Considering keeping our cockerel... not plan A

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

Hi, new to this cockerel thing. I hatched my own chicks and currently have 12, some are showing signs of being cockerels but they are only 10 weeks so I am not sure how to tell. They all seem to be getting on very well at the moment, are you saying that I will know for certain when they are 4-6 months ? I want to keep one, my neighbour wants one and I would like to rehome the others if I can because I'm a softy. Any help with how to sex them would be helpful and at what age I am likely to start getting problems. Thanks

I can only speak from my limited experience. We always knew that our Henry might be a roo because he just didn't look or act like the rest of our flock. Time only confirmed it. At 7-8 weeks, he would sit by himself and just watch the girls. At approx 10 1/2 weeks, he crowed.. a weak crow, but it only got stronger. I didn't start seeing issues until he started mounting the girls at about 16 weeks, that made me question if we were meant to keep him or not.

 

[aart]

Hi, new to this cockerel thing. I hatched my own chicks and currently have 12, some are showing signs of being cockerels but they are only 10 weeks so I am not sure how to tell. They all seem to be getting on very well at the moment, are you saying that I will know for certain when they are 4-6 months ? I want to keep one, my neighbour wants one and I would like to rehome the others if I can because I'm a softy. Any help with how to sex them would be helpful and at what age I am likely to start getting problems. Thanks

Welcome to BYC!

Post pics on "What breed or gender is this?" forum.
At 10 weeks, we can probably tell.

Yeppers, right here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/what-breed-or-gender-is-this.15/create-thread

 

[Folly's place]

Keep them longer, so you can pick out any obvious human aggressive or generally aggressive little guys, as well as the ones that appeal to you the most. Don't be in a hurry! This fall is a good time to make (semi) final decisions. I've got ten or twelve cockerels right now, two and three months old, and plan to sort them out a bit later. Mary

 

[bobbieschicks]

My best most kind roo ever was a Partridge Silkie. He was good with the ladies and good at taking care of the flock. He ruled over a much larger White Leghorn rooster without an issue. I regret having processed him too quickly. I still wish I had kept him instead of trying for a "hen only" flock.

Presently I have another White Leghorn rooster who manages the flock fairly well, he is good with the ladies (doesn't wear them or their back feathers down), and has a good respect for me and my family. He does have competition with a hen who, after laying about a month, decided to crow and act like a rooster. (He previously fought his brother over control of the flock and the brother died overnight of apparent blood loss). So the hen and he get into brief squabbles, but nothing too bad because she's still a "she" and he knows the difference.

We've had many roosters since starting our flock in 2011. Our very first rooster was one of five brothers and a sister we hatched. We kept the pullet and only one of the cockerels. At first it seemed like a good idea until one day my special needs son (who was the size of a five year old) was walking in the backyard and the rooster rushed at him and attacked him. Thankfully I was there to intervene. That same rooster had previously attacked a soccer ball my older son was kicking around. We had laughed at the soccer ball attack. But in hindsight I could see how it was a warning of danger to come. He was processed.

Processing them never gets easy for me but I'd rather we eat the meat then give away the rooster. I've sold roosters to people who wanted a particular breed. I generally ask for more money then chicken costs in the store to help feel confident they won't become dinner soon. I've given roosters to friends who wanted to have them eat bugs on their property - they never cooped them and all were eventually eaten by a fox. So I stopped selling and giving them away and learnt how to process them myself. It was hard and I cried a lot the first time. But it did get easier in that I knew how to do it faster the next time.

Having a rooster as part of your flock will introduce fertilized eggs as part of your produce so you can also later hatch your own eggs. Or as someone else said let a broody do the work - which is now my preferred method of hatching/raising chicks.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Keep them longer, so you can pick out any obvious human aggressive or generally aggressive little guys, as well as the ones that appeal to you the most. Don't be in a hurry! This fall is a good time to make (semi) final decisions. I've got ten or twelve cockerels right now, two and three months old, and plan to sort them out a bit later. Mary

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