the most aggressive - the difference is in how you treat the middle. If you're just getting rid of the most aggressive roosters, you're keeping the ones that are right below that threshold in the gene pool. If you cull down to the least aggressive rooster, you're getting rid of those middle birds. It's a much more significant selective pressure.

 

[AmericanMom]

@MamaKitty913
You have a good set-up, and beautiful birds!
So you are breeding for a sustainable meat flock?
It sounds like your Cukoo Maran was a good roo. Did you breed him, if so what was the next generation like, as far as personality?

This looks like parts of my property as we work around the chickens

I was just going to say the same.. We always seem to have a project or two going with chickens running to and fro... Several years ago we poured a slab of concrete in front of the shop and the next morning went out to see chicken prints all through it... That flock is no longer with us, replaced four years ago but it always brings a smile knowing they are always where you don't need them to be