Thanks WalkingOnSunshine, I very much appreciate your reply. It sure makes a lot of sense to keep the 2 cockerels with the pullets instead of separating them. My idea was to watch them for some time to decide who was worth keeping since they are too young right now to be able to tell. So at this point I have chosen 2 of the prettiest ones hoping that they will turn out to be good roos.I will keep the other six in the bachelors pen until they are 20 weeks old. I guess i can always exchange one cockerel if one of the ones I am keeping turns out to be a pansy. For what I have read, you cannot really tell how a rooster is going to turn out until about a year which is when they are set in their rooster manners and will do their job. Is there any traits that I should be watching in my little cockerels to help me determine if they will be good roosters? or is there anything I should be watching that is negative in their behavior that will not make them good roosters?
Thanks so much in advance, I do need all the help I can get since this is my very first experience with roosters and I am somewhat a little antsy about it.
Hi, aldarita,
As long as they are not causing problems, you can keep all of your cockerels in with the pullets and/or hens until you make up your mind. As I said above, Guppy had some real aggressive troublemakers and was planning to butcher most of the cockerels, which is why I suggested a bachelor/meat pen. Of course, if they are causing trouble, then separating them is fine and reintroduction is fairly easy since they have a different pecking order than the hens.
Things to look for in cockerels:
1. Not aggressive to humans. You can often tell this young--it's the cockerel that runs right up to you, demanding to be picked up and petted, that often is aggressive when older. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a cockerel that runs away from people and doesn't want to be petted will often make a better rooster when full grown. I have a "two strikes and you're out" policy with roosters--the first time they duck their head at me and the feathers on their neck stand out and they walk towards me, I squawk and flap my arms and chase them around the pasture squawking at the top of my lungs. If I can catch them, I hold them down and tell them the way it's going to be until they stop struggling. The second time they show aggression to me, they are culled. Notice that I did not say "the first time they attack me." A rooster will try his odds by showing you aggressive behaviors before he gets up the courage to actually flog you. Nip that in the bud BEFORE it escalates to attack and you may stop the behavior permanently.
2. Good to hens. Watch your cockerels for caring behaviors. Do they show hens where tasty treats are? Do they stand near good nesting sites and give that "come here" cluck to show hens good places to lay eggs? Do they dance for the hens until the hen presents for mating, or just grab their heads and hold them down and mate them? One caveat here: pretty much all cockerels will not be good at breeding at first. They'll grab the neck and hold on, or mount the wrong end, or chase a hen down and mount her even though she doesn't want to--they are learning. Not to be confused with the bully rooster that's over a year old and never dances for his girls--just chases them down and mates them without "asking", and they all have bare necks, he spurs them while mating and they have cuts under their wings, and he bullies some hens so that the whole flock is stressed. Those roosters are called "soup."
3. Genetics. Do they have the genetics you want? Don't breed from a rooster that has traits you don't want to see again.
4. Pretty. This is actually an important factor for me. Roosters don't really contribute to my bottom line, so I demand that they be nice to look at in exchange for their room and board! I've culled some EE roosters before for no other reason than I didn't like to look at them. And, I don't want them to make ugly chicks, either.
Best of luck. Roosters are fun. They are my favorite flock members, and they all get names (only one of my hens has a name right now). I absolutely love them, but I have two small children and don't put up with any aggression from them, either. I hope you have some good ones!
