Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Cynthia12]

A de-crowed rooster would not be at his best as a rooster. Much of what makes a rooster a rooster is his voice. Sure, he'd still have his testes and be able to mate, but the same thing could indeed be accomplished by having a good arrangement with a breeder and buying fertile eggs. Probably cost less as well. The rooster uses his voice as one of his primary tools in fulfilling his role in the flock.
I wouldn't personally mess with keeping a rooster at all under a de-crowed condition.

I like this, the rooster uses his voice as one of his primary tools in fulfilling his role in a flock. Makes sense to me. Just funny how things that you would think you should know, you don't! Haven't had the experience with them though, so am learning something new here. Thanks you guys! Or gals.
Yes, I've bought the shipped eggs, and, I have someone in mind for a mate for one of my girls. Just waiting on that..crow. Not sure they are really making eggs fertile when they are doing ... their thing..but not crowing? See, I don't know roosters at all. This little cockeral has started to mate, but not crow yet. I did tell the gal to check the eggs to see if they looked fertile. She hasn't done that before, so isn't sure. I need to go over there and see for myself. I can tell that much at least.

 

[delisha]

I think you should put them all up ..it will be educational to pop a few up at a time.

My opinion has no value, but let me have a stab at it to see how bad I am at looking at a bird.

I love the shine in your red..I do not like the tail

I like some of the patterns in your Bars, but I do not see consistancy. I think they need more time for deeper chest. They look like great size at this age and will grow much more, fill out more. They look like they have good width at this age. I think time will put some things to rights and perhaps a molt out will improve patterns and boldness in color.

 

[Beekissed]

And I can't tell you exactly why but each and every rooster in these pics would be a cull in my flock. My feel for birds is more instinctual than based on any real science, I'm sure, but I just don't feel I'd pick any one of these guys for a true breeding program. Their tail set is all off, the coloring is off, the chest is off, the stance~to me~is off....the overall balance on these birds seems wrong or something but I can't put my finger on the reasons...maybe the ones I mentioned.

The only thing I like at all is the length of the back/body on the BR.

Now, I'm no breeder, so don't take anything I say as meaningful or important as I'm just telling you what I do. I repeat, I am not a breeder, just a backyard utility person.

 

[Fred's Hens]

And I can't tell you exactly why but each and every rooster in these pics would be a cull in my flock. My feel for birds is more instinctual than based on any real science, I'm sure, but I just don't feel I'd pick any one of these guys for a true breeding program. Their tail set is all off, the coloring is off, the chest is off, the stance~to me~is off....the overall balance on these birds seems wrong or something but I can't put my finger on the reasons...maybe the ones I mentioned.

The only thing I like at all is the length of the back/body on the BR.

Now, I'm no breeder, so don't take anything I say as meaningful or important as I'm just telling you what I do. I repeat, I am not a breeder, just a backyard utility person.

You're doing just fine.

 

[IvyMaeWilliams]

Hmm, well, I was thinking of starting this spring, February or so (I'm in Florida, so there's this sort of week or 10 days of spring weather about then, ha ha). I did read on another forum that you shouldn't use pullet eggs for incubating, so maybe that's a no-no, I don't know.
I will definitely put up pics of the remainder that don't have crooked toes, but if this were you or Bee, would you obtain better birds in general and start there, maybe hatching eggs or chicks?

 

[Pozees]

I have never had a BR roo, so I have no idea how one should look at 19 weeks of age. For that matter I don't know a whole lot about how a fully mature BR roo should look, but I assume they would be more filled in - will the line from chin to belly deepen as they mature, or is this about where they'll be at for life? I ask because to me they appear shallow right now.

IvyMae, do you think the pics are a reasonable representation of their stance in the yard? Have you been able to see which are more inclined to alert for danger?

 

[Fred's Hens]

By not using pullet eggs, most people merely mean not the starter pullet eggs. Wait until they've reached a standard, large size egg carton. Don't need to be Xtra-Large or Jumbo.

Well, if you're gonna start in February, you're down to about a month before penning up. I'd like to see a couple more choices on the cockerels, but they're gonna have to man up quick if they're gonna breed for you next month.

Time to look at a couple of your best pullets too.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Here's Jeremy Whoppel's bird that he showed recently. Our birds came from Jeremy through Kathy, (I think?). We've got some of this bird's "cousins" over here, LOL, and yup, this is what they look like at roughly 10-12 months.

 

[Beekissed]

I've kept bad looking roos around temporarily until I found something I liked more but all their offspring were culls within the first year, so that is something only you can find out. I think it helps to have a few bad roosters so that you can see how their progeny performs before moving it up a notch to something more desirable~if that makes any sense.

I think it drives home the reasons for culling the worst and keeping the rest. When dealing with hatchery mutts it's all a crap shoot anyway and you may go through a few before you find one that puts out hens that are good for what you are wanting.

Here's a pic of a mutt RIR someone gave me that was a great little rooster for all things except good genetics but I really liked his manner and personality and so kept him around until I got a fit replacement. His offspring were all culls, though, which I sort of expected. Of course, I had plenty of culls in the flock that year as you can see by the really poor specimen of BO standing there. Hatchery stock is all a gamble and you must spin the wheel often to get a win now and again.

 

[IvyMaeWilliams]

The first BR is pretty alert, and so is one of the red boys whose pic I didn't take because even to my untrained eye I can tell his body isn't the right shape.
I feel like they will fill out a bit more, but nothing like those Fred posted down below--wow!