Culling my roosters

[ECiesielczyk]

I am trying to decide which roosters to cull because of my 23 chicken and 3 chick flock, 5 are roosters. I have two Polish mixes - one has successfully mated and produced 2 chicks but has a little bit of a gimp because he messed with the broody mama and got his butt handed to him. The second Polish mix just recently came into mating, about 2 months after the other one. He is big but kind of a loner. Polish #2 stands down to Polish #1 despite being much bigger.

The other 3 roosters were hatched in June. None show signs of rooster behavior yet. Two are smaller Sumatras and one is a mix. The two small guys are exactly that - small. The white one is handsome and growing, shows no signs of roosterdom yet. None are mean or aggressive so far, even with my two toddlers (my almost 3 year opens the coop almost every day) and my 21 month old pets them with no signs that they will attack him. None are ugly and none would, at this point, cause any imbreeding.

 

[MaddiesMum]

Sometimes roosters actually end up being okay together or not as aggressive as you may think. Perhaps wait it out until you see some actually signs that there will be problems. I knew a man who had tons of chickens, a lot of them grew up together and there were lots of roo's with no problems (or no apparent problems anyways)

 

[ChickenLegs13]

They all sound like decent roosters. The ?? boils down to what you want your future chickens to look like; Polish or Sumatras.
You don't really *have* to cull any right now. As they mature and develope their individual personalities & traits it will become clear who you want to keep and who gets the boot.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

I am not concerned with them fighting eventually, it is more that I don't need to buy food and house 5 roosters for a flock of less than 20 hens. Winter is usually a good time to cull because during the winter I will have to provide a lot more food, as apposed to during the summer when the bugs and ticks are plentiful. I want to have a nice strong flock of egg layers and a few roosters to provide strong genes for my new chicks but I really am not sure I want to buy organic feed when a couple of them could be dinner instead

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I am not concerned with them fighting eventually, it is more that I don't need to buy food and house 5 roosters for a flock of less than 20 hens. Winter is usually a good time to cull because during the winter I will have to provide a lot more food, as apposed to during the summer when the bugs and ticks are plentiful. I want to have a nice strong flock of egg layers and a few roosters to provide strong genes for my new chicks but I really am not sure I want to buy organic feed when a couple of them could be dinner instead

That's my sentiments exactly! Last week when I ran out of feed a week sooner than usual I went on a hatchet swinging binge. Figured instead of me feeding them, it was those jokers turn to feed me.
I still have about 20 roosters of various ages left from this season's hatches, with 5 tagged as possible keepers for various reasons.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

They all sound like decent roosters. The ?? boils down to what you want your future chickens to look like; Polish or Sumatras.
You don't really *have* to cull any right now. As they mature and develope their individual personalities & traits it will become clear who you want to keep and who gets the boot.

I get the whole "how they look" concept but honestly, the polish #2 is probably going more because he is bigger and a loner. Polish #1 though, do I keep him and the other 3? He is obviously able to mate and doing a good job but he does have a gimp when he needs to get somewhere quick. I have no idea hwo the other 3 will be at mating and personalities because they haven't reached puberty yet i.e. no crowing, no signs of them being roosters except their looks and the spurs starting to come. I want to make sure I have at least one if not two roosters for the spring. My Golden Maran hen has successfully hatched 2 sets of chicks and is a great lady. I would love for her to have a few more. Plus, I would prefer not to feed a bunch of roosters when I really don't need them all to get some good chicks. The two Sumatras are really great at scavenging and don't seem to be big into the feed, but they also tend to roam all over the place, aren't as friendly, are little and hang out in the fox and hawks favorite places i.e. all the open fields. So I am really not sure how to go about deciding. Sorry for rambling.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Ahh...rambling's cool.
I wouldn't want a loner rooster, a rooster's job is being the leader & manager of the flock, not being out in Lalaland doing his own thing. As far as the limping rooster, it was an injury and not genetic and as long as he can catch the hens to breed I don't see a problem there. Plus I always liked topknot chickens.
The Sumatras might be eye candy but their negs you mentioned I wouldn't want in my layer flock.