Feeling awful for culling my rooster

[2 Acres]

I know I would feel the same. We want meat birds, but they'll be in a separate coop/run and my husband will be the one tending to them and culling them. I know I just couldn't.

I did that with 20 meat birds. Every time I walked up to them, they looked up at me. That was hard to do. I was told later not to look at them.

 

[2 Acres]

I know I would feel the same. We want meat birds, but they'll be in a separate coop/run and my husband will be the one tending to them and culling them. I know I just couldn't.

It sucks

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Last night I made a decision to cull my first rooster. He was about 2 1/2 years old and I hatched them from eggs to start my first flock. I made the decision because he wasn’t backing down from fighting with his brother (same age) and another rooster who is just over a year old. They got along pretty well, small fights for dominance but nothing that would last or be brutal. It started with the young rooster out of nowhere fighting with him for minutes at a time last week where we had to stop the fighting. We have the young rooster separated and are planning to cull him or give him to our neighbors. Then last night his brother and him were fighting nonstop, he was getting chased by his brother and I had to grab both of them to make them stop. When putting the hens away they started up again in the coop and I had a feeling he wouldn’t make it through the morning or if he did one of the two would be gone after getting back from work. His comb was a darker red and looked off, his breathing was off too. He was a much bigger rooster, about 8-10lbs or more. I used the broomstick method, he was calm when it was in place but it was hard to tell if it worked, I know they move after but I did the method again just to make sure he wasn’t in pain. He charged a few times but infrequently, more so recently. He has spurred us so it was becoming a safety issue. His brother is going to be culled this weekend, he bites, spurs and charges on a daily basis. I just feel awful that I had to take a life and even more if he was still alive after the first try. I also feel awful that he went first when it should have been his brother who is more aggressive. His brother is the main rooster for the flock and always has been. Does this get easier? I want to have meat birds but if it’s always this hard I don’t know if I can do it.

It's hard to take a life, as it should be, but sometimes it's necessary. That's part of managing livestock. Even though it was difficult, you did the right thing, and that takes courage and fortitude. Hugs to you.

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

The only culling I have done has been to put birds out of their misery. It has been several and for me, it gets harder every time. Same for my hubby. We could never have meat birds.
I'm sorry you're having to go through it, but it is part of it.

 

[AnneGirlGG]

I did that with 20 meat birds. Every time I walked up to them, they looked up at me. That was hard to do. I was told later not to look at them.

I'm afraid of this exact thing. I just get attached so easily.

 

[2 Acres]

The only culling I have done has been to put birds out of their misery. It has been several and for me, it gets harder every time. Same for my hubby. We could never have meat birds.
I'm sorry you're having to go through it, but it is part of it.

Ditto....

 

[McChooky]

At least your roosters were jerks.
Mine are the most gentlemen things in this world. And I have to cull them because I can only have 1 roo. I have no idea how to chose 1 to keep out of the bunch.

I must bring out the worst in them.I'm lucky to get one good one out of 2.Never had a great one

 

[McChooky]

The hens like best the cockerels dad


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.

Waking up and killing everyone I could catch sounds like something I'd do after I got fed up.Roosters bring out the worst in us too