I'm still on my first batch of chickens and being a chicken mom is still pretty new to me. My little flock of chickens are about 4 months old now. I ended up with seven cockerels and two pullets. I am going to order more pullet chicks soon (as soon as the guineas can be moved out of my "brooder room"), and I hope to have about 12-15 hens total.
I think it's time to downsize the cockerel population. I was hoping to be able to just let the roosters free range and keep the hens in a tractor but after we got started on the tractor I thought - why make the girls cooped up and let the boys have all the best choice of food and the best coop? I couldn't exactly put 7 LF roosters in an 8x9 chicken tractor - right? They all get a long pretty well now, but they have lots of room to roam during the day. If I were to try to move the tractor to another area (we have 10 acres), and if I let them free range from the tractor during the day, they would just run back to the girls, right? I have seen hens that have suffered from too many roosters and it's not pretty.
So now I need to decide who to keep. My main goal is to keep the roosters that will be the best for the ladies. I am not interested in breeding, although if the girls decide to go broody sometimes I would like a healthy roo to pass on some good traits. Can the more experienced chicken folk help me pick the best rooster(s)?
1. Oscar, currently the head roo. He is a Wyandotte mix with a rose comb. Large boy, he does call the girls to food sometimes and does the "sideways" dance. I haven't observed him chasing the girls too much. He was mostly black (he's my avatar) but now he's got orange saddle and hackle feathers and an orange-red patch on his sides - sort of partridge color. Although I don't know if it's because he's still growing but he does have a lot of white at the base of his feathers. The other weird thing is when he crows, he sticks his head way out to the side! Very funny looking.
2. Mill, a Delaware roo. I haven't seen him chasing the girls although he's pretty big guy. His inner toes are crooked - have been since he was a chick (don't know if it was genetic or incubation problem). He's not crowing yet. He isn't show quality for sure but he is beautiful.
3. Gert, (was Gertrude), a barred mix with a funky pea comb. He calls the others to food and this morning I found him making a weird noise while he was sitting on a place in the hay - I think he was trying to call someone to nest.
4. Otis - reddish mix - looks half Buff Brahma and half RIR. Very nice, unaggressive little dude. However I don't know if he would defend the ladies. Not crowing yet.
5. Gilbert - Barred sex-link. He's not aggressive to the ladies but haven't seen him doing them any favors either. He just started to crow.
The silver wyandotte mix is definitely out - his name is Morris the Chickensaurus - he is always chasing the girls relentlessly. He will be Morris stew.
So, who should I keep? Just one or would 2 do okay? We are pretty attached to all of them and we won't be eating them ourselves, we're going to give them to someone else.
Thank you for any input!
Melissa
I think it's time to downsize the cockerel population. I was hoping to be able to just let the roosters free range and keep the hens in a tractor but after we got started on the tractor I thought - why make the girls cooped up and let the boys have all the best choice of food and the best coop? I couldn't exactly put 7 LF roosters in an 8x9 chicken tractor - right? They all get a long pretty well now, but they have lots of room to roam during the day. If I were to try to move the tractor to another area (we have 10 acres), and if I let them free range from the tractor during the day, they would just run back to the girls, right? I have seen hens that have suffered from too many roosters and it's not pretty.
So now I need to decide who to keep. My main goal is to keep the roosters that will be the best for the ladies. I am not interested in breeding, although if the girls decide to go broody sometimes I would like a healthy roo to pass on some good traits. Can the more experienced chicken folk help me pick the best rooster(s)?
1. Oscar, currently the head roo. He is a Wyandotte mix with a rose comb. Large boy, he does call the girls to food sometimes and does the "sideways" dance. I haven't observed him chasing the girls too much. He was mostly black (he's my avatar) but now he's got orange saddle and hackle feathers and an orange-red patch on his sides - sort of partridge color. Although I don't know if it's because he's still growing but he does have a lot of white at the base of his feathers. The other weird thing is when he crows, he sticks his head way out to the side! Very funny looking.
2. Mill, a Delaware roo. I haven't seen him chasing the girls although he's pretty big guy. His inner toes are crooked - have been since he was a chick (don't know if it was genetic or incubation problem). He's not crowing yet. He isn't show quality for sure but he is beautiful.
3. Gert, (was Gertrude), a barred mix with a funky pea comb. He calls the others to food and this morning I found him making a weird noise while he was sitting on a place in the hay - I think he was trying to call someone to nest.
4. Otis - reddish mix - looks half Buff Brahma and half RIR. Very nice, unaggressive little dude. However I don't know if he would defend the ladies. Not crowing yet.
5. Gilbert - Barred sex-link. He's not aggressive to the ladies but haven't seen him doing them any favors either. He just started to crow.
The silver wyandotte mix is definitely out - his name is Morris the Chickensaurus - he is always chasing the girls relentlessly. He will be Morris stew.
So, who should I keep? Just one or would 2 do okay? We are pretty attached to all of them and we won't be eating them ourselves, we're going to give them to someone else.
Thank you for any input!
Melissa