Feeling awful for culling my rooster

[Mrs. K]

I can only have 1 roo. I have no idea how to chose 1 to keep out of the bunch.

When I have a bunch, I do it in stages.

When you have a bunch, they tend to divide into three groups, more or less. Keepers?, Jerks and ones you just don't like, and the in-betweens. Now generally the jerks are easy to identify, don't second guess it, they go in the first cull.

Wait two weeks, as removing cockerels, will change the remaining cockerels - sometimes for the better, and sometimes not. Count how many birds you have, and divide in half. Now if that produces 6 birds, well just go with a gate cut, in other words the first three you catch are gone.

Wait two weeks again, now you might try out a single cockerel with hens - see how that goes. Or if you have all of them in with them see how the ladies like it. Personally I like to pick my top cockerel, pull the other two, and wait and see if I do like it, if my hens like it.

But the biggest thing is to be aware that NONE of them may really work out for you, and if they don't, cull them too.

Mrs K

 

[hammyanne]

Sending you a big virtual hug! I too am new at culling and had to kill two cockerels last week. I use a cone and a sharp knife to the neck. I do a quick check to make sure I made an adequate cut and then walk away while he bleeds out so I don't see the spasms.

It's cliche, but I've found the adage "he had a good life and one bad day" a good mantra to repeat to myself throughout the process. You've taken good care of him for his whole life and now he's nourishing your family in return.

Cockerel #2 wasn't necessarily easier, but I found myself moving more confidently <3

 

[Altairsky]

Keep the one the hens like best as they will be the ones who have to live with him day in day out.

The hens like best the cockerels dad

When I have a bunch, I do it in stages.

Yep I already culled half of my bachelor flock. Suddenly all of them started crowing nonstop earlier than 5 am, at 6 am I had enough, jumped out of bed and culled all I could catch lol.
Of those who are left, one is beautiful but I'll have to cull because he passes bad genes (small eggs, bantam size, and insane precocity - fought his brother to the death at 6 weeks, mated his aunt at 2.5 months. Still a true gentleman with the girls though. I culled his brother and he had huge testes already compared to unrelated males of the same batch - his older sister laid her first egg at 4 months and went broody at 5. His mother carries this insane mutation of early maturing, I should write an article about this.)
The other 2 are not mature yet so it's hard to tell how good they'll be, but they have some orpington in them, and their mother has a calm and peaceful temperament, and so far they look like her.
Anyway I'll keep them until they give me a reason to get rid of them. In the meantime they'll get larger and fatter.
In the end I think I'll keep their father (a cream legbar) as my main rooster for another season. He's a perfect rooster after all, all the hens love him, he protects the chicks from the pullets, he protects the pullets from the grown hens, he makes sure everyone takes a bite of whatever treat I toss at them, he was ready to fight last time I had a close call with a dog attack. Why change what works?
...However he has a couple of faults that I'd like to improve.
- his crow is so high pitched and disgraceful it makes me wish I was deaf. Like nails on a chalkboard. I want a Pavarotti rooster, like a couple of those cockerels I'll have to cull. One of them has such a beautiful voice - sadly he's so huge already he'll probably cause problems if he mates my bantams.
- he's not blatantly human aggressive, but he's not as respectful as I'd like my rooster to be. So that's something I want to improve.

 

[SnackMeat]

One of them has such a beautiful voice - sadly he's so huge already he'll probably cause problems if he mates my bantams.
- he's not blatantly human aggressive, but he's not as respectful as I'd like my rooster to be. So that's something I want to improve.

Is the one with the good crow also a bantam, just an overly large one? If so, artificial insemination takes about five minutes and doesn't require any special gear. Downside is, you'd probably want to pen the target hens for 2-3 weeks to clear out any other roosters providing the genetic material.

The other issue is if he is big as a bantam, was he originally big as a chick? I have read that you always want to try to breed small rooster to big hen over breeding a big rooster to a small hen because the chick will likely be bigger and need the space of the egg to be be able to turn around properly, which means a larger hen would be the way to go.


I have also read, though I file this under superstition (though anecdotally it's interesting to read people's results) that if you were to take the pointiest eggs (for the hen. It's not just pointy eggs in general, but compared to how the hen normally lays) those have a higher chance of being male. (Once again, I am not saying I believe this.)


Going in to fall, I'm not sure you'd even want to runt his experiment since you'd be looking at 2-3 week clear rate for the hen, then 3 week incubation, which means they wouldn't be born til around 3rd week of October.

But conceivably, if it's not a hardship to feed and have space for them, I feel (probably mistakenly, because I am a newb) that ignoring the whole spring babies make the hardiest, best specimens, that since babies are likely to spend more time indoors til their feathers come in, then it doesn't really matter what the weather is outside, though I would get some grow lights for vitamin d and likely supplement occasionally.


You would have 4 month old cockerels 3rd week of Feb which seems to be my keep/cull age for anyone who didn't develop super early. I'm not sure when your stock normally reaches sexual maturity for mating (aside from that crazy pants genetic line you have. That is interesting and you should write more on those!) but June would make it 8 months and you'd have a whole summer season with them. So your current rooster could be retired at whatever point you feel comfortable, after teaching the cockerels through spring appropriate behavior.


Like I said, I'm not a newb so maybe it doesn't work like that. And I know a lot of it comes down to do you want to feed and care for babies when it is starting to get cold. Personally I am wishing I had started in December instead of in April because those babies spent most of the first two months inside (and then I kicked them out early. They could have stayed inside longer.)


But it also depends on your fall/winter weather conditions and a bunch of variables only you know about your situation.


On the plus side, Camp Freezer will probably be looking fairly empty by February so....

 

[Altairsky]

Is the one with the good crow also a bantam, just an overly large one? If so, artificial insemination takes about five minutes and doesn't require any special gear.

No, he's a dual purpose, but even the bantams has a deeper crow than the ear-killing brain-devouring screech of my CL.
I don't intend to inseminate chickens lol, I have enough of that with the cows

I have also read, though I file this under superstition (though anecdotally it's interesting to read people's results) that if you were to take the pointiest eggs (for the hen. It's not just pointy eggs in general, but compared to how the hen normally lays) those have a higher chance of being male.

sadly it's a myth!

I have read that you always want to try to breed small rooster to big hen over breeding a big rooster to a small hen because the chick will likely be bigger and need the space of the egg to be be able to turn around properly,

The hen decides the size of the chick, regardless of the rooster. Small egg makes small chicken.
I have 2 bantam EE, same size. I bred them with a large CL roo.
One bantam makes regular sized eggs, the other makes only pullet sized eggs.
The bantam laying large eggs, bred with a large rooster, makes regular sized hens.
The bantam laying pullet eggs, bred with the same large rooster, makes all bantams.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

No, he's a dual purpose, but even the bantams has a deeper crow than the ear-killing brain-devouring screech of my CL.
I don't intend to inseminate chickens lol, I have enough of that with the cows



sadly it's a myth!



The hen decides the size of the chick, regardless of the rooster. Small egg makes small chicken.
I have 2 bantam EE, same size. I bred them with a large CL roo.
One bantam makes regular sized eggs, the other makes only pullet sized eggs.
The bantam laying large eggs, bred with a large rooster, makes regular sized hens.
The bantam laying pullet eggs, bred with the same large rooster, makes all bantams.

Sigh. I will never understand chicken genetics. But it’s a fascinating subject!

 

[LaFleche]

The hens like best the cockerels dad

Well, do you see any reason not to keep him for another season?

 

[Sinadrea]

Thank you, it was more fun at first but changed when they became aggressive. It’s still sad, I have to cull his brother tomorrow that’s for sure; he charged me multiple times again today so I know it’s right. I still feel sad because I had them this long but it’s better in the long run.

I had a rooster about the same age and rehomed him due to me feeling uncomfortable doing anything around him and not wanting my toddler to get hurt. I got lucky because a lot of people wanted to eat him and the lady who I gave him to is using him to defend her hens.
I feel bad about rehoming him but a lot of weight has been lifted since he left.
I have some of his babies and a few are roosters so I'm hoping they're not as aggressive as him.
I haven't culled yet and will have to someday and I will feel just as guilty. I feel for your situation and am not sure if it gets easier.

 

[Altairsky]

Well, do you see any reason not to keep him for another season?

I'll probably keep him for another season. I wanted to try a different one because he's constantly on the verge of turning human aggressive, without actually being human aggressive. He's just trolling. He's been trolling for almost 2 years.
As for flock dynamics, he couldn't be more perfect than he is.